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:
Supervision of MSc research projects (Information Capability Management, Cyber Masters Programme, Programme and Project Management)
Lecturing in: Cognition (decision-making, biases, team processes & complex adaptive systems); Research methods (literature reviews, qualitative research techniques, statistical analysis & interview/survey design); Thinking skills (cognitive agility, systems thinking & creativity)
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Dr Smy's present research interests include:
- Training: training needs analysis, design, delivery, assessment; and teamwork
- 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
- Smy V, Cahillane M, MacLean P, Hilton M & Humphreys L (2021) Evaluating teamwork development in combat training settings: an exploratory case study utilising the Junior Leaders’ Field Gun competition, Applied Ergonomics, 95 (September) Article No. 103459. Dataset/s: 10.17862/cranfield.rd.9767588
- Critchley R, Smy V, Corni I, Wharton J, Walsh F, Wood R & Stokes K (2020) Experimental and computation assessment of thermomechanical effects during auxetic foam fabrication, Scientific Reports, 10 (1) Article No. 18301. Dataset/s: 10.17862/cranfield.rd.13186745.v1
- Cahillane M, MacLean P & Smy V (2019) Novel application of a predictive skill retention model to technical VLE content production skills among Higher Education teachers: a case study, Interactive Learning Environments, 27 (3) 336-348.
- Smy V, Cahillane M & MacLean P (2016) Sensemaking and metacognitive prompting in ill-structured problems, International Journal of Information and Learning Technology, 33 (3) 186-199.
- Smy V, Shelton K, Tombs M & Patrick J (2016) Perceived transformational leadership, instructor behaviors, and motivation to learn: A mediated model, Travail humain, 79 (2) 169-185.
- Patrick J, Morgan PL, Smy V, Tiley L, Seeby H, Patrick T & Evans J (2015) The influence of past experience and the current environment on memory strategy, Memory and Cognition, 43 (5) 775-787.
- Smy V, Seeby H & Patrick J (2015) The nature of complexity facing novice designers in a constraint satisfaction task, Ergonomics, 58 (6) 942-952.
- Patrick J, Ahmed A, Smy V, Seeby H & Sambrooks K (2015) A cognitive procedure for representation change in verbal insight problems., Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition, 41 (3) 746-759.
- Patrick J, Smy V, Tombs M & & Shelton K (2012) Being in one's chosen job determines pre‐training attitudes and training outcomes, Journal of Occupational and Organizational Psychology, 85 (2) 245-257.
Conference Papers
- Clewley N, Dodd L, Smy V, Witheridge A & Louvieris P (2019) Eliciting expert knowledge to inform training design. In: ECCE 2019 - European Conference on Cognitive Ergonomics, Ulster University, Belfast, 10-13 September 2019.
- Cahillane M, Smy V & MacLean P (2016) A case study of the barriers and enablers affecting teaching staff e-learning provision. In: International Conference on Information Communication Technologies in Education, Rhodes, 7-9 July 2016.
- Smy V, Cahillane M & MacLean P (2016) Attitudes towards, and utilisation of, virtual learning environments among postgraduate university teaching staff. In: 16th International Conference on Information, Communication Technologies (ICICTE 2016), Rhodes, 7-9 July 2016.
- Smy V, MacLean P & Cahillane M (2015) Knowledge and skills retention in sustaining e-learning capability. In: International Conference on Information, Communication Technologies in Education, Kos, 9-11 July 2015.
- MacLean P, Cahillane M & Smy V (2015) Extension of a knowledge and skills taxonomy to include a complex and integrated skills category. In: International Conference on Information, Communication Technologies in Education, Kos, 9-11 July 2015.
- Smy V, Seeby H, Winslow E & Patrick J (2014) Novel training techniques for novice timetablers. In: International Conference, HCI International 2014, Heraklion, 22-27 June 2014.
- Morgan PL, Smy V, Seeby H & & Patrick J (2013) A novel approach to cognitive engineering: Manipulating access cost. In: HCI International 2013, Las Vegas, 21-26 July 2013.
- Smy V & Patrick J Some effects of increasing external constraint rules on design performance in a timetabling task.
- Patrick J, Morgan PL, Tiley L, Smy V & Seeby H Designing the interface to encourage more cognitive processing. In: 11th International Conference, EPCE 2014, Held as Part of HCI International 2014, Heraklion, 22-27 June 2014.
- Smy V, Cahillane M & MacLean P Cognitive and metacognitive prompting in ill-structured tasks: The art of asking. In: International Conference on Information, Communication Technologies in Education, Kos, 9 July 2015.
