I did my first degree in Applied Psychology at the University of Central Lancashire in Preston, graduating in 1994. I then registered for a (part-time) PhD under the direction of Professor Jane Powell at Goldsmiths College, where I explored the effects of Parkinson’s Disease and smoking on reward motivation and executive functioning. I am currently in the process of setting up a randomised placebo-controlled study with The Electronic Cigarette Company (TECC) to explore the effectiveness of the Electronic Nicotine Inhalator E-NI; aka ‘the Electronic Cigarette’) for smoking cessation.

• First year tutor, Mentoring programme project co-ordinator

I am interested in the neurobiology of addiction, particularly nicotine addiction, and the implications that current addiction theory has for behaviour, namely: reward motivation, anhedonia, cue-reactivity, response inhibition and executive functioning.

• BSc Psychology
• MSc Psychology

• PY2106: Psychology of Mental Health
• PY2111: Drugs and Behaviour
• PY3102: Research Project
• PY3125: Addictive Behaviours (module leader)

Peer-reviewed Journal Articles

1. Powell, J., Dawkins, L., West, R., Powell, J., & Pickering, A. (2010). Relapse to smoking during unaided cessation: clinical, cognitive and motivational predictors. Psychopharmacology. Advance online publication. doi:10.1007/s00213-010-1975-8
2. Dawkins, L., Powell, J.H., Pickering, A., Powell, J., & West, R. (2009). Patterns of change in withdrawal symptoms, desire to smoke, reward motivation, and response inhibition across three months of smoking abstinence. Addiction, 104(5), 850–858. doi:10.1111/j.1360-0443.2009.02522.x
3. Soar, K., Dawkins, L., Begum, H., & Parrott, A. (2008). The effects of cigarette smoking and abstinence on auditory verbal learning. Human Psychopharmacology: Clinical and Experimental, 23(7), 621–627. doi:10.1002/hup.968

Peer-reviewed Journal Articles

1. Dawkins, L., Acaster, S., & Powell, J.H. (2007). The effects of smoking and abstinence on experience of happiness and sadness in response to positively valenced, negatively valenced and neutral film clips. Addictive Behaviors, 32, 425–431. doi:10.1016/j.addbeh.2006.05.010
2. Dawkins, L., Powell, J.H., West, R., Powell, J., & Pickering, A. (2007). A double-blind placebo controlled experimental study of nicotine: II effects on response inhibition and executive functioning. Psychopharmacology, 190(4), 457–467. doi:10.1007/s00213-006-0634-6
3. Dawkins, L., Powell, J.H., West, R., Powell, J., & Pickering, A. (2006). A double-blind placebo controlled experimental study of nicotine: I effects on incentive motivation. Psychopharmacology, 189(3), 355–367. doi:10.1007/s00213-006-0588-8
4. Powell, J.H., Pickering, A.D., Dawkins, L., West, R., & Powell, J.F. (2004). Cognitive and psychological correlates of smoking abstinence, and predictors of successful cessation. Addictive Behaviors, 29(7), 1407–1426. doi:10.1016/j.addbeh.2004.06.006
5. Powell, J., Dawkins, L., & Davis, R. (2002). Smoking, reward responsiveness and response inhibition: tests of an incentive motivational model. Biological Psychiatry, 51(2), 151–163. doi:10.1016/S0006-3223(01)01208-2

Book Chapters

1. Powell, J.H., & Dawkins, L. (2007). Cognitive, affective and motivational effects of smoking. In P.M. Miller & D.J. Kavanagh (Eds.), Translation of Addictions Science into Practice (pp. 239–257). Oxford: Elsevier. doi:10.1016/B978-008044927-2/50061-4

• Member of the British Psychological Society (BPS)
• Member of the American Psychological Society (APS)
• Member of the Psychobiology Section of the BPS
• Editor of the BPS Psychobiology Section Newsletter
• Reviewer for
  • Psychopharmacology
  • Addictive Behaviors
  • Addiction
  • Journal of Clinical Psychiatry
  • Addiction Biology