Goldsmiths - University of London

Dr Ian Tharp BSc MSc PhD

Research interests

My research interests concern the interface of specific personality traits and particular aspects of cognition. For example, it has been suggested that the biological basis of certain core personality domains, such as extraversion and a cluster of traits collectively termed impulsive, anti-social, sensation seeking (ImpASS), may partly reflect variation in dopaminergic neurotransmission. Schizotypal personality, owing to its association with schizophrenia, may also reflect dopaminergic function. Dopamine has been implicated in a wide-variety of cognitive function including attention, memory and reward-dependent learning. It is therefore possible that predictable relationships between such personality domains and a range of cognitive processes may exist.

An additional area of interest concerns category-learning. The learning of novel of categories appears to engage a variety of cognitive processes. Accordingly, recent research strongly suggests the differential involvement of distinct brain systems during such learning, dependent on the nature of the structure of the categories being learned. This paradigm offers a convenient method of exploring processes involved in categorisation, such as reinforcement-mediated learning, working-memory and selective attention. Additionally, this paradigm can be used in exploring personality-mediated effects on categorisation performance.

I am also involved in the development of an online resource for Personality and Individual Differences Research (www.paidresearch.org) in collaboration with other researchers at Goldsmiths (Luke Smillie, Andrew Cooper & Alan Pickering).

Selected publications

Tharp I. J., & Pickering A. D. (2009). A note on DeCaro, Thomas and Beilock (2008): Further data demonstrate complexities in the assessment of information-integration category learning. Cognition, 111(3), 410-414.

Smillie, L. D., Cooper, A. J., Tharp, I. J., & Pelling, E. (2009). Individual Differences in Cognitive Control: The role of Psychoticism and Working Memory in Set-Shifting. British Journal of Psychology, 100(4), 629-643.

Tharp I. J., Maddox, W. T., & Pickering A. D. (under review). Impulsive anti-social sensation seeking and rule-based category learning

Davidoff, J., Goldstein, J., Tharp, I. J., E. Wakui, & Fagot, J. (under review). Binary Division Constrains Human but not Baboon Categorical Judgements within Perceptual (colour) Continua

Tharp I. J., & Pickering, A. D. (under review). Individual differences in cognitive flexibility: The influence of spontaneous eyeblink rate, trait psychoticism and working memory on attentional set-shifting

Recent conference presentations

Tharp I. J., Pickering A. D., Smillie L. D. & Cooper A. J. Individual differences in cognitive control during attentional and rule-based set-shifting. Paper presented at the 14th Biennial Meeting of the International Society for the Study of Individual Differences (ISSID), Chicago, USA, July 18-22, 2009

Tharp I. J., & Pickering A. D. The influence of impulsive, sensation seeking traits on category learning. Paper presented at the 2nd Biennial Symposium on Personality and Social Psychology: Personality, Cognition, and Emotion. Warsaw, Poland, September 18-21, 2008

Tharp I. J., & Pickering A. D. Personality and the “Exploitation-Exploration” dilemma during partial reinforcement learning. Paper presented at the 14th European Conference on Personality. Tartu, Estonia, July 16-20, 2008

Tharp I. J., & Pickering A. D. The role of personality on attention and performance during category learning. Paper presented at the 13th Biennial Meeting of the International Society for the Study of Individual Differences (ISSID), Giessen, Germany, July 22-27, 2007

Tharp I. J., & Pickering A. D. Effects of personality and attention on reaction time during a categorisation task. Paper presented at the 13th European Conference on Personality. Athens, Greece, July 22-26, 2006

Tharp I. J., & Pickering A. D. (October, 2004). Comparing information-integration and rule-based category learning tasks. Poster presented at the 3rd Annual Cognitive Neuroscience of Category Learning Workshop, New York, USA, October 10-11, 2004