Anna Conniff is an environmental psychologist with a first degree in psychology (from St Andrews University) and an MSc and PhD in human-computer interaction (from University College London) working at the Social, Economic and Geographical Sciences group (SEGS) [2]. Prior to joining the James Hutton Institute in January 2012, Anna was a research fellow at the Scott Sutherland School of Architecture and Built Environment at Robert Gordon University in Aberdeen, mainly researching the ways in which people perceive and respond to different methods of representing urban environments. Having worked as a psychologist within computer science and architecture departments, she is very comfortable with, and a proponent of, interdisciplinary research.
Anna is interested in utilising technology to (a) better understand the subjective and objective reactions people have to the environments they are presented with or find themselves in and (b) to convey most effectively what a future environment or landscape will really look and feel like.
Current research interests are focused on the application of psychophysiological methods (e.g. eye tracking, skin conductance, heart rate variability) to researching concepts of restoration and wellbeing that can be delivered by nature within both rural and urban environments. She is also interested in investigating the effects of sound and soundscape perception within traditional landscape perception studies. Anna believes that these more holistic approaches to understanding the relationship between people and their environments can help better inform stakeholders and policy makers about what particular elements of the environment affect people in positive and negative fashions.
On-going and recent projects
RESAS-funded research programme 2011-2016:
Links:
[1] https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1232-307X
[2] https://www.hutton.ac.uk/research/groups/social-economic-and-geographical-sciences