Ben Parris

Professor Ben Parris

  • u_bparris at bournemouth dot ac dot uk
  • Professor
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Biography

After completing his DPhil (PhD) on the control of attention (selecting to what and where we focus our attention) at the Department of Experimental Psychology at the University of Sussex in 2005, Dr Parris went on to complete postdoctoral positions at the Universities' of Exeter and Oxford. He joined Bournemouth University as a Senior Lecturer in 2008 and is now a Professor in the Department of Psychology and head of the Cognition and Brain Sciences research group.

Research

My research interests focus on the cognitive and neural mechanisms of the control of attention and behaviour. To better understand these processes I employ behavioural, eye tracking, pupillometry and brain-based methods such as fMRI, MRI and TMS. I am also interested in investigating individual differences in the control of attention and behaviour in non-neurotypical populations such as in ADHD, and control over phenomenological experiences such as conscious awareness and pain.

Favourites

  • Parris, B.A., Hasshim, N., Ferrand, L., Augustinova, M., 2023. Do Task Sets Compete in the Stroop Task and Other Selective Attention Paradigms? Journal of Cognition, 6 (1).
  • Parris, B.A., Hasshim, N., Wadsley, M., Augustinova, M., Ferrand, L., 2022. The loci of Stroop effects: a critical review of methods and evidence for levels of processing contributing to color-word Stroop effects and the implications for the loci of attentional selection. Psychological Research, 86 (4), 1029-1053.
  • Palfi, B., Parris, B.A., Collins, A.F., Dienes, Z., 2022. Strategies that reduce Stroop interference. Royal Society Open Science, 9 (3).
  • Dienes, Z., Lush, P., Palfi, B., Roseboom, W., Scott, R., Parris, B., Seth, A., Lovell, M., 2022. Phenomenological Control as Cold Control. Psychology of Consciousness Theory Research and Practice, 9 (2), 101-116.
  • Parris, B.A., Hasshim, N., Dienes, Z., 2021. Look into my eyes: Pupillometry reveals that a post-hypnotic suggestion for word blindness reduces Stroop interference by marshalling greater effortful control. Eur J Neurosci.
  • Parris, B.A., 2017. The role of frontal executive functions in hypnosis and hypnotic suggestibility. Psychology of Consciousness Theory Research and Practice, 4 (2), 211-229.
  • Parris, B.A., 2014. Task conflict in the Stroop task: Stroop interference decreases whilst Stroop facilitation increases in a low task conflict context. Frontiers in Psychology.
  • Parris, B.A., Dienes, Z., Hodgson, T.L., 2012. Temporal constraints of the word blindness posthypnotic suggestion on Stroop task performance. Journal of Experimental Psychology Human Perception and Performance, 38 (4).
  • Hodgson, T.L., Chamberlain, M., Parris, B., James, M., Gutowski, N., Husain, M., Kennard, C., 2007. The Role of the Ventrolateral Frontal Cortex in Inhibitory Oculomotor Control. Brain, 130, 1525-1537.
  • Parris, B., Sharma, D., Weekes, B.S., 2007. An Optimal Viewing Position Effect in the Stroop Task When Only One Letter Is the Color Carrier. Experimental Psychology, 54, 273-280.

Journal Articles

Books

Chapters

  • Parris, B., Sharma, D., Weekes, B.S.. The Stroop Effect and Automaticity in Visual Word Recognition. Psychonomic Society (Annual meeting) (43rd : 2002 Nov : Kansas City, MI). Arlington, USA: Psychonomic Society.

Conferences

  • Aydin, T., Parris, B., Arabaci, G., Kilintari, M., Taylor, J., 2024. Trait-Level Inattention and Its Relationship to Technology Addictions. In: Mental Disorder and the Internet Conference Broadmoor Hospital Seminar Series 15/11/2024 Online.
  • Gurr, B., Varkovetski, M., Parris, B.. A clinical protocol for 'Luria's Fist-Edge-Palm' (FEP) task. INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF STROKE, 18 (1).
  • Parris, B., Hasshim, N.. Trial type mixing modulates response set membership effects in the Stroop task. In: British Psychological Society Meeting 04/2016 Nottingham.
  • Elisa, R., Parris, B.. To explore or exploit? Using pupillometry to track norepinephrine activity in adults with ADHD symptoms. In: TeaP 08/03/2015 Hildesheim.
  • Elisa, R., Parris, B.A.. Exploring the relationship between inattention and working memory in adults. In: Meeting of the Experimental Psychology Society 08/04/2015 Leeds.
  • Hasshim, N., Parris, B.. Trial type mixing modulates response set membership effects in the Stroop task. In: Meeting of the Experimental Psychology Society 08/04/2015 Leeds.
  • Elisa, R., Parris, B.. To explore or exploit? Using pupillometry to track norepinephrine activity in adults with ADHD symptoms. In: European Conference on Eye Movements 08/2015 Vienna.
  • Elisa, R., Parris, B.. To explore or exploit? Using pupillometry to track norepinephrine activity in adults with ADHD symptoms. In: Meeting of the Psychonomic Society 11/2015 Chicago.
  • Hasshim, N., Parris, B.A.. Response set membership effects in pure vs. mixed contexts. In: Meeting of the Experimental Psychology Society 16/07/2014 Newcastle.
  • Parris, B.A., Dienes, Z., Hodgson, T.L.. Temporal constraints of the word-blindness post-hypnotic suggestion on Stroop task performance. In: Meeting of the Experimental Psychology Society 05/09/2012 Hull.
  • Parris, B.A., Bate, S., Hodgson, T.L., 2010. Facilitating goal maintenance in the Stroop task. Paper presented at the , Cardiff. In: Annual Meeting of the British Psychological Society Cognitive Section 06/09/2010 Cardiff, UK.
  • Hodgson, T.L., Parris, B., Benattayallah, A., Summers, I.. Multimodal and unimodal areas for rule based behavioural control. In: 16th Annual Meeting of the Cognitive Neuroscience Society 21/03/2009 Hyatt Regency San Francisco.
  • De Souza, A., Grabenhorst, F., Parris, B., Rolls, E.T., Passingham, R.. A common neural scale for subjective value of different primary rewards. In: Neuroscience 2009: Annual Meeting of the Society for Neuroscience 17/10/2009 Chicago, USA.
  • Parris, B., Grabenhorst, F., Rolls, E.T., Kadohisa, M., De Souza, A.. How the brain represents the reward value of fat in the mouth. In: Neuroscience 2009: Annual Meeting of the Society for Neuroscience 17/10/2009 Chicago, USA.
  • Parris, B.. Priming and response-stimulus intervals in the Stroop task. In: Invited talk 05/2009 University of Southampton, England.
  • Parris, B., Bate, S., Hodgson, T.L., 2008. Prime speed for selective attention in the Stroop task. In: Meeting of the British Psychological Society: Consciousness and Experiential Psychology Section 22/11/2008 London.
  • Dienes, Z., Parris, B.. Unconsciously reading words. In: Annual Meeting of the British Society of Clinical and Academic Hypnosis 15/05/2008 London.
  • Grabenhorst, F., Rolls, E.T., Parris, B.. From affective value to decision making in the brain. In: Neuroscience 2008: Annual Meeting of the Society for Neuroscience 15/11/2008 Washington D.C..
  • Rolls, E.T., Grabenhorst, F., Parris, B.. Neural systems underlying decisions about affective odours. In: Neuroscience 2008: Annual Meeting of the Society for Neuroscience 15/11/2008 Washington D.C..
  • Parris, B.. Prime speed for selective attention in the Stroop task. In: Invited talk. 02/2008 University of Fribourg, Switzerland..
  • Parris, B., Bate, S., Hodgson, T.L.. Prime speed for selective attention in the Stroop task. In: Meeting of the British Psychological Society: Cognitive Psychology Section 08/09/2008 Southampton.
  • Bradley, V., Davies, R., Parris, B., Fan Su, I., Weekes, B.S., 2006. Age of Acquisition Effects on Action Naming in Progressive Fluent Aphasia. Brain and Language, 99, 117-118.
  • Parris, B., Weekes, B.S., 2006. Naming Actions and Objects in Dementia. Brain and Language, 99, 119-120.
  • Parris, B., Kuhn, G., Hodgson, T.L.. Imaging the impossible:an fMRI study of violations in cause and effect relations in magic tricks. In: Neuroscience 2006: Annual Meeting for the Society for Neuroscience 14/10/2006 Altanta, Georgia.
  • Hodgson, T.L., Parris, B.. The role of the ventrolateral frontal cortex in volitional oculomotor control. In: Neuroscience 2006: Annual Meeting for the Society for Neuroscience 14/10/2006 Altanta, Georgia.
  • Parris, B.. An oculomotor Stroop task: Capture, control and cognition. In: Invited talk 02/2006 University of Durham.,England.
  • Parris, B.. The prefrontal cortex in action. In: Invited talk 11/2005 University of Kent, England.
  • Parris, B.. The use of fMRI in the study of language. In: Invited lecture 04/2005 University of Fribourg, Switzerland..
  • Parris, B., Sharma, D., Weekes, B.S., 2003. The Stroop effect and automaticity in word reading. In: Experimental Psychological Society 09/07/2003 Reading, England.
  • Weekes, B.S., Davies, R., Parris, B., Robinson, G.. Age of Acquisition effects of spelling in surface dysgraphia. In: Experimental Psychological Society 09/04/2002 Department of Psychology, University of Leuven, Belgium.
  • Weekes, B.S., Parris, B.. Action Naming in Dementia. In: British Psychological Society Cognitive Psychology Section 17th Annual Conference 09/2000 University of Essex. The British Psychological Society Vol 9 (2).
  • Parris, B., Weekes, B.S.. Do actions speak louder than words? In: British Psychological Society: Cognitive Section Meeting 09/2000 University College London.

Preprints

  • Palfi, B., Parris, B., McLatchie, N., Kekecs, Z., Dienes, Z.. Can unconscious intentions be more effective than conscious intentions? Test of the role of metacognition in hypnotic response.
  • Palfi, B., Parris, B., Collins, A., Dienes, Z.. Strategies that reduce Stroop interference.

PhD Students

  • Jason Helstrip, (In progress)
  • Batuhan Cakir, (In progress)
  • Vanessa Bartholomew, 2025. Pain in early labour; developing support for women in the latent phase of labour, (Completed)
  • Nabil Hassim. Investigating trial types putatively evidencing semantic conflict in the Stroop task
  • Rebecca Elisa. Inattention, Working Memory and Self-Regulation
  • Gizem Arabaci. Inattention and Mind Wandering
  • Anna Bobak. Investigation of Super Face Recognisers
  • Olivier De Condappa. Wayfinding in young and old adults
  • Dawid Pekalski. The role of rational choice, social identity and neurocognitive ability in voting behaviour
  • Adam Eason. Self- vs. Hetero-Hypnosis
  • Dawid Pekalski. Understanding political engagement

Profile of Teaching PG

  • Key Transferable Skills
  • Neurodevelopmental Disorders
  • Project Supervision
  • Cognitive and Clinical Neuropsychology
  • Advanced Research Methods

Profile of Teaching UG

  • Personality, Intelligence and Individual DIfferences
  • Mind, Brain and Evolution
  • Project Supervision

Invited Lectures

  • Department of Psychology, University of Rouen, 24 May 2018 more
  • Royal Society of Medicine, 11 Dec 2017 more
  • On the control of ‘automatic' processing., The Royal Society of Medicine, 14 Dec 2014 more
  • Royal Society of Medicine, 08 Dec 2014 more
  • Department of Psychology, Oxford Brookes Universit, 13 Nov 2012 more

Grants

  • Static and dynamic cognitive control abilities and their relationship to hypnotic suggestibility (Bial Foundation, 03 Jul 2023). Awarded
  • Optimizing Insights into Cognitive Control Abilities through the Lens of Stroop Interference: Behavioral, Electrophysiological and fMRI Investigations of its Distinct Components. (French National Research Agency, 01 Nov 2019). Awarded
  • Effortless control? Using pupillometry to assess effort expended to achieve a remarkable reduction in Stroop interference following a post-hypnotic suggestion for word blindness (British Academy/Leverhulme, 01 Sep 2019). Completed
  • A stimulus-driven account of the response set effect in the Stroop task (Experimental Psychology Society, 01 Feb 2017). Completed
  • Neural Correlates of Response inhibition and Response Conflict and their relation with ADHD Symptomatology (Welcome Trust, 01 Jun 2016). Completed
  • Effects of anxiety on sustained attention in an oculomotor Stroop task (Nuffield, 06 Jun 2011). Completed
  • The influence of different task instructions and priming on antisaccade performance in healthy young and healthy older adults (Nuffield, 06 Jun 2011). Completed

External Responsibilities

  • Frontiers in Psychology: Cognitive Science, Review Editor (2015-)
  • Frontiers in Psychology: Cognition, Review Editor (2015-)
  • Medical Research Council, Grant Reviewer (2014-)
  • ESRC, Rapporteur for Quality and Impact (2013-)

Internal Responsibilities

  • Member, Faculty Research Degree Committee
  • Member, Graduate School Research Degrees Committee
  • Member, Sponsorship and Clinical Governance Steering Committee
  • Chair, Psychology Research Committee
  • Unit of Assessment Leader (UoA4), Psychology
  • Head of Research, Psychology

Journal Reviewing/Refereeing

  • Psychology of Consciousness, Anonymous peer review, 03 Jul 2018
  • Frontiers in Psychology, Open peer review, 16 Sep 2016
  • Attention, Perception & Psychophysics, Anonymous peer review, 12 Jul 2016
  • BMC Psychiatry, Anonymous peer review, 12 Jul 2016
  • Memory and Cognition, Anonymous peer review, 06 May 2015
  • Aphasiology, Anonymous peer review
  • Bilingualism: Language and Cognition, Anonymous peer review
  • Brain Topography: journal of functional neurophysiology, Anonymous peer review
  • Cerebral Cortex
  • Cognition, Anonymous peer review
  • Experimental Psychology, Anonymous peer review
  • Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition, Anonymous peer review
  • Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception and Performance, Anonymous peer review
  • Neuroimage, Anonymous peer review
  • Neurocase
  • Psychonomic Bulletin and Review, Anonymous peer review

Conference Presentations

  • EPS Conference, Inattention and task switching performance: The Role of Predictability, Working Memory and Goal Neglect., 10 Jul 2019, Bournemouth
  • SciTech Postgraduate Research conference of Bournemouth University, Inattention and Task Switching Performance: The role of predictability, interference, and working memory load., 09 May 2018, Bournemouth, UK
  • 58th Annual Meeting of Psychonomic Society, The relationship between ADHD traits and daily-life and probe-caught spontaneous and deliberate mind wandering on sub-clinical levels., 09 Nov 2017, Vancouver, Canada
  • EPS Conference, The relationship between ADHD symptoms and daily-life and probe-caught spontaneous and deliberate mind wandering in community samples., 12 Jul 2017, Reading
  • European Conference on Eye Movements (ECEM), 16 Aug 2015, Vienna, Austria
  • Experimental Psychology Society (EPS), 08 Apr 2015, Leeds, UK
  • Tagung experimentell arbeitender Psychologen (TeaP), 08 Mar 2015, Hildesheim

Attended Training

  • Impact Development Day, 06 Nov 2015

Qualifications

  • PGCert in Research Supervision (Bournemouth University, 2011)
  • DPhil in Experimental Psychology (University of Sussex, 2005)
  • BSc (Hons) in Psychology (with studies in Europe) (University of Kent, 2000)

Memberships

  • British Psychological Society, Chartered Member (2016-),
  • Royal Society of Medicine, Fellow (2015-),
  • Society for Interdisciplinary Placebo Studies, Member (2015-), http://www.placebosociety.org/
  • Experimental Psychology Society, Member,

External Media and Press

The data on this page was last updated at 05:00 on February 17, 2026.