Biography

Sharon Wood received her BAHons. in Developmental Psychology with Cognitive Studies, and her DPhil degree in Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence from the University of Sussex in 1979 and 1990, respectively. Between 1983 and 1987 she held various research posts at the University of Bath and University of Sussex. Since 1987 she has been in the Department of Informatics (formerly School of Cognitive and Computing Sciences) University of Sussex where she is Senior Lecturer in Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence.

The main thrust of my work is the use of computational modelling in order to understand human decision-making. This entails understanding human cognition and its limitations spanning psychophysical processes and their limitations to higher level, cognitively based, complex knowledge-based reasoning. The particular focus of this work has largely been decision-making processes for purposeful, goal-driven behaviour from a bounded, rational agent perspective.

My past and current research exemplifies these interests in a range of contexts:

Applied Cognitive Science

Using models of human behaviour and studies of graphical reasoning to inform intervention tools in public health applications e.g. understanding of risk from health-damaging behaviour and its relevance to the individual as the basis for behaviour change, e.g.,

Communication of risk in a Alcohol Risk Calculator (Scott Bissett, MSc. 2010)

Designing tools to support limitations to perception and cognition to improve performance in complex, cognitively intense, time critical applications.

Computational modelling for understanding cognition and behaviour

Modelling perceptual processes, e.g.,

Cognitive Modeling of Attentional Networks (Fehmida Hussain, DPhil. 2010)

Computational Modelling of Visual Attention (David Lane, MSc. 2004)

Modelling problem solving/decision-making behaviour, e.g.,

Agent-Based Modelling of Migration under Climate Change (Chris Smith, DPhil. 2013)

Cognitive Modelling of Strategy Selection and Adaptivity for Complex Dynamic Problem Solving (Alberto De Obeso Orendain, DPhil. 2011)

Cognitive modelling of analogical reasoning (Judith Grob, MSc. 2003)

Concept formation (Terry Stewart, MPhil, 2002)

Multiple-methods modelling language (Vicente Guerro-Rojo, DPhil. 1999)

Goal formulation in intelligent agents (Remedios Bulos, DPhil. 1999)

Please contact Sharon by email (s.wood@sussex.ac.uk) to arrange a time.

De Obeso Orendain, Alberto and Wood, Sharon (2012) An account of cognitive flexibility and inflexibility for a complex dynamic task. In: 11th International Conference on Cognitive Modeling, 13-15 Apr 2012, Technische Universität Berlin, Germany.

Kniveton, Dominic, Smith, Christopher and Wood, Sharon (2011) Agent based model simulations of future changes in migration flows for Burkina Faso. Global Environmental Change, 21 (1). S34-S40. ISSN 0959-3780

Kniveton, Dominic, Smith, Christopher and Wood, Sharon (2011) Agent-based model simulations of future changes in migration flows for Burkina Faso. Global Environmental Change, 21S (S). S34-S40. ISSN 0959-3780

Hussain, Fehmida and Wood, Sharon (2009) Modeling the Performance of Children on the Attentional Network Test. In: 9th International Conference on Cognitive Modeling - ICCM09, 24-26 July, 2009., Manchester, UK.

Hussain, Fehmida and Wood, Sharon (2009) Modelling the Efficiencies and Interactions of Attentional Networks. In: Lecture Notes in Computer Science. SPRINGER-VERLAG, pp. 139-152. ISBN 978-3-642-00581-7

Hussain, Fehmida and Wood, Sharon (2009) Computational Modeling of Deficits in Attentional Networks in mild Traumatic Brain Injury: An Application in Neuropsychology. In: Proceedings of 31th Annual Conference of the Cognitive Science Society, Amsterdam, NL.

Cheng, Peter, Wood, Sharon and Cox, Richard (2007) Dimensions of Attentional Processing. In: Attention Management in Ubiquitous Computing Environments (AMUCE 2007), workshop of UBICOMP 2007, Innsbruck, Austria.

Wood, Sharon, Cox, Richard and Cheng, Peter (2006) Attention Design: Eight issues to consider. Computers in Human Behavior, 22 (4). pp. 588-602. ISSN 0747-5632

Wood, Sharon (2004) Representation and Purposeful Autonomous Agents. Robotics and Autonomous Systems, 49 (1-2). pp. 79-90. ISSN 09218890

Grob, Judith D M and Wood, Sharon (2003) Modelling Typical Alphabetic Analogical Reasoning. In: The European Cognitive Science Conference 2003, Osnabruck, German.