Dominic Thompson

Contact

• workRoom A83 Trent Building
  University Park
  Nottingham
  NG7 2RD
  UK
• work0115 74 86365
• Dominic.Thompson@nottingham.ac.uk

Biography

PhD Psychology (University of Glasgow, UK); MLitt Linguistics by research (Newcastle University, UK); BA Linguistics (Newcastle University, UK).

After completing my PhD in Psychology at the Institute of Neuroscience and Psychology, University of Glasgow, I moved to the University of Nottingham in 2014. I spent two years as a Research Fellow in the School of Psychology, where I worked on an ESRC-funded project awarded to Dr Ruth Filik and Prof Hartmut Leuthold. Between 2016 and 2023, I was Assistant Professor and from 2023 I have been Associate Professor, teaching and researching in psychology, psychophysiology, and language.

Google Scholar

ORCiD

Teaching Summary

I teach undergraduate and postgraduate modules, both on-site and via distance learning.

I specialise in psycholinguistics, which takes a psychological perspective on how we acquire language, how we store and organise it in our minds, and how it interacts with other cognitive systems. I strive to make all my sessions inclusive and engaging, so I'm always keen to build discussions around student input and student examples. Oh, and you should probably expect to encounter 'occasional' videogame references :)

My key on-site modules include:

• - Psychology of Language
• - Language and the Mind
• - Language Development
• - Studying Language
• - Dissertation (individual research project)

My key Distance Learning modules include:

• - Psycholinguistics 1
• - Calls, Speech, Writing, and Sign Language
• - Data-collection and Ethics
• - Dissertation (individual research project)
• - Individual Project 'Hexapod'

Research Summary

I'm interested in how language and emotion affect each other, as well as the ways we enhance meaning in digital communication such as with emojis and other creative features. To investigate these, I… read more

Selected Publications

• THOMPSON, D., LEUTHOLD, H. and FILIK, R., 2016. Emotional responses to irony and emoticons in written language: Evidence from EDA and facial EMG Psychophysiology. 53, 1054–1062
• THOMPSON, D. and FILIK, R., 2016. Sarcasm in written communication: Emoticons are efficient markers of intention. Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication. 21(2), 105-120
• FILIK, R., ȚURCAN, A., THOMPSON, D., HARVEY, N., DAVIES, H. and TURNER, A., 2015. Sarcasm and emoticons: Comprehension and emotional impact. Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology.
• THOMPSON, D., LING, SP., MYACHYKOV, A., FERREIRA, F. and SCHEEPERS, C,, 2013. Patient-related constraints on get- and be-passive uses in English: evidence from paraphrasing Frontiers in Psychology.

• View all publications

I am happy to supervise PhD students who are interested in psychology, psychophysiology, and language. I especially welcome topics related to:

• - emotional response and emotional processing
• - digital and online communication
• - language and behaviour in videogames

Methods supervised include:

• - psychophysiology (EDA, EMG, or EEG)
• - eye-tracking or pupillometry
• - priming
• - behavioural and decision making tasks

Current PhD students

• - Russell Cass (2022 - )
• - Nana He (2022 - )
• - Denny Vlaeva (2019 - )
• - Lucy Peacock (2017 - )
• - Meredith Cicerchia (2016 - )

Completed PhD students

• - Pablo Aros (awarded 2023)
• - Daniel Edmondson (awarded 2022)
• - Raya Harbi (awarded 2021)
• - Marianna Kyriacou (awarded 2019)

Current Research

I'm interested in how language and emotion affect each other, as well as the ways we enhance meaning in digital communication such as with emojis and other creative features. To investigate these, I use methodologies from psychology and psycholinguistics - including EDA, EMG, EEG, and eye-tracking.

In my research, I have used EDA (electrodermal activity) and EMG (electromyography) to examine the impact of sarcastic or ironic messages in comparison to literal equivalents. This revealed that using sarcasm or irony can reduce emotional impact - such as making criticism feel less hurtful, while still delivering that critical feedback.

In a recent study, I used EEG (Electroencephalography) to investigate the ways sarcasm is intended and interpreted. Brain imaging data reveal that, while people expect the speaker may intend sarcasm to be both hurtful and amusing, the target of the sarcasm will only feel the hurtfulness.

I am currently working with industry partners, including the BBC and the videogame developer Playtonic.

• THOMPSON, D., LEUTHOLD, H. and FILIK, R., 2021. Examining the influence of perspective and prosody on expected emotional responses to irony: Evidence from event-related brain potentials Canadian Journal of Experimental Psychology. 75(2), 107-113
• KYRIACOU, M., CONKLIN, K. and THOMPSON, D., 2021. When the Idiom Advantage Comes Up Short: Eye-Tracking Canonical and Modified Idioms Frontiers in Psychology. 12, 3253
• KYRIACOU, M., CONKLIN, K. and THOMPSON, D., 2020. Passivizability of idioms: Has the wrong tree been barked up Language and Speech. 63(2), 404-435
• THOMPSON, D., FERREIRA, F. and SCHEEPERS, C., 2018. One Step at a Time: Representational Overlap Between Active Voice, Be-passive, and Get-passive Forms in English Journal of Cognition. 1(1), 35
• PICKERING, BETHANY, THOMPSON, DOMINIC and FILIK, RUTH, 2018. Examining the emotional impact of sarcasm using a virtual environment METAPHOR AND SYMBOL. 33(3), 185-197
• THOMPSON, D. and FILIK, R., 2016. Sarcasm in written communication: Emoticons are efficient markers of intention. Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication. 21(2), 105-120
• THOMPSON, D., LEUTHOLD, H. and FILIK, R., 2016. Emotional responses to irony and emoticons in written language: Evidence from EDA and facial EMG Psychophysiology. 53, 1054–1062
• FILIK, R., ȚURCAN, A., THOMPSON, D., HARVEY, N., DAVIES, H. and TURNER, A., 2015. Sarcasm and emoticons: Comprehension and emotional impact. Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology.
• THOMPSON, D., LING, SP., MYACHYKOV, A., FERREIRA, F. and SCHEEPERS, C,, 2013. Patient-related constraints on get- and be-passive uses in English: evidence from paraphrasing Frontiers in Psychology.
• MYACHYKOV, A., SCHEEPERS, C., GARROD, S., THOMPSON, D. and FEDOROVA, O., 2013. Syntactic flexibility and competition in sentence production: The case of English and Russian Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology. 66(8), 1601-1619
• THOMPSON, D. and SCHEEPERS, C., 2013. Harmonizing the Passive: A new proposal for Passive Constructions in Generative Grammar. Newcastle Working Papers in Linguistics. 19(2), 74-96
• MYACHYKOV, A., THOMPSON, D., GARROD, S. and SCHEEPERS, C., 2012. Referential and visual cues to structural choice in visually situated sentence production Frontiers in Psychology.
• MYACHYKOV, A., THOMPSON, D., SCHEEPERS, C. and GARROD, S., 2011. Visual attention and structural choice in sentence production across languages. Language and Linguistic Compass. 5(2), 95-107