Dr Mike Van Duuren 

Senior Lecturer in Psychology 

Humanities and Social Sciences 

mike.vanduuren@winchester.ac.uk 

+44 (0)1962 827478 

+44 (0)1962 827437 

The University of Winchester
Sparkford Road
Winchester
Hampshire SO22 4NR

Biography

  • D. Phil.* (School of Cognitive and Computing Sciences) in Developmental Psychology (ESRC-funded), University of Sussex
  • MA in Mass Communications, University of Leicester
    BSc (Hons) Psychology and Sociology, University of Southampton
  • BPS RQTU: Test User Occupational (Ability)
  • BPS RQTU: Test User Occupational (Ability) Test Verifier Status
  • BPS RQTU: Test User Occupational (Personality) Hogan Personality Inventory
  • European Federation of Psychologists' Associations - European Test User Certificate (Level 2) 

*My D.Phil. thesis, titled 'Children’s representations of artificially intelligent objects', examines common-sense representations of computers and robots, in particular how these devices have entered the conceptual worlds of young children and adults as 'encultured goods', from a developmental perspective, utilising a variety of methodologies including counter-factual presentations. This work was supervised by the late Mike Scaife.

I teach and/or am Programme Leader for the following modules:

  • Advanced Issues in Developmental Psychology
  • Introduction to Developmental Psychology
  • Advanced statistics & applied statistics
  • Psychometric testing (MSc)
  • Quantitative Methods in Psychology (MSc)
  • Statistics & Applied Statistics
  • Research Methods
  • Exploring Psychology

Expertise

Face perception and recognition;

Psychology of attractiveness;

Children’s spatial cognition;

Developing understanding of metaphor in typical and a-typical developmental populations;

Collaborative learning and motivation to learn;

Children’s representations of intelligent artefacts;

Animal anthropomorphic behaviour;

Mathematical word problems;

Children’s play

Publications

Selected publications

Van Duuren, M., Cole, K., Dolins, F., Klimowicz, C. (forthcoming). Symmetrical and Asymmetrical Virtual Reality Environments: A developmental study of wayfinding and spatial representation abilities in young children.

Van Duuren, M., Cole, K., Dolins, F. (2011). Impact of locational parameters on spatial cognition. Proceedings of the European Conference on Developmental Psychology, Bergen, Norway, 135-40.

Van Duuren, M. & Harvey, A. (2010). An Integrated Approach to Statistics Teaching and Assessment in Psychology. In: P. Bidgood, N. Hunt & F. Joliffe (Eds), Assessment Methods in Statistical Education: An International Perspective (pp 57-69). London: Wiley.

Thomas. M.S.C., Van Duuren, M., Purser, H., Mareschal, D., Ansari, D. & Karmiloff-Smith, A. (2010). The development of metaphorical language comprehension in typical development and Williams syndrome. Journal of Experimental Child Psychology 106 (2-3), 99-114.

Barton, A., Van Duuren, M. & Haslam, P. (2007). Perceived social benefits of voluntary student collaboration. Psychology Learning and Teaching, 6(1), 26-33.

Barton, A., Van Duuren, M. & Haslam, P. (2006) Voluntary peer learning groups: do students want more structure and are there any hard gains? Psychology Learning and Teaching, 5(2), 146-152.

Van Duuren, M. A. (2004). Who is not interested in faces [Review of the book The Development of Face Processing] Journal of Applied Cognitive Psychology, 18, 481-489. 


Karmiloff-Smith, A., Thomas, M., Annaz, D., Humphreys, K., Ewing, S., Grice, S., Brace, N., Van Duuren, M., Graham, P., Campbell, R. (2004). Exploring the Williams syndrome face processing debate: The importance of building developmental trajectories. The Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry and Allied Disciplines, 45 (7), 1258-1274.

Van Duuren, M. A., Kendell-Scott, L., Stark, N. (2003). Early aesthetic choices: Infant preferences for attractive premature infant faces. International Journal of Behavioral Development, 27 (3), 212-219.

Brace, N. A., Hole, G. J., Kemp, R., Van Duuren, Norgate, L. (2001). 
Developmental changes in the effect of inversion: Using a picture book to investigate face recognition. Perception, 30, 85-94.

Van Duuren, M. A., Dossett, B. & Robinson, D. (1998) Gauging children’s understanding of artificially intelligent objects: A presentation of ‘counterfactuals’ International Journal of Behavioral Development, 22, 871-889.

Van Duuren, M. & Scaife, M. (1996). "A robot’s brain controls itself, because a brain hasn’t got a brain, so it just controls itself"- Young children’s attributions of brain related behaviour to intelligent artefacts. European Journal of Psychology of Education, 11, 365-376.

Van Duuren, M. A. & Scaife, M. (1995). How do children represent intelligent technology? European Journal of Psychology of Education, 10, 289-301.

Scaife, M. & Van Duuren, M. A. (1995). Do computers have brains? What children believe about intelligent artefacts. British Journal of Developmental Psychology, 13, 321-432.

Van Duuren, M. A. (1994). The use of intelligent technology at home and at school: What do parents think? British Journal of Educational Technology, 25, 231-233.

Dittmar, H. & Van Duuren, M. A. (1993). Human nature beliefs and perceptions of the economic world: A cross-cultural comparison between collectivist and individualist countries. Abhigyan, Spring, 49-62.

Research Interests

Research in progress

Spatial navigation in differently aged children and individuals with selective cognitive impairments

This research is carried out with Dr Dolins at the University of Michigan and includes examining the efficacy with which children negotiate their way through a virtual maze with and without the aid of landmarks and how they are able to benefit from different representations of the maze prior to their exploration.

Infant perceptions of facial attractiveness

Over 200 infants have visited our Infancy Lab where we utilise a preferential looking paradigm to explore the extent to which infants prefer slides of attractive infant faces (previously so rated by adults) over unattractive infant faces. An important distinction is made here between infant faces which are seen by adults as primarily pre-sexually mature rather than 'cute', as in having a more typical baby face morphology. The implications of this work shed further light on the feature versus configural processing debate in the face perception literature.

Developing understanding of metaphor

This work is funded by the British Academy in collaboration with Michael Thomas, Denis Mareschal and Annette Karmiloff-Smith at Birkbeck College, University of London. It investigates a developmental comparison of the understanding of a variety of word pairings, reflecting different metaphorical relationships including structural-functional and perceptual relationships. The inclusion of a sample of children with Williams syndrome as an atypical population enables us to both increase our understanding of typical development in this area as well as providing insight into the characteristics of developmental disorders, with the potential to predict useful interventions for individuals with a given disorder.

Children with severe learning and behavioural difficulties

The Psychology Department maintains links with a number of specialist schools in the region that support severe and complex learning difficulties. Several of our students have enjoyed carrying out research projects such as the examination of the effects of a multi-sensory stimulation environment on learning outcomes and various small intervention projects aiming to improve face/emotion recognition in children with autism, using a specialist drawing program for investigating narrative-based emotion recognition.

Collaborative learning

For over 10 years, the Psychology Department at University of Winchester has been running a successful scheme of collaborative learning for its students. The philosophy behind this scheme is that students can improve their efficacy as individual learners through effective group participation. Along with Alison Barton, I have received funding from the LTSN to elaborate this programme and integrate it more fully in the learning experience of first-year Psychology students.

Funding Awards and Professional Membership

External funding awards

Barton, A. & Van Duuren, M. A. (2003). Developing targeted scaffolding to support student collaborative learning. Learning and Teaching Support Network – Higher Education Academy.

 

Van Duuren, M. A. & Atkinson, A. (2002). Infant dynamic emotion perception. Royal Society.

Van Duuren, M. A. & Thomas, M. S. C. (2001). A developmental comparison of the understanding of metaphor in a sample of typical children and children with Williams Syndrome. British Academy.

Internal funding awards

Van Duuren, M.A. (2011). Measuring the added value of the Higher Education experience at the University of Winchester: the development of critical thinking skills as a measure of psychometric test performance in First and Third-Year students. University of Winchester Learning and Teaching fellowship grant (with Merce Prat-Sala).

Van Duuren, M. A. (2008). Symmetrical and asymmetrical virtual reality environments: A developmental study of the wayfinding and spatial representational abilities in young children. University of Winchester.

Dolins, F. & Van Duuren, M. A. (2007). Pilot Study for the Development of the Virtual Reality Environment Software Testing Children and Adults’ Spatial Cognitive Abilities using Virtual Reality. University of Winchester.

Barton, A. & Van Duuren, M. A. (2003). Developing targeted scaffolding to support student collaborative learning. Learning and Teaching Support Network – Higher Education Academy.

Van Duuren, M. A. & Atkinson, A. (2002). Infant dynamic emotion perception. Royal Society.

Van Duuren, M. A. & Thomas, M. S. C. (2001). A developmental comparison of the understanding of metaphor in a sample of typical children and children with Williams Syndrome. British Academy.

Van Duuren, M. A. (2000). Separating nature and nurture: The case for early aesthetic preferences (Phase 2) . University of Winchester.

Van Duuren, M. A. (1998). Separating nature and nurture: The case for early aesthetic preferences (Phase 1) . University of Winchester.

Van Duuren, M. A. (1998). Effects of anthropomorphic commentary on lay interpretations of animal behaviour. University of Winchester.

Society Membership

  • Fellow of the Higher Education Academy
  • European Society for Developmental Psychology
  • British Psychological Society (C. Psychol)
  • Science Council ( CSci )
  • Associate Fellow of the British Psychological Society (AFBPS)