Dr Will Reader
Contact details
Telephone: 0114 225 2294
E-mail: w.reader@shu.ac.uk
Academic qualifications
BSc, MSc, DPhil
Subject area
Psychology
Research centres/institutes associated with
Brain, Behaviour and Cognition Group
Profile
I did my DPhil in psychology at the University of York before working on a research project at the Institute of Education in London investigating children's understanding of science concepts. I then worked at the University of Glamorgan as a lecturer before undertaking a research position with Prof. Steve Payne at Cardiff on Information Foraging. I have been at Sheffield Hallam University for three years and have recently been awarded an EPSRC grant investigating technologically mediated social interaction (with a particular emphasis on social network sites).
This work has recently been widely publicised in the press and broadcast media including Radio 4’s Analysis, BBC News 24, The Guardian, The Sunday Telegraph and many other national and international media organisations..
Research interests
- evolutionary psychology
- technology and social networks
- information foraging
- morality
Teaching interests
- evolutionary psychology
- philosophy of mind
Publications
2001 - present
RAE submission
- Reader, W.R. (2007). Non-participation in seminars: free rider avoidance and value maximisation. Psychology, Learning and Teaching, 6(2), 121-129
- Reader, W.R. and Payne, S.J. (2007). Allocating time across multiple texts: Sampling and Satisficing. Human Computer Interaction, 22(3), 263-298
- Payne, S.J. and Reader, W.R. (2006). Constructing structure maps of multiple on-line texts. International Journal of Human Computer Studies,64, 461-474.
- Payne, S.J., Howes, A., and Reader, W.R. (2001)Adaptively distributing cognition: a decision-making perspective on human-computer interaction. Behaviour and Information Technology, 20, 5. 339-346.
Books
- Workman, L. and Reader, W.R. (2004). Evolutionary Psychology. Cambridge University Press
- Workman, L. and Reader, W.R., Gayon, J., Parot, F. (2007). Psychologie évolutionniste: Une introduction. De Boeck. (French Translation)
Conference proceedings
- Reader, W.R. Conscience and Consciousness. Presented at British Association for the Advancement of Science. University of York. September 10-13, 2007.
- Reader, W.R. Maximizers have better memory for items they don’t choose: a test of the “opportunity cost” account of the Paradox of Choice. Presented at the BPS Cognitive Section Conference, Aberdeen, 29-22nd August, 2007.
- Reader, W.R. Non-participation in on-line seminars: some perspectives from evolutionary psychology. Presented at PLAT 2006. York St. John, University College 27-29th June, 2006.
- Reader, W.R. and Hewitt, J.R. Evidence for a two process theory of moral judgement. Paper presented at the British Psychological Society, Cognitive Section Conference, Leeds, 31st August-2nd September, 2005.
- Reader, W.R. Information foraging and the ecology of the World Wide Web. British Association for the Advancement of Science Festival of Science. Leicester, UK. September, 2002.
- Reader, W.R. and Payne, S.J. Browsing as information foraging. British Psychological Society, Cognitive Section Conference. University of Kent, 2002.
- Reader, W.R. and Payne, S.J. Adaptive browsing: Sampling and satisficing in text choice. The Thirteenth Annual Winter Conference On Discourse, Text, and Cognition. January 25-28, 2002, Jackson Hole, Wyoming.
Research and consultancy projects
EPSRC/ESRC funded project on technology and social networks (with Universties of Manchester and Liverpool). Value of grant £480,000.
