Faculty of Computing, Law and Psychology | School of Psychology

Dr Gillian Hill

Senior Lecturer in Psychology

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Gillian Hill joined the Psychology Department as a full-time lecturer in January 2017. Previously she taught as a visiting lecturer alongside her DPhil research at the University. She is programme director for the undergraduate Psychology BSc programme and currently delivers the core module of Research Methods and Statistics alongside Psychology of Emotion, and optional modules including Animal Behaviour. In addition, she supervises undergraduate and postgraduate project students. She is a Chartered Psychologist (CPsychol) and Fellow of the Higher Education Academy (FHEA).

Gillian works as part of the University’s CREATE research team, her principal research interest being in creative problem solving and specifically insight moments; which are sudden Aha or Uh-oh moments of new understanding. Gillian uses a variety of methods in her research, both interview and online questionnaires alongside face-to-face experimental work, where she explores how psychological and physiological (for example heart activity) factors impact on the experience of insight.

In addition, Gillian is passionate about sharing psychological knowledge with a range of audiences. She is co-founder (alongside University of Chester researcher Dr Shelly Kemp and Edinburgh Napier University researcher Dr Lindsey Carruthers) of UK Creativity Researchers, who hold annual conferences to present research and explore the Psychology of Creativity from a multidisciplinary perspective, looking to build impact, skills and collaborations.

She also aims to contribute to a public understanding of the diverse nature of science and the people who ‘do’ science, with the view that anyone and everyone can get involved. As such, alongside her teaching and research, she also participates in activities including school visits and public engagement events. Gillian was a speaker at Soapbox Science MK 2016 and is now part of the organising committee to provide this exciting opportunity to other local scientists.

Contact Gillian:

  • Follow on Twitter @g1llh1ll

Publications and conference papers:

For full versions of these papers please click here. For papers with publication restrictions, please feel free to contact Gillian for a copy.

Hill, G., & Kemp, S. M. (2018). Connect 4: A Novel Paradigm to Elicit Positive and Negative Insight and Search Problem Solving. Frontiers in psychology, 9. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2018.01755. Read abstract.

Hill, G. & Kemp, S. M. (2018), “Uh-oh! What Have We Missed? A Qualitative Investigation into Everyday Insight Experience”, The Journal of Creative Behavior. 52(3), 201-211. doi: 10.1002/jocb.142. Read abstract.

Hill, G. & Kemp, S. M. (2018) The effects of gender and socioeconomic status on perceptions of creative problem solving. Oral presentation at the British Psychological Society Cognitive Section Annual Conference, Liverpool.

Hill, G. & Kemp, S. M. (2017) Somatic Markers of Positive and Negative Insight.Oral presentation as part of symposium Insight-Based Problem Solving: The Roles of Convergent and Divergent Thinking and Attentional Processes at the 20th Annual Conference of European Society for Cognitive Psychology, Potsdam.

Hill, G. & Kemp, S. M. (2016), “Characterisation of Negative Insight: the Uh-oh Moment”, Oral presentation at the British Psychological Society Cognitive Section Annual Conference, Barcelona.

Hill, G. & Kemp, S. M. (2016), “Heart Rate Differences in Insight and Non-insight Problem Solving”, Poster presentation at the British Psychological Society Cognitive Section Annual Conference, Barcelona.

Hill, G. & Kemp, S. M. (2016), “Everyday Experience of Insight”, Oral presentation at PsyPAG conference, York.

Hill, G. & Kemp, S. M. (2015), “An experimental investigation into variations in emotional expression and interception and their relationship to physiological (heart rate) changes during insight moments elicited by the CRA task”, Poster presentation at British Psychological Society Cognitive Section Conference, Canterbury.

Hill, G. & Kemp, S. M. (2014), “Everyday Experience of Insight”, Poster presentation at PsyPAG conference, Cardiff.

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