Contact Dr Victoria Smy

Areas of expertise

  • Defence Training Analysis
  • Human Factors for Defence

Background

Dr Victoria Smy is a Chartered member of the British Psychological Society, an Honorary Tutor at Cardiff University and an Associate Fellow of the Higher Education Academy.

Dr Smy has a background in occupational and applied cognitive psychology, specialising in training and decision-making. She is experienced in both cognitive task analysis (knowledge, skills, attitudes, and other characteristics), and Subject Matter Expert consultation (knowledge elicitation, requirements specification) to support the generation of training criteria and content. She is interested in attitudes such as motivation and trust, and their subsequent impact on behavioural intentions. She has further experience in cognitive ergonomics and human factors considerations for system specification and design.

Prior to joining Cranfield, Dr Smy was a Research Assistant within the School of Psychology at Cardiff University where she focused on problem-solving and training at the human-computer interface. She graduated with a PhD in Cognitive Psychology from Cardiff University in 2014.

Current activities

Dr Smy is a Lecturer within the Applied Cognitive Psychology in the Centre for Electronic Warfare, Information and Cyber. Her teaching responsibilities include:

Thesis Module lead for Information Capability Management MSc and Cyber Masters Programmes (Cyberspace Operations * Cyber Defence and Information Assurance)

Lecturing in: Cognition (decision-making, team processes, training & skill retention); Research methods (literature reviews, qualitative research techniques, statistical analysis & interview/survey design)

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Dr Smy's present research interests include:

Training: training needs analysis, design, delivery, assessment

Teamwork: measurement, development and augmentation

Decision-making: decision science; thinking systems and skill categorisation; factors affecting decision-making in complex environments

Expertise: decision making, conscious and unconscious expertise; knowledge elicitation/capture in support of training design

Attitudes: motivation, engagement, satisfaction and behavioural intentions

Human-computer interaction effects on problem solving

Clients

Defence Science and Technology Laboratory (DSTL)

BAE Systems

Defence Human Capability Science and Technology Centre (DHCSTC)

Training (Army)

Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC)

Publications

Articles In Journals

Conference Papers

Books