Dr Stephanie Burnett Heyes

Postgraduate Certificate in Higher Education (Merit), University of Birmingham (2019)

PhD, University College London (2010)

BA in Psychology, Physiology and Philosophy (First), Oxford (2005)

Dr Burnett Heyes did an undergraduate degree in Psychology, Physiology and Philosophy at Corpus Christi College, Oxford (2005). She then undertook a Wellcome Trust-funded four-year PhD in Neuroscience at the UCL Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience (2010) supervised by Prof. Sarah-Jayne Blakemore and Prof. Chris Frith. Her PhD research investigated adolescent cognitive and functional brain development focusing on social cognition, emotion and decision-making under risk. Dr Burnett Heyes was awarded the British Neuroscience Association PhD Award for her doctoral research (2010) and was shortlisted for a WISE Excellence Award (2010) for her public engagement work with schools. Dr Burnett Heyes then completed a two-year postdoctoral position with Prof. Masud Husain at the UCL Institute of Neurology (2010-2011) investigating impulsivity and apathy in psychiatric and neurological populations. She then moved to the University of Oxford, Department of Experimental Psychology to begin a British Academy Postdoctoral Fellowship researching adolescent social cognition and emotion (2011-2015). This included a period of secondment to Prof. Emily Holmes’ research group at the University of Oxford, Department of Psychiatry to conduct experimental psychopathology research using experimental mental imagery paradigms. Subsequently Dr Burnett Heyes moved to the University of Birmingham School of Psychology in 2015 to begin a Lectureship.

Dr Burnett Heyes’ current research takes a multidisciplinary approach to better understand adolescent and young adult social interactions, emotion, decision-making and mental health. Dr Burnett Heyes has expertise in predominantly quantitative methods from experimental psychology and involvement in research collaborations incorporating qualitative and social network methods.

Dr Burnett Heyes leads the final-year module Adolescence: Mind and Brain.

Dr Burnett Heyes supervises postgraduate projects in the following research areas:

• Adolescent social cognitive development, including perspective-taking and social decision-making
• Social factors in adolescent and young adult wellbeing, including the relationship between social interactions and mood
• Adolescent and young adult wellbeing and emotional disorders, including self-harm and the bipolar disorder spectrum
• Experimental psychopathology research on (hypo)mania risk/treatment mechanisms
• Virtual reality interventions for adolescent issues e.g. gang involvement

ORCID ID: 0000-0002-9049-9559, https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9049-9559

Scopus Author ID: 55191271200, https://www.scopus.com/authid/detail.uri?authorId=55191271200

Researcher ID: ABC-3156-2021, https://publons.com/researcher/4751515/stephanie-burnett-heyes/

Google Scholar: https://scholar.google.co.uk/citations?user=AY2JQlEAAAAJ&hl=en

Current research projects:

1. 1) Social networks and wellbeing in adolescents and young adults
   - What is the relationship between mood and social interactions? Is mood contagious in real-world social networks, and can young people support one another in times of distress?
   - Block P and Burnett Heyes S (2021). Sharing the load: Contagion and tolerance of mood in social networks. Emotion. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/33370141/
   - Press coverage: Guardian, Sun, National Geographic, BBC All in the mind
   - Ongoing projects in collaboration with Dr Per Block, Miss Delfina Bilello and others, conducted with intramural and ESRC DTP funding
2. Risk-taking in virtual reality
   - Funded by a British Academy/Leverhulme Trust Small Research Grant and conducted in collaboration with Dr Juliane Kloess, this research project seeks to understand adolescents’ experiences of an award-winning virtual reality tool developed by our collaborator Round Midnight to start conversations with young people on difficult topics including gangs, weapon-carrying and violent/antisocial behaviour
3. Mental imagery and mood in (hypo)mania
   - This project uses experimental mental imagery generation paradigms to understand cognitive risk and maintenance mechanisms of mood escalation in (hypo)manic episodes in the bipolar disorder spectrum
   - O’Donnell C, Di Simplicio M, Brown R, Holmes EA & Burnett Heyes S (2018). The role of mental imagery in mood amplification: An investigation across subclinical features of bipolar disorders. Cortex. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/28912037/
4. Social factors in adolescent self-harm
   - Midland ESRC DTP-funded PhD project conducted by Delfina Bilello, supervised by Dr Burnett Heyes and co-supervised by Prof. Ellen Townsend (University of Nottingham) takes a sequential mixed methods (qualitative and quantitative) approach to understand the social (peer) context of adolescent self-harm
5. Adolescent social cognitive development
   - Perspective-taking and social decision-making in real-world adolescent peer relationships
   - Doctoral research conducted by Dr David Pollard, supervised by Dr Burnett Heyes and Prof. Ian Apperly