I received an MSc (Dipl.Psych) from the University of Regensburg, Germany and worked as a Human Factors researcher at the Fraunhofer Institute of Applied Science (Stuttgart) for three years. In 2002, I finished my PhD at Goldsmiths' University of London on the role of attention in object recognition, with Jules Davidoff. I worked as a research fellow at UCL with Nilli Lavie and moved to UEL as a Senior Lecturer in 2005. My research interests are mainly in attention, object and face recognition, memory and decision making.

• Co-ordinator of the Psychology EEG Research Laboratory
• Deputy Programme Director MSc Psychology
• Co-Leader of the Brain, Cognition and Behaviour Research Group (BCBRG)
• Member of the UEL Ethics Committee

My research is mainly in the area of object recognition and face recognition, in particular how this is influenced by attention. I am also interested in cognitive neuroscience (ERP, fMRI) and have ongoing collaborations with Goldsmiths, UCL, MRC–CBU Cambridge, and the University of Magdeburg. A further interest concerns decision making, in collaboration with Irina Anderson. One current project investigates heuristics and reflective thinking in experts, such as professional traders and medical doctors. A second line of inquiry looks at influences on consumer choice and preference, such as spatial location of products or the familiarity of brands (with Dr. Paul Rodway, Chester).

• BSc Psychology
• MSc Psychology

• PY1101/2: Research Methods 1 and 2
• PY1104: Biological and Cognitive Bases of Behaviour
• PY2003: Cognitive Psychology and Psychobiology
• PY3002/3101: Professional Psychological Studies (Module Leader)
• PY3135: Psychology of Choice (Module Leader)
• PYM151: Cognitive Psychology and Psychobiology

Peer-reviewed Journal Articles
(SELECT "Research Archive" above for more publications)

1. Thoma, V., & Williams, A. (2013). The devil you know: the effect of brand recognition and product ratings on consumer choice. Judgment and Decision Making, 8, 34–44. http://journal.sjdm.org/12/12703/jdm12703.html
2. Thoma, V., & Henson, R.N. (2011). Object representations in ventral and dorsal visual streams: fMRI repetition effects depend on attention and part–whole configuration. NeuroImage, 57, 513–525. doi:10.1016/j.neuroimage.2011.04.035
3. Lavie, N., Zokai, N., Zhicheng, L., & Thoma, V. (2009). The role of perceptual load in object recognition. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception and Performance, 35(5), 1346–1358. doi:10.1037/a0016454

Non-peer-reviewed Journal Articles

1. Thoma, V. (2010). [Review of the book On the origins of cognitive science: the mechanization of mind, by Jean-Pierre Dupuys]. History & Philosophy of Psychology, 12(1), 78–81.

Peer-reviewed Conference Proceedings

1. Thoma, V., White, E.P. (2011). In two minds about usability? Rationality and intuition in usability evaluation.  INTERACT 2011. Lecture Notes in Computer Science, vol. 6946, pp. 544–547. Springer, Heidelberg. doi:10.1007/978-3-642-23768-3_78

2. Thoma, V., & Williams, B. (2009). Developing and validating personas in e-commerce: a heuristic approach. INTERACT 2009. Lecture Notes in Computer Science, vol.  5727, 524–527. doi:10.1007/978-3-642-03658-3

Book Chapters

1. Thoma, V. (2013). Cognitive psychology. In R. Bayne & G. Jinks (Eds.), Applied psychology: current issues and new directions (pp. 198–212). London: Sage.

Conference Presentations

1. Thoma, V., & White, E.P. (2011, August). The role of presentation mode and capacity on the “deliberation without attention” effect. Talk at SPUDM 23. Kingston, UK.
2. Thoma, V., & Henson, R.N. (2010, September). Object representations in ventral and dorsal visual streams: fMRI repetition effects depend on attention and part–whole configuration. Talk at Annual Conference of the British Association of Cognitive Neuroscience. Bristol, UK.
3. Thoma, V., Rigato, S., & Gosling, A. (2010, September). ERP correlates of object repetition and perceptual load. Poster session presented at the annual conference of the British Association of Cognitive Neuroscience, Bristol, UK.

Peer-reviewed Journal Articles

1. Thoma, V., Davidoff, J., & Hummel, J. E. (2007). Priming of plane-rotated objects depends on attention and view familiarity. Visual Cognition, 15(2), 179–210. doi:10.1080/13506280500155627
2. Thoma, V., & Davidoff, J. (2006). Priming of depth-rotated objects depends on attention and part changes. Experimental Psychology, 53(1), 31–47. doi:10.1027/1618-3169.53.1.31
3. Schott, B.H., Henson, R.N., Richardson-Klavehn, A., Becker, C., Thoma, V., Heinze, H.-J., et al. (2005). Redefining implicit and explicit memory: the functional neuroanatomy of priming, remembering and control of retrieval. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the USA, 102(4), 1257–1262. doi:10.1073/pnas.0409070102
4. Thoma, V., Hummel, J.E., & Davidoff, J. (2004). Evidence for holistic representation of ignored images and analytic representation of attended images. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception and Performance, 30(2), 257–267. doi:10.1037/0096-1523.30.2.257

Book Chapters

1. Thoma, V., & Davidoff, J. (2007). Object recognition: attention and dual routes. In N. Osaka, I. Rentschler & I. Biederman (Eds.), Object recognition, attention and action. Tokyo: Springer. doi:10.1007/978-4-431-73019-4_10
2. Nissler, J., & Thoma, V. (1999). Gestaltung von Software-Agenten aus Sicht des Benutzers. In U. Arend, E. Eberleh & K. Pitschke (Eds.), Software Ergonomie ’99 — Design von Informationswelten (pp. 215–226). Wiesbaden, Germany: Teubner Verlag. doi:10.1007/978-3-322-99786-9_20

Conference Presentations

1. Thoma, V., & Henson, R.N. (2007). Short-lag haemodynamic repetition effects of visual images depend on spatial attention and object configuration. Poster session presented at the Human Brain Mapping conference, Chicago, USA.
2. Davidoff, J., & Thoma, V. (2004). Priming of plane-rotated objects depends on attention and view familiarity. Poster session presented at the Experimental Psychology Society Conference, Oxford, UK.
3. Thoma, V., Hummel, J.E., & Davidoff, J. (2003). Evidence for holistic representation of ignored images and analytic representation of attended images. Poster session presented at the Experimental Psychology Society Conference, Reading, UK.
4. Thoma, V., & Davidoff, J. (2002). Priming for plane-rotated objects depends on attention. Poster session presented at the VisionSciences Conference, Sarasota, FL, USA.