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Ashleigh Johnstone

    • About Me:

      I live in Anglesey with my boyfriend and our dog, Blue. I love playing on the beach with the dog, playing games on the PS5, and listening to a lot of Taylor Swift 🎵 😁

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      Hello!

      It’s nice to meet you 😊

      I live in Anglesey in North Wales and one of my favourite things about living here is being so close to lots of different beaches. Our dog, Blue, loves going to the beach and running into the sea 🐾 I also enjoy looking for sea glass, which is bits of broken glass that have rolled around in the sea for a very long time until it’s become smooth. I like to fill jars with it to make pretty decorations for my house 😊

      I love to play video games on my PS5 and have recently been enjoying re-watching my favourite tv show, Lost 😊

    • My pronouns are:

      She/Her

    • My Work:

      I teach psychology at Arden University and my interests are cognitive benefits of martial arts practice 🥋🧠 and the application of psychology to the world around us!

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      I am a Lecturer in psychology at Arden University, which means I teach university students about cognitive psychology and neuropsychology. I’m also on our ethics team so I enjoy thinking about the ethics of conducting research in psychology.

      I love teaching psychology, it’s honestly so much fun being able to introduce students to my favourite concepts and studies. I really enjoyed my psychology degree and I aim to help my students love their course just as much!

      I work with a lot of online distance learning students, this means they study from home at a time that suits them. This is a great opportunity for students who have got other life commitments or for those who would like to study alongside working. I did some of my GCSEs through online distance learning because I wasn’t well, so it’s really important to me to be able to help make education accessible to everyone 😊

      I’ve also done research looking at whether taking part in martial arts can improve your cognition (so things like attention!). I don’t do martial arts myself, but my PhD supervisor was a black belt in karate, so we used to have some great discussions because we’ve got different perspectives 🥋

      We have found some really interesting findings about how well we can pay attention to things, especially unexpected things. This is about a type of attention known as ‘alertness’ – imagine that I threw a ball to you when you weren’t expecting it. Your alertness would play a big part in how likely you are to catch that ball. Martial artists are really good at this! It’s probably because of how they train, because they have to make sure they don’t get hit or punched so they get good at dodging unexpected things.

      This work got published in a scientific article which was really exciting and scary! I had to write my work up and then other scientists got to read over it and give feedback. My mum was so proud that she sent it to everyone she knew! It was also talked about in newspapers, and I even got invited to speak live on South African radio about it! That was an amazing experience!

      More recently I’ve also got interested in the psychology of reality tv and have even been in the media talking about the psychology of Taylor Swift and the Eras Tour!

    • My Typical Day:

      I work from home and spend most of my day preparing my next classes, chatting with students about course content, and catching up on emails. Working from home also means that I get lots of dog cuddles!

    • What I'd do with the prize money:

      Some people think that the only career paths in psychology are to become a clinical or forensic psychologist or to teach psychology, but there’s a huge range of roles and settings that can make use of the skills and knowledge you learn in psychology!

      You could work for a marketing firm, or do data analysis for the government, do user experience research for a tech company, or write about the latest research… and there’s loads more options too 😊

      I would love to be able to put some resources together about some of these lesser known career options and share them with local schools. It would be great to be able to help GCSE and A Level psychology students learn more about where they can take this knowledge 😁

    Candidate CV questions (extra)

    • Education:

      St Ninian’s High School, Isle of Man: 2005-2012; Bangor University, Wales: 2012 – 2021 (for BSc, MSc, and PhD)

    • Qualifications:

      GCSEs – English and Maths (I only did two due to illness); A Levels – Psychology and Sociology; BSc Psychology with Neuropsychology; MSc Psychological Research; PhD Cognitive Psychology

    • Work History:

      Public speaking mentor
      Open day helper
      Psychology tutor
      Research assistant
      Product specialist at a tech company

    • Employer:

      Arden University

    • My Interview

      • How would you describe yourself in 3 words?

        Dog-loving cognitive psychologist

        What did you want to be after you left school?

        A teacher or journalist

        Were you ever in trouble at school?

        Not really, although I'd occasionally get told to stop talking so much!

        If you weren't doing this job, what would you choose instead?

        I quite like writing, so maybe some kind of science journalist or blogger!

        Who is your favourite singer or band?

        Taylor Swift or Sam Fender - I love them both!

        What's your favourite food?

        Pasta

        If you had 3 wishes for yourself what would they be? - be honest!

        1) more dogs, 2) to keep having fun at work, 3) be less worried about what other people think

        Tell us a joke.

        Two windmills are standing in a wind farm. One asks, “What’s your favorite kind of music?” The other says, “I’m a big metal fan.”

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