About

I joined the University of Derby in May 2020. I gained my PhD in Psychology at the University of Lincoln in 2013 exploring the impact of simulated hearing loss on executive function, namely; impulsivity, sustained attention and working memory.

Following my PhD, I was a Postdoctoral Research Scientist at the MRC Institute of Hearing Research, Nottingham (2013-2015), investigating the role of sustained attention and cognitive processing in children with suspected Auditory Processing Disorder (APD).

I then moved to the US to explore similar questions in children with Developmental Language Disorder and Autistic Spectrum Disorders at the Waisman Center, USA (2015-2017).

In 2017, I joined the Department of Psychology at The University of Wisconsin-Madison USA, where I developed a tool to measure individual differences in the modes of internal representations in adults; The Internal Representations Questionnaire (IRQ). I am using the tool to explore differences in cognition in typical and atypical development.

Teaching responsibilities

I am currently module lead for the MSc online Psychology programme, Biological and Cognitive Psychology. I also tutor on Individual Differences and supervise independent research projects.

Research interests

• What underlying processing difficulties are associated with language and listening disorders?
• How does processing effort impact cognition?
• How do individual differences in internal representations shape performance?

Qualifications

• BSc (Hons) Psychology (First Class Honours) – University of Lincoln
• PhD Psychology – University of Lincoln

Recent conferences

Recent international conferences include: The EvoLang Conference in Brussels, The Cultural Evolution Society, Arizona, USA, The Cognitive Science Society USA, The Symposium of Child Language Disorders, Madison, USA, The Association for Research in Otolaryngology Conference, Baltimore, USA.

Experience in industry

Research Posts

• Department of Psychology, University of Wisconsin Madison: Research Associate (2017-2020)
• Waisman Center, University of Wisconsin Madison: Research Associate (2015-2017)
• MRC Institute of Hearing Research: Post-Doctoral Research Scientist (2013-2015)

International experience

I carried out 5 years of post-doctoral research in the USA. I am now an Honorary Fellow at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, USA. 

Recent publications

• Roebuck H, Lupyan G. (2020). The Internal Representations Questionnaire: Measuring modes of thinking. Behavior Research Methods
• Roebuck H, Guo K & Bourke P. (2019). Processing time not modality dominates shift costs in the modality-shifting effect Psychological Research, 14, 1-12
• Roebuck H, Barry JG (2018). Parental perception of listening difficulties: an interaction between weaknesses in language processing and ability to sustain attention. Scientific Reports, 8(1), 6985
• Roebuck H, Sindberg H & Ellis-Weismer S (2018). The role of language in non-linguistic stimuli: comparing inhibition in children with language impairment. Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing Research, 61, 1216-1225
• Roebuck H & Lupyan, G (2018). Individual differences in thinking in words: development of the Internal Representations Questionnaire and performance on a matching task. CogSci, 2018, 2358-2363
• Roebuck H, Guo K & Bourke P (2017). Hearing without listening: Attending to a quiet audiobook. Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology
• Ellis-Weismer S, Davidson MM, Gangopadhyay I, Sindberg HA, Roebuck H & Kaushanskaya M (2017). The role of nonverbal working memory in morphosyntactic processing by children with specific language impairment and autism spectrum disorders. Journal of Neurodevelopmental Disorders, 9(1), 28
• Roebuck H, Freigang C & Barry JG (2016). Continuous performance tasks: Not just about sustaining attention. Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing Research, 59, 501-510
• Roebuck H, Guo K & Bourke P (2015). Attending at a low intensity increases impulsivity in an auditory SART. Perception, 44(12), 1371-1382
• Roebuck H, Bourke P & Guo K (2014). Role of lateral and feedback connections in primary visual cortex in the processing of spatiotemporal regularity - a TMS study. Neuroscience, 263, 231–239

See Google Scholar or ResearchGate for a full list of my publications. 

Courses

• Psychology BSc (Hons) (online)