Dr Zoe Danielle Hughes

Zoe works within our Cyber Solutions Centre as a Postdoctoral Research Associate and is currently developing research on human factors involved in cyber security. More specifically, Zoe's work investigates the cognitive processes involved in the accurate detection of cyber scams (i.e., phishing emails) and assessing interventions to improve individuals' ability to recognise phishing emails from legitimate emails, with the overarching aim to offer a nuanced approach to tackling human error in relation to cyber security.

Zoe completed her PhD here within four years of graduating from her undergraduate degree in Neuropsychology in 2018, having been supervised by Professor Linden J. Ball and Dr Jeannie Judge. Zoe's PhD was on the topic of Visual Attention, Creative Cognition and Mindfulness and included a combination of meta-analytic and experimental data to further understanding of facilitative effects of brief mindfulness practice. Zoe was recently invited to interview for a podcast with the Psychonomic Society on her research about mindfulness and creativity, which is available to listen. Zoe continues to conduct research on the theme of attention and cognition, moving her research into the realms of cyber psychology to examine how mindfulness may be beneficial for human factors in cyber security.

Zoe worked on a grant funded project (funded by the BIAL foundation) in parallel to her PhD which focused on producing theoretical evidence of the cognitive control involved auditory distraction, utilising electrophysiological markers and behavioural data. After her PhD, Zoe took up a brief collaborative project with colleagues at UCLan Cyprus to assess trust in science intervention efficacy. Zoe currently works here as a Lecturer in Psychology and Postdoctoral Research Associate and is a Lecturer in Psychology at Liverpool John Moore's University.