Prof Thomas Ormerod
| Post: | Professor of Psychology (Psychology) |
| Location: | PEVENSEY 2 5B5 |
| Email: | T.Ormerod@sussex.ac.uk |
Telephone numbers | |
| Internal: | 3783 |
| UK: | 01273 873783 |
| International: | +44 1273 873783 |
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Biography
I joined Sussex as Head of School in August 2014, after nearly 20 years at Lancaster University and a brief sojourn at the University of Surrey. I finished my term as Head of this wonderful school in July 2019, and am now focussing on teaching and research in cognitive, social and forensic psychology. My research has always tried to join together theoretical and applied aspects of psychological research into problem-solving, decision-making and expertise. Recently, I have been focussing on investigative expertise and security screening, for which our paper in JEP:G recieved the best paper award by the BPS Cognitive Section. I am also developing a computational model of insight problem-solving with colleagues at Surrey and Victoria, BC Canada. I am leading the Applied Behavioural Science theme in the School of Psychology, an initiative to provide psychological services based on School research to non-academic users.
Role
Professor of Psychology (Head of School 2014-2019)
Community and Business
My research into interviewing techniques for security screening and investigation has led to three major airlines adopting variants of the Controlled Cognitive Engagement (CCE) method devised for transatlantic passenger screening, and reported in a paper by Ormerod and Dando (2015) which won the BPS Cognitive Section award in 2016. The method has been adopted by the EU-funded ARMLET centre (Romania) for training air marshals. It has also generated $400k funding in 2016 from the US Federal Bureau of Investigation for further research into using CCE for intelligence gathering, the first output of which has appeared January 2020 in Journal of Experimental Psychology: General.
I am currently leading the Applied Behavioural Science theme in the School of Psychology, an initiative to provide psychological services based on School research to non-academic users.