Gemma Hanson

PhD Studentship entitled: Interruptions in maritime control rooms

Hi, I'm Gemma Hanson and I am a Leverhulme Trust Scholar within the Southampton Marine and Maritime Institute at the University of Southampton.

I obtained a BSc in psychology and an MSc in Neuropsychology from Bournemouth University in 2013 and 2014. I am now completing a PhD at the University of Southampton in cognitive psychology. It is through my PhD that I have been introduced to interdisciplinary work, with supervisors residing in both the psychology and engineering departments.

Within maritime industries one of the biggest safety issues is associated with seafarers becoming distracted, interrupted or multi-tasking, this is especially common whilst on the bridge. My PhD aims to investigate the effects and the extent to which seafarers become distracted and the subsequent errors this creates, as well as, the reduction in performance that occurs from multi-tasking. This interdisciplinary work will combine psychological methods of research with real world maritime issues.