Dr John Shaw

Profile

Biography

John Shaw is a Chartered Psychologist of the British Psychological Society. He completed his first degree in Psychology and Organisation Studies at Lancaster University, and was later awarded his PhD in Psychology from Lancaster University in 2018. Following a Teaching position at Aberdeen University (2018-2019), he became a lecturer at De Montfort University, Leicester (2019-2023), before moving to Edge Hill in July 2023.

John is a Cognitive researcher, specifically interested in the role of sleep in development. Below are some of his interests:

Social Media and Preadolescence

Social media is now an integral part of our lives, but an increasing number of preadolescents are on social media. I am interested in how this affects their sleep and general life.

Sleep and Numerical Cognition

We know that sleep can aid in the consolidation of a variety of information, but one area not fully explored is how it can support learning of mathematics and related concepts. Our preprint demonstrates that sleep can support learning of newly learned mathematical concepts when sleep occurs shortly after learning.

Autism Spectrum Disorder & Sense of Ownership

Alongside colleagues at Lancaster University I have an interest in how children with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) understand the concept of ownership. We have previously published on this and are now looking to expand on this.

Neurodiversity in Academia

Working with FORRT I am part of a team working on advocating for neurodiversity within Academia. Within our team we have published on the importance of valuing neurodiversity within academia and how Open Scholarship can support this, as well as presented work at several conferences. We have been awarded a grant from the Society for the Improvement of Psychological Science for our work to produce a database of neurodiverse authors to further promote representation.

Teaching

PSY2112: Developmental Psychology (Module Leader)

PSY4107: MSc Developmental Psychology (Module Leader)

PSY3148: Work Placement Module (Module Leader)

Undergraduate & MSc Dissertation supervision

• Opening up understanding of neurodiversity: A call for applying participatory and open scholarship practices
• Does autism affect children’s identification of ownership and defence of ownership rights?
• Lateralised sleep spindles relate to false memory generation
• Investigating children's valuation of authentic and inauthentic objects: Visible object properties vs. invisible ownership history
• Sleep supports the consolidation of newly learned statistical concepts