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Dr Nathan Ridout

Lecturer in Psychology

Psychology Group
School of Life & Health Sciences
Aston University
Aston Triangle
Birmingham
B4 7ET, England

Room: SW 508B
Tel: +44 (0)121 204 4162
Fax: +44 (0)121 204 4090
Email: n.ridout@aston.ac.uk

Office Hours: Usually Tuesdays 9 - 11 & Thursdays 3;30 - 5:30 follow this link to make an appointment online: https://wass.aston.ac.uk/wass/pages/login.page.php

Lecturer on the Psychology Teaching Programme
Member of the Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience Research Group
Member of research strand 'Mechanisms of age-related transitions' - Aston Research Centre for Healthy Ageing
Member of research strand: 'Ageing lives: the social, psychological and public policy contexts of health behaviour and medicines management' - Aston Research Centre for Healthy Ageing

Teaching Commitments

Undergraduate

Abnormal Psychology, Studying Psychology in Higher Education, Psychology Practicals, Cognitive Neuroscience of Affective Disorders (Final Year Option)

Postgraduate

MRes in Cognitive Neuroscience/ MSc in Neuroimaging

Administrative Roles

Admissions Tutor (Single Honours Psychology)

Associate Convenor of Cognitive & Affective Neuroscience Research Group

Associate Director of the MRes (Psychology)

Module convenor of Abnormal Psychology, Cognitive Neuroscience of Affective Disorders(Undergraduate)

Module convenor of Advanced Research Methods in Cognitive Neuroscience and Research Practicals in Cognitive Neuroscience (Postgraduate)

Member of School of Life & Health Sciences and Psychology Ethics Committees

Research Interests

I am an experimental psychologist and the primary aim of my research is to understand processing biases and deficits that are associated with psychological disorders, most notably depression and eating disorders. The key psychological processes that I am interested in are face processing, autobiographical memory and social cognition. Other areas of research that I am involved in include the influence of alexithymia on emotion processing and cognitive changes observed in older adults.

Published Papers

Holland, C. A., Ridout, N., Geragthy, J. & Walford, E. (In Press) Executive function and emotional focus in autobiographical memory specificity in older adults Memory

Ridout, N., Wallis, D. J. , Autwal, Y. & Sellis, J. (2012) The influence of emotional intensity on facial emotion recognition in sub-clinical disordered eating Appetite, 59, 181-186

Richter, A. & Ridout, N. (2011) Self-esteem modulates affective reactions to briefly presented emotional faces Journal of Research in Personality, 45(3), 328-331

Noreen, S. & Ridout, N. (2010) Short-term memory for emotional faces in dysphoria Memory 18(5):486-97

Ridout, N., Thom, C. & Wallis, D. J. (2010) Emotion recognition and alexithymia in females with non-clinical disordered eating. Eating Behaviours, 11, 1-5

Ridout, N., Noreen, A. & Johal, J (2009) Memory for emotional faces in naturally occurring dysphoria and induced negative mood, Behaviour, Research & Therapy, 47, 851-860

Ridout, N., Dritschel, B., Matthews, K. McVicar, M. Reid, I. C., & O’ Carroll, R. E. (2009) Memory for emotional faces in major depression following judgment of physical facial characteristics at encoding. Cognition and Emotion. 23(4), 739-752

Pedrosa Gil F, Bidlingmaier M, Ridout N, Scheidt CE, Caton S, Schoechlin C, Nickel M. (2008) The Relationship between Alexithymia and Salivary Cortisol Levels in Somatoform Disorders. Nordic Journal of Psychiatry. 62(5) 366-373

Pedrosa Gil, F. Ridout, N., Neuffer, M., Schoechlin, C., Traue, H.,Kessler, H., & Nickel, M. (2008) Facial emotion recognition and alexithymia in adults with somatoform disorders Depression and Anxiety. 25:E133 - E141

Ridout, N., O’ Carroll, R.E., Dritschel, B., Christmas, D., Eljamel, M., & Matthews, K. (2007) Emotion recognition from dynamic emotional displays following anterior cingulotomy and anterior capsulotomy for chronic depression. Neuropsychologia 45(8) 1735 - 1743

Pedrosa Gil, F., .Schwarz, M. J., Müller, N.,MD, Nickel, M., Ridout, N., & Schmidmaier, R. (2007) Significant alterations in peripheral blood lymphocyte subsets in patients with Somatoform Disorder Acta Neuropsychiatrica 19(6) 368 – 378

Pedrosa Gil, F., Nickel, M., Ridout, N., Schwarz, M.J., Schoechlin, C., Schmidmaier, R. (2007) Alexithymia and Interleukin Variations in Somatoform Disorder. Neuroimmunomodulation; 14:235-242

Ridout, N., Astell, A. J., Reid, I. C., Glen, T. & O’ Carroll, R. E. (2003) Memory bias for emotional facial expressions in major depression Cognition and Emotion 17 (1) 101 – 122

Submitted Papers

Wallis, D. J., Ridout, N., Sharpe, E., Parker, E. & Town, C (under review) Emotion recognition in non-clinical eating psychopathology: A comparison between static and dynamic stimuli Journal of Behavior Therapy & Experimental Psychiatry

Research Student Supervision

I have successfully supervised one full-time PhD student to completion. Saima Noreen's work (funded by a LHS School Studentship) involved utilising experimental psychological methods in order to determine factors (e.g. inhibition, cognitive control, rumination) influencing depressed individuals' ability to intentionally forget unwanted information. Prior to undertaking her PhD Saima completed an MRes in Cognitive Neuroscience here at Aston, where she conducted an investigation into short-term/ working memory for emotional faces in dysphoria (subclinical depression). Dr Noreen is now a post doc at the University of St Andrews working with Professor Malcolm McLeod looking at mechanisms of forgetting.