Rory MacLean
Rory MacLean

Dr Rory MacLean BSc (Hons), PhD, SFHEA, MBPsS

Lecturer

Biography

My main area of research interest is the psychology of creativity, and completed my PhD investigating the relationship between adult ageing and creativity at the University of Aberdeen. I am also interested in how creativity is related to cognition (e.g., attention), emotion, and its role in the performing arts.

My other research interests are varied, but mainly focus around cognition or personality, often with a forensic angle. Previous or current projects include: jury decision-making, narcissism, inter-partner violence, and child eyewitness testimony. I have also provided statistical and methodological support to a number of other projects.

I worked as an ad-hoc lecturer in psychology at Robert Gordon University, before joining Edinburgh Napier University in 2014. I currently teach at both undergraduate and postgraduate level, focusing on memory, creativity, individual differences, and statistics and research methods. I also have experience of teaching overseas, and am the module leader and visiting lecturer for individual differences modules running in Singapore and Hong Kong.

Esteem

External Examining/Validations

  • Robert Gordon University, MSc Applied Psychology
  • The Open University, Cognitive Psychology (DD303)

 

Membership of Professional Body

  • Member, American Psychological Association Division 10 (Aesthetics, Creativity & Arts)
  • International Affiliate, American Psychological Association
  • Graduate Member, British Psychological Soceity

 

Public/Community Engagement

  • Midlothian Science Festival

 

Date


27 results

Threshold point utilisation in juror decision-making

Journal Article
Curley, L. J., MacLean, R., Murray, J., Pollock, A. C., & Laybourn, P. (2019)
Threshold point utilisation in juror decision-making. Psychiatry, Psychology and Law, 26(1), 110-128. https://doi.org/10.1080/13218719.2018.1485520
The current research aimed to identify whether a model of juror decision making (i.e. the threshold model) that encompasses both rational and intuitive decision making exists....

The bastard verdict and its influence on jurors

Journal Article
Curley, L. J., Maclean, R., Murray, J., Laybourn, P., & Brown, D. (2019)
The bastard verdict and its influence on jurors. Medicine, Science and the Law, 59(1), 26-35. https://doi.org/10.1177/0025802418811740
The Scottish Legal system is a unique jurisdiction as jurors are able to give Not Proven verdicts in addition to the well-known Anglo-American verdicts (Guilty and Not Guilty)...

Decision science: a new hope

Journal Article
Curley, L. J., Maclean, R., Murray, J., & Laybourn, P. (2019)
Decision science: a new hope. Psychological Reports, 122(6), 2417-2439. https://doi.org/10.1177/0033294118797579
Decision science is an area of enquiry that crosses many disciplines, from psychology to economics, each with their own perspective of decision making. Traditionally, mathemat...

Faith in thy threshold

Journal Article
Curley, L. J., Murray, J., MacLean, R., Laybourn, P., & Brown, D. (2018)
Faith in thy threshold. Medicine, Science and the Law, (002580241879106). ISSN 0025-8024
The current study focussed on the decision making processes of jurors. The study investigated how jurors make a decision, if they integrated information within their decision ...

Are consistent juror decisions related to fast and frugal decision making? Investigating the relationship between juror consistency, decision speed and cue utilisation

Journal Article
Curley, L. J., Murray, J., MacLean, R., & Laybourn, P. (2017)
Are consistent juror decisions related to fast and frugal decision making? Investigating the relationship between juror consistency, decision speed and cue utilisation. Medicine, Science and the Law, 57(4), 211-219. https://doi.org/10.1177/0025802417733354
To establish whether more consistent/accurate juror decision making is related to faster decision making processes which use fewer cues, i.e. fast and frugal heuristic process...

Heuristics: The good, the bad, and the biased. What value can bias have for decision makers?

Journal Article
Curley, L. J., Murray, J., & MacLean, R. (2017)
Heuristics: The good, the bad, and the biased. What value can bias have for decision makers?. the Quarterly, 41-44
This discussion paper will look at heuristics (rule of thumb techniques for decision making), (Tversky & Kahneman, 1974) and their potential value. Typically, heuristics have ...

The Determinants of Well-being among Polish Economic Immigrants. Testing The Sustainable Happiness Model in Migrant Population

Journal Article
Bak-Klimek, A., Karatzias, T., Elliott, L., & MacLean, R. (2018)
The Determinants of Well-being among Polish Economic Immigrants. Testing The Sustainable Happiness Model in Migrant Population. Journal of Happiness Studies, 19, 1565–1588. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10902-017-9877-7
Economic migration has increased dramatically over the past decades, yet, still little is known about the well-being of economic migrants. Most studies focus on the poor menta...

The relationship between the Big 5 personality traits and eyewitness recognition

Journal Article
Curley, L., MacLean, R., & Murray, J. (2017)
The relationship between the Big 5 personality traits and eyewitness recognition. Journal of Articles in Support of the Null Hypothesis, 13(2), (57-72
The aim of the current research was to identify which, if any, personality traits are related to recognition in an eyewitness task. A correlational design was used with the c...

Visual-spatial-motor integration in a cross-section of primary-aged children: implications for assessing risk of Dyslexia

Conference Proceeding
Piotrowska, B., Willis, A., MacLean, R., Murray, J., & Kerridge, J. (2015)
Visual-spatial-motor integration in a cross-section of primary-aged children: implications for assessing risk of Dyslexia. In Proceedings European Conference on Visual Perception ECVP 2015
Dyslexia is a common condition characterized by difficulties with reading and writing despite adequate intelligence, education and motivation. Many individuals with dyslexia a...

Can laboratory based research regarding type 1 diabetes and exercise be applied into the real-life environment?

Journal Article
Charlton, J., Kilbride, L., MacLean, R., Darlison, M. G., & McKnight, J. (2015)
Can laboratory based research regarding type 1 diabetes and exercise be applied into the real-life environment?. Practical Diabetes, 32(6), (217-221). ISSN 2047-2900
The aim of this study was to determine whether results from laboratory based research examining glycaemic control during and after exercise can be applied to a real-life (non-...

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