People
Dr Vanessa Beanland
Senior Lecturer, Department of Psychology, University of Otago
Director, Otago Transport Research Network
Human Factors and Ergonomics Society of New Zealand (Chair, 2021-2023)
My research interests include human factors in surface transport (road, rail) and applied cognitive psychology, with an emphasis on visual attention. I grew up on the "wrong" side of the ditch and completed my undergraduate degree in Psychology at Deakin University in Melbourne, Australia, followed by honours and PhD at The Australian National University in Canberra. I moved to New Zealand in 2018.
External links:
If you are interested in learning more about specific projects, please refer to my Publications. Students interested in working with me should refer to my Research Supervision page.
Current Students
Claudia Ousset (PhD clinical student, co-supervised with Libby Schaughency and Barbara Galland): Teen sleep and driving
Alastair Cumming (MSc thesis student): Safe working in a complex sociotechnical system: Decision making in railway shunting yards
Billie Petty (MSc thesis student): Investigating flight naïve participants' responses in a flight simulator
Reghan Laurie (MSc thesis student): New Zealand dairy farmers' perspectives on mental health service and burnout
Zach Evans (MSc thesis student, co-supervised with Tamlin Conner): Exploring post-deployment growth in New Zealand soldiers
Natalie Amersfoort (MSc preliminary student)
Chen Guo (MSc preliminary student)
Charlotte Boyle (Honours student)
Ethan James (Honours student)
Krishna Ponnuchetty (Honours student)
Emily Lawson (undergraduate project student)
Kirsten Power (undergraduate project student)
Completed Postgraduate Students
Dr Rachael Wynne completed a PhD at UniSC, co-supervised by Paul Salmon and Gemma Read. Her research involved comparing driving research paradigms (instrumented vehicles, driving simulators, video and photo-based experiments) and using them to understand visual attention in learner drivers. Rach is now a Lecturer at University of Newcastle, Australia, after completing a postdoc at University of Southampton, UK.
Campbell Teixeira completed an MSc project examining insomnia symptoms and associated outcomes reported post-deployment by New Zealand Defence Force personnel, before becoming a Psychologist at NZDF.
Sienna MacArthur-Beadle won the 2022 TrackSAFE Louise Cairns award for her MSc research targeting children's pedestrian safety around railways through storytelling. Sienna now works at KiwiRail.
Liam Kettle completed an MSc on driver behaviour in youths, co-supervised by Rebecca McLean, after which he moved to the USA to pursue a PhD in Human Factors at George Mason University.
Catherine Thomas completed an MSc project on comprehension of hazard warning labels for consumer products, co-supervised by Mele Taumoepeau.