After completing my first degree in Psychology at Edinburgh University, I worked my way down to London, spending time doing research at both Durham and Nottingham universities. I took up my current post at UEL in 1992, after a brief teaching post at Thames Valley University and a postdoctoral research position at Birkbeck. My research interests include experimental studies of object naming in adults and children, using both behavioural and EEG methods. My teaching has mainly centred on research methods and statistics at both undergraduate and postgraduate level.

• Member of the School Research Committee
• Member of the School’s Research Degree Subcommittee
• Co-ordinator for the Brain, Cognition and Behaviour Research Group

• BSc Psychology
• MRes
• PhD supervision
• Professional Doctorate in Applied Educational and Child Psychology

• PY2101: Research Methods 3 Quantitative Component (module leader)
• PY2103: Cognitive Psychology and Psychobiology
• PY3101: Project Supervision
• PYM501: Advanced Quantitative Methods for Psychologists (module leader)

For a number of years, I have been interested in semantic effects during object name retrieval, particularly semantic interference effects. With postgraduate students, I have recently extended this research to include experimental behavioural and EEG studies of word naming and phonological encoding processes. Most of my work has been with adult monolinguals, but with undergraduate students, we have started to look at object naming in bilingual and multilingual adults, and also young children. Working with other researchers, I am also carrying out eye-tracking studies of attentional processes.

Peer-reviewed Journal Articles

1. Vitkovitch, M., Cooper-Pye, E., & Ali, L. (2010). The long and the short of it! Naming a set of prime words before a set of related picture targets at two different intertrial intervals. European Journal of Cognitive Psychology, 22(2), 161–171. doi:10.1080/09541440902743348
2. Booth, J., & Vitkovitch, M. (2008). Perseverant responding in children’s picture naming. Journal of Child Language, 35, 235–246. doi:10.1017/S030500090700832X

Conference Papers

1. Vitkovitch, M. (2009). The effect on picture naming times of changing the skeletal structure of distractor non-words. Paper presented at the British Psychology Society: Cognitive Section, Hertfordshire.
2. Vitkovitch, M., & Cooper-Pye, E. (2008). Mind the Gap! The effect of filling the inter-trial interval in the word and picture competitor priming paradigm. Paper presented at the British Psychology Society: Cognitive Section, Southampton.

Peer-reviewed Journal Articles

1. Vitkovitch, M., Cooper-Pye, E., & Leadbetter, A.G. (2006). Semantic priming over unrelated trials: evidence for different effects in word and picture naming. Memory and Cognition, 34(3), 715–725. doi:10.3758/BF03193590
2. Vitkovitch, M., Potton, A., Bakogiani, C., & Kinch, L. (2006). Will Julia Roberts harm Nicole Kidman? Semantic priming effects during face naming. Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology, 59(6), 1134–1152. doi:10.1080/02724980543000178
3. Vitkovitch, M., Bishop, S., Dancey, C., & Richards, A. (2002). Stroop interference and negative priming in patients with multiple sclerosis. Neuropsychologia, 40(9), 1570–1576. doi:10.1016/S0028-3932(02)00022-2
4. Vitkovitch, M., & Rutter, C. (2001). Inhibitory effects during object name retrieval: the effect of interval between prime and target on picture naming responses. British Journal of Psychology, 92(3), 483–506. doi:10.1348/000712601162301
5. Vitkovitch, M., & Rutter, C. (2000). The effect of response stimulus interval on error priming in sequential object naming. Visual Cognition, 7(5), 645–670. doi:10.1080/135062800407239
6. Vitkovitch, M., & Tyrrell, L. (1999). The effects of distractor words on naming pictures at the subordinate level. Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology, 52(4), 905–926. doi:10.1080/027249899390864
7. Vitkovitch, M., & Barber, P.J. (1996). Visible speech as a function of image quality: effects of display parameters on lipreading ability. Applied Cognitive Psychology, 10(2), 121–140. doi:10.1002/(SICI)1099-0720(199604)10:2<121::AID-ACP371>3.0.CO;2-V
8. Vitkovitch, M., Kirby, A., & Tyrrell, L. (1996). Patterns of excitation and inhibition in picture naming. Visual Cognition, 3(1), 61–80. doi:10.1080/713756730
9. Vitkovitch, M., Humphreys, G.W., & Lloyd-Jones, T.J. (1993). On naming a giraffe a zebra: picture naming errors across different object categories. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory and Cognition, 19(2), 243–259. doi:10.1037/0278-7393.19.2.243
10. Vitkovitch, M., & Humphreys, G.W. (1991). Perseverant responding in speeded naming of pictures: it’s in the links. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory and Cognition, 17(4), 664–680. doi:10.1037/0278-7393.17.4.664

Conference Papers

1. Lee, H.L., Vitkovitch, M., Seghier, M., Green, D., & Price, C.J. (2006). Repeated processing of object concepts: contrasting effects on activation and response times. Paper presented at the 12th Annual Meeting of the Organization for Human Brain Mapping, Florence, Italy.
2. Booth, J., & Vitkovitch, M. (2005). Interference and inhibition in children’s object naming. Paper presented at the British Psychology Society: Developmental Section, Edinburgh.
3. Vitkovitch, M., & Pye, E. (2005). Ten, nine, ate, seven...! The effect of counting backwards and naming homophones on semantic interference during picture naming. Paper presented at the BPS Annual Conference, Manchester.
4. Vitkovitch, M., & Pye, E. (2004). Semantic priming effects when naming words and pictures. Paper presented at the British Psychological Society: Cognitive Section, Leeds.

1. Member of the Experimental Psychology Society