Role
Duncan Guest is Professor of Cognitive Psychology. He joined NTU in 2011 and since has held various management positions. Over seven years across roles as Deputy Head of Psychology, Head of Academy in Psychology and Associate Dean he led one of the of the largest psychology departments in the UK through significant growth and change, helping build its profile across teaching, research and practice.
Externally Duncan has held various roles within the BPS, co-organised four conferences and currently is the Chair of the Association of Heads of Psychology Departments.
In his current Professorial role his research focus research spans a variety of topics, mostly in cognition and its applications.
Career overview
After completing his PhD at the University of Warwick Duncan worked outside academia for a spell before taking on postdoctoral roles in a number of Psychology departments and Marketing departments in the UK and Europe before joining NTU in 2011.
The core of Duncan’s research is visual cognition (specifically attention and memory) but more recently his research interests have broadened to a include a variety of applied areas as well as higher education. Current examples of applied work include powered mobility device safety and connection to nature. He is currently the PI on a 3-year Road Safety Trust funded project exploring safety incidents in powered mobility devices (in collaboration with Sure Wise insurance), following on from a previous RST grant that produced an evidenced based free training tool for mobility scooter users – See and Scoot. He is also working with the National Trust exploring connection to nature.
Research areas
As a cognitive psychologist Duncan is interested in a broad range of cognitive phenomenon (e.g. visual perception, categorisation, attention, memory). His research spans a number of fields including;
Attention and capacity limitations in cognition
Representative Publications
Atkin, C., Howard, C.J. Baker, J., Baguley, T & Guest, D (2025). The relation between the capacities of imagination and visual memory in the short-term. 51 (11) 1576-1604. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception and Performance. 51(11), 1576–1604. https://doi.org/10.1037/xhp0001364
Guest, D., Kent , C., & Adelman, J, S (2018). The relative importance of perceptual and memory sampling processes in determining the time course of absolute identification. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition, 44 (4),. 615-630. https://doi.org/10.1037/xlm0000438
Visual information processing
Representative Publications
Goodwin, P, Cristino, F, Guest, D & Howard, C, j. (2026) Spatial structure triggers systematic foraging: Segmenting search displays leads to searching by segments. Attention Perception and Psychophysics https://doi.org/10.3758/s13414-026-03287-8
Howard, C, J., Pole, R., Montgomery, P., Woodwars, A., Guest, D., Standon, B., Kent, C., & Crowe, E., M (2020) Visual spatial attention and spatial working memory do not draw on shared capacity-limited core processes. Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology, 73, 799-818 https://doi.org/10.1177/1747021819897882
Pilling, M., Guest, D., & Andrews, M (2019) Perceptual Errors Support the Notion of Masking by Object Substitution. Perception 48(2) 138–161. https://doi.org/10.1177/0301006619825782
Applied Visual Cognition
Representative Publications
Laxton, V., Howard, C. J., Guest, D., & Crundall, D. (2023). Intense classification training to increase the detection of drowning swimmers. Applied Cognitive Psychology, 1– 11. https://doi.org/10.1002/acp.4038
Laxton, V., Guest, D., Howard, C.J. & Crundall, D. (2021). Search for a distressed swimmer in a dynamic, real-world environment. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Applied. 27(2), 352–368. https://doi.org/10.1037/xap0000344
Mackenzie, A., Vernon, M., Cox, P., Crundall, D., Daly, R., Guest, D., Muhl-Richardson, A., & Howard, C (2021) The Multiple Object Avoidance (MOA) task measures attention for action: Evidence from driving and sport. Behaviour Research Methods, 54(3): 1508–1529. https://doi.org/10.3758/s13428-021-01679-2
Mobility Scooter Safety & Accessibility
Representative Publications
Guest, D., Mackenzie, A., Arkin, C., Hannan, R., & Morris, R (2026) Powered Mobility Device Safety. Briefing Report for the Parliamentary Advisory Council for Transport Safety. 202607 Mobility Scooter Briefing
Guest, D, Gous, G., Butcher, A., Mackenzie, A., Guest, G., Young, A., & Crundall, D (2024) Developing A Taxonomy of Hazards and Hazard Mitigation Strategies for Motorised Mobility Scooter Users. Accident Analysis & Prevention. 195,1-13. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.aap.2023.107423
Guest, D., Chapman, N., Guest, G., Lumber, R., Wardle, L., & Winfield, K. (2023). Nature Connectivity and Accessibility. Report for the National Trust. https://irep.ntu.ac.uk/id/eprint/48410/1/1736122_Guest.pdf
Higher Education
Representative Publications
Fife-Schaw. C., Guest, D., & Johnston, S (2026). Staff Student Ratios in Psychology Departments. Report for The Association of Heads of Psychology Departments. AHPD-SSR-report-003.pdf
Buglass, S.L., Stacey, P.C., & Guest, D. (2024). Towards a new era of flexibility: Student and staff reflections on online learning. International Journal of Technology in Education (IJTE), 7(4), 667-689. https://doi.org/10.46328/ijte.746
A Tolmie, M Bowe, V Clarke, D Guest, & R Stephens (2024) REF Working Group Report on Definitions of Rigour in Research. British Psychological Society. REF Working Group Report on Definitions of Rigour in Research.pdf
External activity
Duncan is Chair of the Association of Heads of Psychology Departments (AHPD). He reviews articles for numerous journals and funding bodies and has ongoing collaborative research projects in a number of national and international institutions.
Sponsors and collaborators
Duncan has been involved in previous grants from the ESRC, Road Safety Trust, DSTL and local government.
Press expertise
- Attention and memory
- Visual processing of older people
- Cognition and consumer behaviour
- Mobility Scooters