Introduction

I completed my undergraduate degree in Psychology at Bangor University, where I remained to complete my Masters degree in Psychological Research with Clinical Neuroscience and PhD in Social Neuroscience. I came to Oxford in 2014 as a postdoctoral researcher and was appointed Departmental Lecturer in Experimental Psychology and College Lecturer in Statistics at Queen’s College in October 2017. 

Teaching

I teach statistics for the Experimental Psychology and Psychology, Philosophy and Linguistics courses across Prelims, Part I and Part II. My teaching predominantly covers material from the Introduction to Probability Theory and Statistics and Experimental Design and Statistics Courses.  

Research

My research examines how humans navigate social environments focusing on how social information shapes decision-making processes. Specifically, I am interested in understanding how different pieces of social information contribute to decision-making, and the underlying neural processes. For example, how do facial expressions of emotion influence interpersonal and intergroup trust and cooperation? Social partners are a rich source of information and provide many cues, which we can use to guide our decision-making and behaviour. Therefore, my research aims to understand how people perceive, interpret, and use the different social cues they receive in an interaction (e.g. facial expressions of emotion, or behaviours such as the reciprocity of trust). To investigate these ideas I apply reinforcement learning, and neuroeconomic models to social interactions.

Publications

  • Shore, D.M., Ng, R., Bellugi, U., & Mills, D.L. (2017). Abnormalities in early visual processes are linked to hypersociability and atypical evaluation of facial trustworthiness: an ERP study with Williams syndrome. Cognitive, Affective and Behavioral Neuroscience. doi:10.3758/s13415-017-0528-6
  • Ha, T., Granger, D. A., Shore, D. M., Yeung, E.W., & Dishion, T.J. (2015). Neural responses to partner rejection predict adrenocortical reactivity in adolescent romantic couples. Psychoneuroendocrinology, 61, 39. doi:10.1016/j.psyneuen.2015.07.495.