Dr Astrid Schepman
Senior Lecturer
Astrid Schepman is a research-active Experimental Psychologist and Senior Lecturer in Psychology. Astrid joined the department in September 2008, having previously worked as a psychology lecturer at the University of Bradford and the University of Abertay Dundee, and as a post-doctoral researcher at Edinburgh University, working on an ESRC-funded project on tonal alignment in English and Dutch. Astrid has research interests in neuropsychology, laterality, emotion, auditory processing, speech prosody, language, empirical aesthetics, and the interactions between spatial location and choice.
Astrid currently (co-)leads and teaches modules covering Biological Psychology, and Research Methods and Statistics, at MSc and final-year BSc level, as well as supervising MSc and BSc dissertations. Astrid’s past teaching experience further includes Developmental Psychology, Neuropsychology, Cognitive Psychology, Psychology of Language, and Psychology of Education.
Astrid is a Fellow of the Higher Education Academy. She has been involved in pedagogy projects examining learning at Higher Education level (e-portfolios, metacognition, self-regulated learning, reflection, mobile learning with Evernote).
Astrid also has links with University of Chester’s Learning and Teaching Institute.
She has acted as external examiner for the MA Linguistics, MA Cognitive Linguistics, MA Bilingualism, MSc Forensic Linguistics, and MSc Language Development at Bangor University. Astrid has PhD examining experience and is involved in staff mentoring.
Astrid Schepman’s research is primarily in experimental psychology, with a focus on theoretical and applied neuropsychology, cognitive and biological psychology. Astrid's research interests include Attitudes towards Artificial Intelligence, speech prosody (vocal emotion, tonal alignment, and syntactic parsing), auditory processing of speech and environmental sounds, laterality / hemispheric specialisation, emotion, empirical aesthetics, and the effect of spatial location and choice.
Astrid's research has been supported by funding from The British Academy, The Carnegie Trust, The Higher Education Academy Psychology Network, JISC and the Experimental Psychology Society, as well as by internal grants. Astrid’s D.Phil. research was supported by SERC/EPSRC. Astrid Schepman acts as peer reviewer for a range of academic journals and reviews research funding applications for a number of research funding bodies. Astrid is the current REF coordinator for Psychology at the University of Chester.
Astrid currently supervises two Postgraduate Research (MPhil/PhD) students.
Schepman, A. & Rodway, P. (2022). The General Attitudes towards Artificial Intelligence Scale (GAAIS): Confirmatory validation and associations with personality, corporate distrust, and general trust. International Journal of Human-Computer Interaction. https://doi.org/10.1080/10447318.2022.2085400
Clucas, C., Corr, P., Wilkinson, H., & Schepman, A. (2022). Appraisal self-respect: Scale validation and construct implications. Current Psychology. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12144-022-03093-z
Rodway, P. & Schepman, A. (2022). Who goes where in couples and pairs? Effects of sex and handedness on side preferences in human dyads. Laterality. https://doi.org/10.1080/1357650X.2022.2090573
Schepman, A., & Rodway, P. (2021). Shared meaning in representational and abstract visual art: An empirical study. Psychology of Aesthetics, Creativity, and the Arts, 15(3), 458–469. https://doi.org/10.1037/aca0000279
Rodway, P., Thoma, V. & Schepman, A. (2021). The effects of sex and handedness on masturbation laterality and other lateralised motor behaviours. https://doi.org/10.1080/1357650X.2021.2006211
Schepman, A., & Rodway, P. (2021). Concreteness of semantic interpretations of abstract and representational artworks. Acta Psychologica, 215, 103269. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.actpsy.2021.103269
Schepman, A., & Rodway, P. (2020). Initial validation of the general attitudes towards Artificial Intelligence Scale. Computers in Human Behavior Reports, 1, 100014. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chbr.2020.100014
Rodway, P., Schepman, A., Crossley, B., & Jennifer Lee, J. (2019) A leftward perceptual asymmetry when judging the attractiveness of visual patterns, Laterality: Asymmetries of Brain, Behaviour, and Cognition, 24(1), 1-25. https://doi.org/10.1080/1357650X.2018.1461897
Stewart, S. L. K., Schepman, A., Haigh, M., McHugh, R., & Stewart, A. J. (2019) Affective theory of mind inferences contextually influence the recognition of emotional facial expressions. Cognition and Emotion, 33(2), 272-287. https://doi.org/10.1080/02699931.2018.1450224
Schepman, A., Kirkham, J. A., Rodway, P., Lambert, J., & Locke, A. (2018). Shared meaning in children’s evaluations of art: A computational analysis. Psychology of Aesthetics, Creativity, and the Arts, 12(4), 440-452. http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/aca0000159
Schepman, A., Rodway, P., Cornmell, L., Smith, B., de Sa, S. L., Borwick, C., & Belfon-Thompson, E. (2018) Right-ear precedence and vocal emotion contagion: The role of the left hemisphere. Laterality: Asymmetries of Brain, Behaviour, and Cognition, 23(3), 290-317, https://doi.org/10.1080/1357650X.2017.1360902
Rodway, P., Schepman, A., & Thoma, V. (2016). Reachability does not explain the middle preference: A comment on Bar-Hillel (2015). i-Perception, 7(2), https://doi.org/10.1177/2041669516639959
Rodway, P., Kirkham J., Schepman, A., Lambert, J., & Locke, A. (2016). The development of shared liking of representational but not abstract art in primary school children and their justifications for liking. Frontiers in Human Neuroscience, 10(21). https://doi.org/10.3389/fnhum.2016.00021
Schepman, A., Rodway, P. & Pritchard, H. (2015). Right-lateralized unconscious, but not conscious, processing of affective environmental sounds. Laterality: Asymmetries of Body, Brain and Cognition, 21(4-6), 606-623. https://doi.org/10.1080/1357650X.2015.1105245
Schepman, A. Rodway, P., & Pullen, S. J. (2015). Greater cross-viewer similarity of semantic associations for representational than for abstract artworks. Journal of Vision, 15(14):12, 1–6. https://doi.org/10.1167/15.14.12
Schepman, A., Rodway, P., Pullen, S., & Kirkham, J. A. (2015). Shared liking and association valence for representational art but not abstract art. Journal of Vision, 15(5), 11: 1-10. https://doi.org/10.1167/15.5.11
Rodway, P., Schepman, A., & Lambert, J. (2013). The influence of position and context on facial attractiveness. Acta Psychologica, 144 (3), 522-529. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.actpsy.2013.09.004
Schepman, A., Rodway, P., & Geddes, P. (2012). Valence-specific laterality effects in vocal emotion: Interactions with stimulus type, blocking and sex . Brain and Cognition, 79 (2), 129-137. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.bandc.2012.03.001
Rodway, P., Schepman, A. & Lambert, J. (2012). Preferring the one in the middle: Further evidence for the centre-stage effect. Applied Cognitive Psychology, 26 (2), 215-222. https://doi.org/10.1002/acp.1812
Schepman, A., Rodway, P., Beattie, C., & Lambert, J. (2012). An observational study of undergraduate students' adoption of (mobile) note-taking software. Computers in Human Behavior. 28, 308–317. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chb.2011.09.014
Brennand, R., Schepman, A., & Rodway, P. (2011). Vocal emotion perception in pseudo-sentences by secondary-school children with autism spectrum disorder. Research in autism spectrum disorders, 5(4) 1567-1573. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.rasd.2011.03.002
McWilliam, L., Schepman, A., & Rodway, P. (2009). The linguistic status of text message abbreviations: An exploration using a Stroop task. Computers in Human Behavior, 25 (4), 970-974. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chb.2009.04.002
Ladd, D. R., Schepman, A., White, L., May Quarmby, L., & Stackhouse, R. (2009). Structural and dialectal effects on pitch peak alignment in two varieties of British English. Journal of Phonetics, 37, 145-161. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.wocn.2008.11.001
Rodway, P., & Schepman, A. (2007). Valence specific laterality effects in vocal emotion: Expectancy account and the effects of morphed prosody and stimulus lead. Brain and Cognition, 63, 31-41. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.bandc.2006.07.008
Rodway, P., Gillies, K., & Schepman, A. (2006). Vivid imagers are better at detecting salient changes. Journal of Individual Differences, 27, 218-22. https://doi.org/10.1027/1614-0001.27.4.218
Schepman, A., Lickley, R. and Ladd, D.R. (2006). Effects of vowel length and “right context” on the alignment of Dutch nuclear accents. Journal of Phonetics, 34, 1-28. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.wocn.2005.01.004
Lickley, R., Schepman, A., & Ladd, D. R. (2005). Alignment of “Phrase Accent” Lows in Dutch Falling-Rising Questions: Theoretical and Methodological Implications. Language and Speech, 48, 157-183. https://doi.org/10.1177/00238309050480020201
Dilley, L., Ladd, D. R., & Schepman, A. (2005). Alignment of L and H in bitonal pitch accents: Testing two hypotheses. Journal of Phonetics, 33(1), 115-119. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.wocn.2004.02.003
Ladd, D. R., & Schepman, A. (2003) “Sagging transition” between high pitch accents in English: Experimental evidence. Journal of Phonetics, 31(1), 81-112. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0095-4470(02)00073-6
Schepman, A., & Rodway, P. (2000). Prosody and Parsing in Coordination Structures. The Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology Section A, 53(2), 377-396. https://doi.org/10.1080/713755895
Rodway, P., Dienes, Z., & Schepman, A. (2000). The effects of cigarette smoking on negative priming. Experimental and Clinical Psychopharmacology, 8(1), 104-111. https://doi.org/10.1037//1064-1297.8.1.104
Ladd, D. R., Mennen, I., & Schepman, A. (2000). Phonological conditioning of peak alignment in rising pitch accents in Dutch. Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, 107, 2685-2696. https://doi.org/10.1121/1.428654
Ladd, D. R., Faulkner, D., Faulkner, H., & Schepman, A. (1999). Constant “segmental anchoring” of F0 movements under changes in speech rate. Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, https://doi.org/106, 1543-1554.
Ladd, D. R., & Schepman, A. (1999). Segmental Anchoring of Tones as a Word-Boundary Correlate in English. Proceedings of the 14th International Congress of Phonetic Sciences, 14 (3), 1869-1872.
Conference presentations
Gorle, J., Schepman, A., West, W., & Rodway, P. (2018). Investigating Emotional Contagion in Counsellors. Poster presented at the Consortium of European Research on Emotion (CERE), Glasgow, 4-5 April 2018.
Schepman, A., Rodway, P., & Kirkham, J. (2017). Shared meaning in representational and abstract artworks. Poster presented at the Visual Science of Art Conference, August 2017, Berlin. Winner of Poster Award.
Gorle, J., Schepman, A., West, W., & Rodway, P. (2017). Investigating Emotional Contagion in Counsellors. Poster presented at the British Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy Research Conference (BACP), Chester, UK, April 2017.
Kirkham, J, A., Rodway, P., Schepman, A., Locke, A., & Lambert, J. (2015) The development of aesthetic judgments of abstract and realistic artworks from 4 to 10 years. BPS Developmental and Social Section Annual Conference, 9-11 September 2015, Palace Hotel, Manchester.
Schepman, A., Rodway, P., Beattie, C., & Lambert, J. (2011). Students’ use of Evernote note-taking software on mobile and non-mobile platforms: an observational study. University of Chester 9th Annual Staff Conference, 14 September 2011.
Schepman, A., Rodway, P., & Lloyd, J. (2010). Effect of sex on lateralisation of vocal emotion perception. Poster presented at the 27th Annual Conference of the British Psychological Society Cognitive Section, Cardiff, 6-8 September 2010.
Schepman, A., Rodway, P., Reynolds, D., Coleman, G., & Hartley, P. (2010). The effect of generic and episodic reflection on academic skills: An empirical study. Psychology of Learning and Teaching Conference, Edinburgh, 30 June - 2 July 2010.
Schepman, A., Rodway, P., David Reynolds, D., Coleman, G., & Hartley, P. (2010). The effect of generic and episodic reflection on academic skills: An empirical study. Staff conference, Institute for Learning and Teaching, University of Chester.
Schepman, A., Rodway, P., & McFarlane, P. (2009). Valence effects in vocal emotion depend on stimulus blocking and sex. Annual Meeting of the British Association for Cognitive Neuroscience, Institute of Child Health, London, 21-23 September 2009.
Schepman, A., Rodway, P., & Reynolds, D. (2009). Metacognition and reflection: pedagogic research using methods from experimental psychology. Staff conference, Institute for Learning and Teaching, University of Chester.
Schepman, A., Rodway, P., & Hartley, P. (2008). The effect of e-portfolios on reflective learning and metacognition. Eighth Residential Seminar, Centre for Recording Achievement, Manchester, 20-21 November 2008.
Rodway, P. & Schepman, A. (2008). The effect of e-portfolios on reflective learning and metacognition. Dissemination event, Distributed e-Learning 2, Higher Education Academy, York.
Rodway, P., Schepman, A. & Hartley, P. (2008). The effect of e-portfolios on reflective learning and metacognition. Psychology of Learning and Teaching Conference, Bath, 1-3.
Ladd, D. R., Lickley, R., & Schepman, A. (2002). Lab speech is real speech: The case of F0 alignment in Dutch. British Association of Academic Phoneticians, Newcastle, 25-27 March 2002.
Ladd, D. R., Mennen, I., & Schepman, A. (1999). The effect of vowel length and syllable structure on the location of pitch peaks in Dutch. AMLaP-99 Conference (Architectures and Mechanisms in Language Processing), Edinburgh.
Rodway, P., Kilbride, M., & Schepman, A. (1999). The effects of offset and spatial separation on identity negative priming. British Psychological Society Cognitive Section, Annual Conference, York.
Rodway, P., & Schepman, A. (1998) Negative priming requires stimulus offsets. Paper presented at Meeting of the Experimental Psychology Society, Cambridge.
Schepman, A. (1997). Verb duration and the time-course of activation of syntactic preferences. Presentation at AMLaP-97 Conference (Architectures and Mechanisms in Language Processing), Edinburgh.
Schepman, A., Altmann, G., & Garnham, A. (1996). The status of prosodic information in early sentence processing: A time-course analysis. Presentation at the Annual Conference on Sentence Processing, City University of New York (CUNY), New York.
Schepman, A., Altmann, G., & Garnham, A. (1995). Prosody and parsing: The status of prosodic cues in sentence processing. Presentation at AMLaP-95 Conference (Architectures and Mechanisms in Language Processing), Edinburgh.
Recent Seminars
Schepman, A. (2014). Emotion contagion through prosody. Linguistic Circle, Bangor University.
Schepman, A., Rodway, P., Beattie, C., & Lambert, J. (2012). Students’ use of Evernote note- taking software on mobile and non-mobile platforms: An observational study. Staff Research Seminar: Department of Psychology, University of Chester.
Schepman, A. (with Rodway, P. and Geddes, P.) (2011). Emotional prosody and the valence-specific laterality effect. Research Seminars in Natural Sciences and Psychology 2011, Liverpool John Moores University.
Schepman, A., Rodway, P., Beattie, C., & Lambert, J. (2011). Using Evernote to develop student learning. Learning and Teaching Institute Spring Seminar Series.
Rodway, P. & Schepman, A. (2010). Can reflection help student attainment? Presentation at Faculty of Social Sciences Pedagogy Event.
Schepman, A., (2010) (with Rodway, P. & McWilliam, A.). Are txt msg abbrvs wds? An exploration using a Stroop task. Staff Research Seminar: Department of Psychology, University of Chester.
Other items
Schepman, A., Rodway, P. David Reynolds, D., Coleman, G., & Hartley, P. (2010). The effect of generic and episodic reflection on academic skills: An empirical study. Unpublished Final Project Report: Higher Education Academy, 15 July 2010.
Ladd, D. R. & Schepman, A. (2003). The Dutch Map Task Corpus. ESRC Data Archive.
Web statistics and experimental design course: Experimental Design and Statistics (1998-1999) University of Edinburgh
Thesis: Schepman, A.H.B.C. (1997). Prosody and On-Line Parsing. D.Phil. Thesis, University of Sussex.
D.Phil. (Sussex), MSc (Sussex), Drs (Nijmegen)