Paddy O'Connor

Dr

  • Room 03.525 - David Keir Building

    United Kingdom

Accepting PhD Students

PhD projects

https://www.qub.ac.uk/courses/postgraduate-research/phd-opportunities/staying-focused-how-mind-wandering-impacts-students-ability-to-delay-gratification-and-achieve-academic-success.html

20162025

Research activity per year

Personal profile

Particulars

I graduated at QUB from the BSc Psychology course with first class honours in 2014. I completed my PhD at QUB in 2019 under the supervision of Dr Kinga Morsanyi and Professor Teresa McCormack. From 2018-2023, I worked as a Part-Time Lecturer in Psychology and Psychological Research Methods at Belfast Metropolitan College, coordinating the Psychology programme on the Certificate in Higher Education in Behavioural & Social Sciences. Between 2017 and 2020, I also worked as a Research Assistant at QUB School of Psychology, under the supervision of Dr Patrick Burns and Professor Teresa McCormack. I was appointed as Lecturer (Education) at QUB in 2020, and was promoted to Senior Lecturer (Education) in 2024. 

 

Research Interests

I am particularly interested in how psychologists teach statistics and in developing strategies to address the anxieties students often experience when engaging with statistical learning.

My research also explores the role of cognitive processes such as mind-wandering, future-oriented thinking, and the tendency to delay gratification, and how these factors influence academic achievement.

My PhD and subsequent Research Assistant experience focused on developmental psychology, with a particular emphasis on numerical cognition, mathematical anxiety, and developmental dyscalculia, as well as delay of gratification and temporal cognition.

Teaching

I am Year Head for Level 3, an Advisor of Studies and the School NSS champion.

Other

I am a BPS Chartered Psychologist, an Associate Fellow of the BPS, a member of the Psychonomic Society and the Society for Teaching in Psychology, as well as a Senior Fellow of the Higher Education Academy.

I was appointed as the lead for the QUB School of Psychology's Education, Pedagogy and Innovation Cluster (EPIC) in 2024.

Outside of QUB, I am Co-Lead for the Research & Scholarship SIG within the Researchers in Statistical Education network (RoSE). I am also a contributor to the International Multi-Centre Study of Statistics and Mathematics Anxieties and Related Variables in University Students (the SMARVUS Dataset)

Expertise related to UN Sustainable Development Goals

In 2015, UN member states agreed to 17 global Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) to end poverty, protect the planet and ensure prosperity for all. This person’s work contributes towards the following SDG(s):

  • SDG 4 - Quality Education
  • SDG 5 - Gender Equality
  • SDG 8 - Decent Work and Economic Growth
  • SDG 9 - Industry, Innovation, and Infrastructure
  • SDG 10 - Reduced Inequalities

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