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Rachel Hagan

School of Psychology

Faculty of Health

Email: r.hagan@ljmu.ac.uk

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I achieved a First Class Honors degree in Applied Psychology at Liverpool John Moores University (2017) and an MSc in Psychological Research Methods at the University of Liverpool (2018). Under the supervision of Dr Susannah Walker, Professor Francis McGlone and Dr Ralph Pawling, I successfully defended my PhD in October 2024, which was a BBSRC/Glaxo Smith Kline Case award.

My research is focussed on a gaining a greater understanding of the sensory, perceptual, behavioural and emotional mechanisms engaged during oral multisensory processing. This was done by (a) using an objective measure of Incentive Motivation to directly examine whether exposure to food related ambient odours, increases or decreases motivation for food, (b) using well-known visual tests of Local versus Global processing to determine whether there are individual differences in cognitive processing of flavour components, (c) using facial Electromyography (EMG) to determine whether affective responses to differing concentrations of a bitter taste, measured through patterns of facial muscle activity, are predicted by genetically determined differences in taster status and people’s subjective hedonic ratings when they are presented with different concentrations of a bitter tasting solution.Taken together, this combination of behavioural and physiological measures provides a greater understanding of the mechanisms engaged during oral multisensory processing and how these shape our behaviour.

In addition to my academic studies, I have gained significant empirical research experience working as a Research Assistant on a variety of experimental psychology projects. This provided me experience and skills in administering both behavioural and physiological measures, working with a variety of populations including adults and school-aged children.

In addition, I am employed as a Lecturer in the Liverpool Centre for Advanced Policing Studies. I currently run 2 MSc modules (Advanced Research Skills, Dissertation) on the Policing and Criminal Investigations Programme, as well as contributing to various modules on the Professional Policing Undergraduate Programme.

Degrees

2024, Liverpool John Moores University, United Kingdom, PhD Psychology
2018, University of Liverpool, United Kingdom, MSc Research in Psychology
2017, Liverpool John Moores University, United Kingdom, BSc (Hons) Applied Psychology

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