Biography

I completed my BSc (Hons) in Psychology at the University of Surrey in 2005, which included a professional training year in educational psychology with Dorset County Educational Psychology Service. I then completed an MSc in Psychology of Early Development at the University of Reading in 2006, before returning to Surrey to undertake a PhD, which I was awarded in 2009.  I have been working in the School of Psychology at the University of Surrey since September 2009.

Research Interests

My primary area of interest is child development and cognition, and the application of principles and theories from the domains of developmental and cognitive psychology to educational contexts. I have a general interest in the methods used in developmental psychology research. My work on children’s strategies in typical Piagetian XY coordination tasks revealed that failing to consider the possible heuristics that could underlie seemingly correct responses by children can lead to inaccurate estimations of their true ability. I have also completed work on effective questioning strategies with children in interview studies, particularly children with developmental disorders such as autism.
I have been conducting research into an adaptive perceptual mechanism called perceptual restoration. Everyday communication and learning takes places in typically noisy environments that result in incomplete and disrupted information reaching the perceptual system. The operation of a sensory repair process that ‘fills in' missing input given sufficient contextual information and appropriate acoustic conditions is well-documented in adults, representing a fundamental adaptation to everyday listening conditions. I investigate the operation of this mechanism in infants and young children and the possible implications for learning and development.
In addition, I have been working on projects exploring the potential educational implications of counterfactual, or ‘if only’, thinking in young children and the relationships between child temperament and sensory processing. I have also conducted research into the application of psychological theory to teaching and learning in Higher Education, for which I won a Surrey Teaching and Learning award in 2012.

Research Collaborators

Dr Darren Moore, Exeter University

Dr Corinne Huntington, King's College Hospital

Food, Consumer Behaviour and Health Research Centre, University of Surrey

Dr Alexandra Clifford, University of Surrey

Dr Robert Nash, University of Surrey

Publications

Peer reviewed papers

Winstone, N., Millward, L., Huntington, C., Goldsack, L., & Kyrou, E. (under review). Eliciting rich dialogue through the use of activity-oriented interviews with autistic young people. 

Winstone, N., & Millward, L. (2012). The value of peers and support from scaffolding: Applying constructivist principles to the teaching of psychology. Psychology Teaching Review, 18(2), 59-67.

Winstone, N., & Millward, L. (2012). Reframing perceptions of the lecture from challenges to opportunities: Embedding active learning and formative assessment into the teaching of large classes. Psychology Teaching Review, 18(2), 31-41.

Winstone, N., Davis, A., & De Bruyn, B. (2012). Developmental improvements in perceptual restoration: Can young children reconstruct missing sounds in noisy environments? Infant and Child Development, 21, 287-297.

Worsfold, N., Davis, A., & De Bruyn, B. (2008). The effect of horizontal versus vertical task presentation on children’s performance in coordinate tasks. Perception, 37, 1667-1676.

Book Chapters

Davis, A., & Winstone, N. (2011). Educational Implications. In A. Slater & G. Bremner (Eds.), An Introduction to Developmental Psychology (2nd ed; pp. 587-612). Chichester, UK: John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Published Conference Proceedings

Winstone, N., & Millward, L. (2012). Reframing perceptions of the lecture from challenges to opportunities. Proceedings of the 1st Annual Conference on the Aiming for Excellence in STEM Learning and Teaching.

Winstone, N., & Millward, L. (2012). Applying constructivist principles to the teaching of psychology. Proceedings of the 1st Annual Conference on the Aiming for Excellence in STEM Learning and Teaching.

Worsfold, N., Davis, A., & De Bruyn, B. (2008). The role of musical perceptual restoration in music perception, learning and development. Proceedings of the Second European Conference on Developmental Psychology of Music.

Conference Presentations

Winstone, N., & Moore, D. Embedding active learning and formative assessment into the teaching of large classes. Paper presented at the PedRIO conference, University of Plymouth, April 2012.

Winstone, N., & Millward, L. The value of peers and support from scaffolding: Applying constructivist principles to the teaching of psychology. Paper presented at the Higher Education Academy STEM Annual Conference, Imperial College, London, April 2012.

Winstone, N., & Millward, L. Reframing perception of the lecture from limitations to opportunities: Embedding active learning and formative assessment into the teaching of large classes. Paper presented at the Higher Education Academy STEM Annual Conference, Imperial College, London, April 2012.

Winstone, N., & Davis, A. Developmental improvements in the ability to reconstruct missing sounds in noisy environments. Paper presented at the British Psychological Society Developmental Section Conference, Goldsmiths, University of London, September 2010.

Winstone, N., Davis, A., & De Bruyn, B. Children’s music perception adapts to the auditory environment: Evidence from perceptual restoration. Paper presented at the British Psychological Society Developmental Section Conference, University of Nottingham, September 2009.

Worsfold, N. The role of musical perceptual restoration in children’s music perception, learning and development. Paper presented at the 13th Annual Psychology Research Student Conference, University of Surrey, January 2009.

Worsfold, N., Davis, A., & De Bruyn, B. Filling in the gaps: the role of musical perceptual restoration in music perception, learning and development. Paper presented at the 2nd European Conference on the Developmental Psychology of Music, University of Roehampton, September 2008.

Worsfold, N., Davis A., & De Bruyn, B. The role of familiarity in children’s perceptual restoration of music. Paper presented at the British Psychological Society Developmental Section Conference, Oxford Brookes University, September 2008.

Worsfold, N., Davis, A., & De Bruyn, B. Replacement noise amplitude determines perceptual restoration in young children. Poster presented at the British Psychological Society Developmental Section Conference, Oxford Brookes University, September 2008.

Houston-Price, C., Reynolds, N., & Worsfold, N. Infants use the communicative context to learn to follow gaze direction. Paper presented at the British Psychological Society Developmental Section Conference, Oxford Brookes University, September 2008.

Worsfold, N. Auditory perception with disrupted sensory input: The perceptual restoration of music in children. Paper presented at the 12th Annual Psychology Research Student Conference, University of Surrey, January 2008.

Worsfold, N., Davis, A., & De Bruyn, B. Bottom-up influences on the perceptual restoration of music in children. Poster presented at the British Psychological Society Developmental Section Conference, University of Plymouth, August 2007.

Worsfold, N., Davis, A., & De Bruyn, B. The perceptual restoration of music in children. Poster presented at the 13th European Conference on Developmental Psychology, University of Jena, Germany, August 2007.

Worsfold, N., Davis, A., & De Bruyn, B. The effect of horizontal versus vertical task presentation on children’s error patterns in a coordinate task. Poster presented at the 13th European Conference on Developmental Psychology, University of Jena, Germany, August 2007.

Worsfold, N. Perceptual restoration in children. Poster presented at the 11th Annual Psychology Research Student Conference, University of Surrey, January 2007.

Davis, A., Worsfold, N., & De Bruyn, B. The use of a touchscreen to test orientation effects on children’s xy co-ordinate ability. Poster presented at the British Psychological Society Developmental Section Conference, University of London, Royal Holloway, September 2006.

Teaching

Year 1 (FHEQ Level 4) Academic tutorial programme
PSY1023 Classics in Personality Theory
PSY1017 Cognitive Psychology 1
PSY2014 Cognitive Psychology 2
PSY3070 Individual Differences (convenor)
PSY3082 Psychology & Education (convenor)
MSc Statistics

Departmental Duties

Head of Year 1
Coordinator of Graduate Teaching Assistants
Member of staff-Student Liaison Committee
Member of School Learning and Teaching Committee