Overview
Research summary
I am working as a Research Associate on a Feasibility Study assessing young children within the Neurodevelopment Assessment Unit (NDAU). The NDAU adopts the RDoC framework to assess each child across a wide range of experimental, psychophysiological and eye-tracking measures examining domains important fo learning and development, including language, cognition, emotional processing, social processing and motor skills. This research data will inform us about the underlying mechanisms inolved in emerging neurodevelopmental difficulties. The NDAU will also use the research data collected to provide a comprehensive developmental profile that is fed back to each child's school.
My main research interest lies in understanding the development of antisocial behaviour so that we can ultimately develop individualised interventions, and I have previously used observational, experimental, psychophysiological and neuroendocrinological techniques to explore antisocial behaviour. In addition, I am particularly interested in the development of callous/unemotional traits and psychopathy-like behaviours and the associated affective impairments.
My PhD was focused on examining psychopathic individual’s autonomic responses to emotion across a range of stimuli (affective scenes, sound-clips and facial expressions), which I measured using changes in pupil diameter as an indicator of emotional arousal.
Teaching summary
2015 – 2016:
Diploma tutor: Took tutorial on scientific report writing and statistics.
2013 – 2016:
First year undergraduate PG tutor; teaching tutorials, as well as marking assessed practical reports.
Biography
Undergraduate education
(2007-2011) BSc (Hons) Applied Psychology (First Class Honours), Cardiff University.
Employment
2016-current: Research Associate, School of Psychology, Cardiff University, Cardiff, UK.
2012-2013: Psychology Assistant, School of Psychology, Cardiff University, Cardiff, UK.
2011-2012: Support Worker, Marlborough House Inpatient Unit CAMHS, Swindon, UK.
2010: Undergraduate Research Opportunities Program supervised by Professor Stephanie Van Goozen, School of Psychology, Cardiff University, Cardiff, UK.
2009-2010: Craegmoor, Placement Student (working as part of the psychology team offering treatment to adults with a dual diagnosis of learning disability and mental health problems, many of whom had forensic backgrounds including violent and sexual offences), Caerphilly, UK.
Publications
2020
- Burley, D. T., Genc, S. and Silk, T. J. 2020. Childhood conduct problems are associated with reduced white matter fibre density and morphology. Journal of Affective Disorders (10.1016/j.jad.2020.11.098)
- Burley, D. and Daughters, K. 2020. The effect of oxytocin on pupil response to naturalistic dynamic facial expressions. Hormones and Behavior 125, article number: 104837. (10.1016/j.yhbeh.2020.104837)
- Burley, D. T.et al. 2020. Emotional modulation of the pupil in psychopathy: a test of the response modulation hypothesis. International Journal of Psychophysiology 155, pp. 168-174. (10.1016/j.ijpsycho.2020.06.008)
- Williams, T.et al. 2020. The structural validity of the IKDC and its relationship with quality of life following ACL reconstruction. Scandinavian Journal of Medicine and Science in Sports 30(9), pp. 1748-1757. (10.1111/sms.13738)
- Paine, A. L.et al. 2020. The neurocognitive profiles of children adopted from care and their emotional and behavioral problems at home and school. Child Neuropsychology (10.1080/09297049.2020.1776241)
- Burley, D. T. and van Goozen, S. H. M. 2020. Pupil response to affective stimuli: A biomarker of early conduct problems in young children. Journal of Abnormal Child Psychology 48(5), pp. 693-701. (10.1007/s10802-020-00620-z)
- Burley, D. T.et al. 2020. Negative parental emotional environment increases the association between childhood behavioural problems and impaired recognition of negative facial expressions. Development and Psychopathology
2019
- Burley, D., Gray, N. and Snowden, R. 2019. Emotion modulation of the pupil response in psychopathy. Personality Disorders: Theory, Research, and Treatment. 10(4), pp. 365-375. (10.1037/per0000313)
2017
- Burley, D. T., Gray, N. S. and Snowden, R. J. 2017. As far as the eye can see: Relationship between psychopathic traits and pupil response to affective stimuli. PLoS ONE 12(1), article number: e0167436. (10.1371/journal.pone.0167436)
2016
- Snowden, R. J.et al. 2016. The pupil's response to affective pictures: Role of image duration, habituation, and viewing mode. Psychophysiology 53(8), pp. 1217-1223. (10.1111/psyp.12668)
- Burley, D. 2016. In the eye of the beholder: psychopathy and pupil response to emotion. PhD Thesis, Cardiff University.
Teaching
I teach on the Children's Psychological Disorders (MSc) at Cardiff University running tutorials and delivering workshops focusing on understanding neurodevelopmental difficulties in children.
Research topics and related papers
Research topics include: Antisocial Behaviour, Emotional Processing, Neurodevelopmental difficulties, Psychopathy, Pupillometry.
Research group
Cognitive Science, Developmental & Helath Psychology
