Senior Lecturer in Psychology at Southampton Solent University (SSU), UK.
Leader of the Cognition Research Cluster, SSU
Fellow Faculty of Media, Art and Society, Southampton Solent University
My main research interests are in cognitive and experimental psychology and neuroscience, visual short-term memory, object feature binding (the binding problem), and positive psychology. Currently, I am involved in understanding cognitive processes used in expert problem solving in the software engineering domain, metacognition in education, and the psychology of art and aesthetics.
2010-2011
Understanding the Cognitive Benefits of a Sculpture Garden for Patients with Alzheimer's Disease and their Families: a feasibility study Funded by SSU (£6,800)
Alzheimer's disease (AD) is placing increasing demands on the world economy. Research that can lead to alleviating symptoms and increasing quality of life for patients, their families and carers is timely and important. In addition to pharnceutical interventions, programmes using non-pharmaceutal approaches show promise. To implement such a non-pharmceutical intervention, the Centre Hospitalier Universitaire (CHU), Nancy, France, has developed a therapeutic garden dedicated to people suffering from AD and their relatives. Understandably, given the unique nature of this garden, it is the focus of much attention. This feasibility study will consider how best to understand the impact on cognitive performance of the interaction with the sculptures in the therapeutic garden at of the patients, their family and caregivers. The outcomes of this feasibility study will serve as the basis for collaborative proposals between the research team at CHU and SSU (Carolyn Mair, psychologist, and Jon Buck, sculptor).
SOCRAD: Sharing Online Critical Reflection and Discussion in collaboration with Dr Jacqui Taylor, Bournemouth University. Funded by The HEA Psychology Network (£6,000)
Higher Education aims to develop students' ability to become 'critical reflective thinkers'. This typically private matter ignores the known benefits of collaboration. Thus, little is known about the learning value of collaborative reflection. The proposed project shares and extends distinct innovative reflective techniques at two universities. At SSU, reflective practice is focused on learning, structured in an adaptable spreadsheet via the VLE. At BU, the VLE Discussion Board facilitates asynchronous online discussions during which students are encouraged to reflect. Hence the proposed project will enable users to learn from others' as well as their own reflections. This is a novel approach in that (i) reflective practice is situated in learning communities, and (ii) most cross-University projects do not involve interactions between students themselves.
2009-2010
ReaLiSE: Reflection and learning: Sharing Experience Curriculum Felowship funded by SSU (£5,000)
ReaLiSE is the 2nd stage of a system developed last year to actively promote the use of reflections for learning and enhancing metacogntion. For example, the spreadsheet makes recording reflections simpler by means of prompts (cell headings). Simplifying the process encourages users to use reflective practice as it is less time consuming, more contained, and accessible than recording reflections in a journal. In addition, the recording process is more systematic as reflections on a particular 'topic' (e.g. essay writing) can be sorted alongside similar 'entries'. This allows users to monitor their progress and eliminates the problems associated with human memory. The system, an MS Office Excel spreadsheet available via myCourse, allows individual reflections to be structured such that recording, storage and retrieval of reflections are facilitated. Furthermore, once reflections are recorded, users can retrieve their previous reflections, and see their own development and acquire a deeper understanding of the learning process.
SELECTED COMPLETED RESEARCH PROJECTS2008-2009
CogCBR: A Cognitive Perspective on Analogy-based Project Estimation in collaboration with Professor Martin Shepperd, Brunel University and EDS, UK (now HP, UK). Funded by EPSRC (£100,000)
Analogical or case-based reasoning (CBR) is a knowledge management technology based upon problem-solving using episodic memory and retrieval by similarity. It has been used for many problems including support for software project management in areas such as prediction and lessons learned. Results from using CBR are varied, but it is unclear why this should be. Consequently we cannot predict a priori when CBR will aid problem solving. Hence, the aim of this project is to empirically investigate the cognitive processes of professionals using CBR tools for problem-solving (presently almost completely unexplored) in order to develop more effective CBR support for software engineering problems. Working with EDS, UK to generate realistic problems drawn from the area of project effort prediction, we are conducting empirical studies with professional participants using our existing CBR shell, archANGEL. We are using multiple techniques including interviews and think-aloud protocols based on a Grounded Theory approach. This project will lead to (i) improved understanding and therefore utilization of analogy-based project management tools (CBR) and (ii) recommendations for more effective future CBR tools. This research is important because CBR is an increasingly used technology, yet not always effectively deployed, because we have little understanding of how professionals solve problems using analogy-based tools. For more information on the project and publications please click here.
Using meta-reflection to enhance performance
The Curriculum Fellowship project was discussed at the HEA Health Sciences andPractice, Reflective Practice: SIG, 'Linking teaching and research through reflexive methodologies' at Kings College, London on 9th February, 2009.
2002-2006
Meta-Level Learning for Software Project Prediction (MeLLow) in collaboration with Professor Martin Shepperd, Brunel University. Funded by EPSRC (£158,000). Please click here, MeLLowfor a summary of the project.
Cognition Research Cluster
Since its inception in Novemeber 2009, I have led the Cognition Research Cluster at SSU. The Cluster is an initiative that brings together researchers from across the University and beyond. Cluster members are concerned with the impact and application of psychology to their work. They embrace a number of diverse research methods ranging from collaborative empirically-based studies to qualitative case studies.
The Cluster's aims are (i) to create, support and deliver individual and collaborative scholarship and innovative research in areas including Technology, Design, Sport, Engineering, Maritime Industry and of course, Psychology; (ii) to attract internal and external research funding and (iii) to participate in the REF (2013).
Mair, C. (2010, submitted) How technology can facilitate students' reflective practice, Dialogue.
Mair, C. (2010) Structured Reflection Facilitates Metacognitive Awareness and Learning. In: Improving University Teaching (IUT) 35th International Conference, Washington DC, July 2010.
Mair, C. (2010, in press) Using technology for enhancing reflective writing, metacognition and learning, Journal of Further and Higher Education.
Konczak, J., Coulter-Smith, G., Power, L., Mair, C. & Buckley, M. (2010) Cultural dissonance, j9, http://www.j9interactivevideo.com/j9.pdf
Mair, C. (2009) Using meta-reflection to enhance performance. In: Improving University Teaching (IUT) 34th International Conference, Vancouver, Canada, July, 2009.
Shepperd, M., Mair, C., Martincova, M. & Stephens, M. (2009) Personality and analogy-based project estimation. In: 6th Software Measurement European Forum (SMEF'09), Rome, Italy, May 2009.
Mair, C. & Shepperd, M. (2009) Human vs. algorithm. In: 1st International Symposium on Search Based Software Engineering, IEEE Computer Press, Windsor, UK, May 2009.
Shepperd, M., Mair, C. & Martincova, M. (2009) A literature review of expert problem solving using analogy. In: 13th International Conference on Evaluation & Assessment in Software Engineering (EASE 2009), Durham, April 2009.
Mair, C. (2009) Using meta-reflection to enhance performance. In: Linking teaching and research through reflexive methodologies: Reflective Practice: SIG HEA, Health Sciences and Practice Subject Centre, King's College, London, February, 2009. Published online at http://www.health.heacademy.ac.uk/news-events/eventsbox/2009/reflectivefeb09
Mair, C., Shepperd, M. & Stephens, M. (2008) How cognitive psychology can help analogy-based project estimation. In: 19th Annual UK Software Metrics Association (UKSMA) Conference, London, October 2008.
Mair, C. & Shepperd, M. (2008) A cognitive perspective on analogy-based project estimation. In: 25th Anniversary Annual British Psychological Society Cognitive Section Conference, Southampton, UK, September 2008.
Taylor, J. & Mair, C. (2008) Qualitative methods for classifying and detecting online identity deception. In: CHI '08 the balance between art and science, Florence, Italy, May 2008.
Song, Q. Shepperd, M. & Mair, C. (2006) Software defect association mining and defect correction effort prediction. IEEE Transactions on Software Engineering, 32 (2), pp. 69-82.
Mair, C., Shepperd, M. & Jorgensen, M. (2006) An analysis of data sets used to train and validate cost prediction systems. ACM SIGSOFT Software Engineering Notes,30 (4), pp. 1-6.
Mair, C. & Shepperd, M. (2006) Looking at comparisons of regression and analogy-based software project cost prediction. In: International Conference on Software Engineering Research and Practice (SERP'06), Las Vegas, June 2006.
Mair, C., Shepperd, M. & Forselius, P. (2006) An empirical analysis of software productivity. In: 3rd Software Measurement European Forum (SMEF'06), Rome, May 2006.
Mair, C. & Shepperd, M. (2005) The consistency of empirical comparisons of regression and analogy-based software project cost prediction. In: The 4th International Symposium on Empirical Software Engineering (ISESE), Noosa Heads, Australia, December 2005.
Song, Q., Shepperd, M. & Mair, C. (2005) Using grey relational analysis to predict software effort with small data sets. In: 11th IEEE International Software Metrics Symposium (Metrics'05), Como, Italy, September 2005.
Mair, C., Shepperd, M. & Jorgensen, M. (2005) An analysis of data sets used to train and validate cost prediction systems. In: PROMISE 2005, St Louis, MI, USA, July 2005.
Mair, C. & Shepperd, M. (2004) Making software cost data available for meta-analysis. In: 8th International Conference on Empirical Assessment in Software Engineering (EASE'04), Edinburgh, Scotland, UK, May 2004.
Mair, C., Shepperd, M., Kirsopp, C., Premraj, R. & Heathcote, D. (2004) Understanding object feature binding through experimentation as a precursor to modelling. In: 8th Neural Computation and Psychology Workshop, Connectionist Models of Cognition and Perception II. H. Bowman & C. Labiouise (Eds) Progress in Neural Processing 15. World Scientific, 295-305.
Premraj, R., Twala, B. & Mair, C. (2004) Productivity of software projects by business sector: an empirical analysis of trends. In: 10th International Software Metrics Symposium, Chicago, USA, September 2004.
Mair, C. (2003) Towards a further understanding of object feature binding. In: 7th International Conference on Cognitive and Neural Systems (ICCNS), Boston, USA, May 2003.
Mair, C., Kadoda, G., Lefley, M., Phalp, K., Schofield, C., Shepperd, M. & Webster, S. (2000) An investigation of machine learning based prediction systems, Journal of Systems and Software, 53, 1, pp.23-29.
Mair, C. & Shepperd, M. (1999) An investigation of rule induction based prediction systems. In: 21st International Conference on Software Engineering (ICSE), Los Angeles, USA, May 1999.
Bennett, K., Burd, E., Kemerer, C., Lehman, M., Lee, M., Madachy, R., Mair, C., Sjoberg, D. & Slaughter, S. (1999) Empirical studies of evolving systems. Empirical Software Engineering: an International Journal, 4, 4, pp.370-380.
Contact:Last updated: 11 August 2010