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Dr Jess Hall

Job: Lecturer in Psychology

Faculty: Health and Life Sciences

School/department: School of Applied Social Sciences

Address: De Montfort University, The Gateway, Leicester, LE1 9BH.

T: +44 (0)116 250 6155

E: j.hall@dmu.ac.uk

W: https://www.dmu.ac.uk/appliedsocialsciences

 

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Personal profile

Dr Hall is interested in individual differences in affective processing. Dr Hall's PhD research examined sex differences in facial expression processing, and Dr Hall is currently exploring individual differences in interoceptive awareness: the ability to feel one’s body.

Research group affiliations

Psychology

Publications and outputs

  • A New Measure of General Trait Neuroticism about Body Signals and Worry Specific to Body Signals: The Body Signals Attention and Worry Scale (BSAWS)
    dc.title: A New Measure of General Trait Neuroticism about Body Signals and Worry Specific to Body Signals: The Body Signals Attention and Worry Scale (BSAWS) dc.contributor.author: Lopes, Barbara; Yu, Hui; Hall, J. K. dc.description.abstract: A new scale was developed to measure trait neuroticism and state worry about bodily signals (the BSAWS). 72 British participants were recruited to complete a heartbeat counting task and then a battery of questionnaires comprising of the BSAWS, the state-trait anxiety inventory (STAI), the emotion regulation questionnaire (ERQ) and the paranoid checklist (PC) and state social paranoia scales (SSPS). Confirmatory factor analysis supported a four-factor model of the BSAWS, with factors of ‘trait neuroticism’, ‘trait unconcern’, ‘state mindfulness’ and ‘state worry’. These results broadly support a two–dimensional model of bodily signals’ attention and worry. Correlational analyses showed concurrent validity of the BSAWS construct with other previously established measures of anxiety, paranoia and emotional regulation. Applications for the scale include measurement of attention and worry during different tasks and/or behaviours, with the potential for clinical use to study the aetiology of various body-related mental health disorders.
  • Interoception enhanced via the ears?
    dc.title: Interoception enhanced via the ears? dc.contributor.author: Hall, J. K.; Lopes, Barbara; Yu, Hui dc.description.abstract: Heartbeat perception tasks are used to measure interoceptive accuracy. This paper explores the effect of reducing external auditory stimuli on heartbeat perception. Three samples (121 participants in total) performed a heartbeat perception task. Samples 1 and 2 wore ear-protectors and sample 3 did not. There were no differences in interoceptive accuracy between samples 1 and 2 but samples 1 and 2 showed significantly higher interoceptive accuracy than sample 3. These results suggest ear-protectors could be used to manipulate heartbeat perception and that the auditory component of heartbeat perception might be given greater consideration. dc.description: The file attached to this record is the author's final peer reviewed version. The Publisher's final version can be found by following the DOI link.
  • Users’ Reactions to Failures and Frustrations Within Cyber Environments
    dc.title: Users’ Reactions to Failures and Frustrations Within Cyber Environments dc.contributor.author: Scase, M. O.; Hall, J. K.; Attrill, A.
  • Sex differences in scanning faces
    dc.title: Sex differences in scanning faces dc.contributor.author: Hall, J. K.
  • Impaired fear recognition in regular recreational cocaine users.
    dc.title: Impaired fear recognition in regular recreational cocaine users. dc.contributor.author: Kemmis, L.; Hall, J. K.; Kingston, R.; Morgan, M. J.
  • Sex differences in scanning faces: Does attention to the eyes explain female superiority in facial expression recognition?
    dc.title: Sex differences in scanning faces: Does attention to the eyes explain female superiority in facial expression recognition? dc.contributor.author: Hall, J. K.; Hutton, S. B.; Morgan, M. J. dc.description.abstract: Previous meta-analyses support a female advantage in decoding non-verbal emotion (Hall, 1978, 1984), yet the mechanisms underlying this advantage are not understood. The present study examined whether the female advantage is related to greater female attention to the eyes. Eye-tracking techniques were used to measure attention to the eyes in 19 males and 20 females during a facial expression recognition task. Women were faster and more accurate in their expression recognition compared with men, and women looked more at the eyes than men. Positive relationships were observed between dwell time and number of fixations to the eyes and both accuracy of facial expression recognition and speed of facial expression recognition. These results support the hypothesis that the female advantage in facial expression recognition is related to greater female attention to the eyes. dc.description: Research conducted as part of Jess Hall's PhD research, funded by the University of Sussex, supervised by Dr Michael J. Morgan.

 

View a full listing of Jess Hall publications and outputs.

Research interests/expertise

  • Affective processes
  • Individual differences

Areas of teaching

  • Research Methods
  • Social Psychology
  • Biological Psychology

Qualifications

  • PhD ‘Sex differences in the processing of facial expressions of emotion’ supervised by Dr Michael J. Morgan (University of Sussex, 2010)
  • MSc in Experimental Psychology (University of Sussex, 2003)
  • MPhys in Physics with Space Science and Technology (University of Leicester, 2000)

Courses taught

  • PSYC1090 Introductory Research Methods in Psychology
    • PSYC2013 Further Research Methods for Psychologists
  • PSYC2091 Biological Psychology
  • PSYC2095 Social Psychology
  • PSYC3000 Psychology Project
  • PSYC5605 Research Methods and Data Analysis for Applied Psychologists