As an expert in Emotion Science, for the past 15+ years, my research has centred on understanding psychological, neurological, cognitive and physiological correlates of emotional well-being. In particular, my research has contributed to understanding anxiety and its relationship with eating disorders, understanding processes of threat and self-criticism, and the use of compassion for emotion-regulation across various populations.
I have published circa 40 peer-reviewed papers in these specific areas, as well as several book chapters. In recent years, I’ve become a key individual within the compassion in schools movement - initiating, co-ordinating, progressing and evaluating well-being effects of compassionate mind training with both educators and their pupils internationally.
I am also currently serving as: i) a consultant on UK ‘Mindfulness Initiative Education Strategy’ policy and ii) an external expert on a 5-year US National Institute of Health research grant concerned with the ‘Neural Mechanisms Underlying Self-Critical Rumination and Self-Reassurance and Suicidal Thoughts and Behavior in Youth’.
Teaching responsibilities
Currently:
I host a specialist final year module 'Emotion in Context'.
I guest lecture or teach on a range of on-campus modules at UG and MSc level mainly within the fields of biological psychology, cognitive psychology and biological psychology.
Research interests
To aid the comprehensive and robust investigation of research in the field of Emotion science I adopt an integrative approach and regularly use a wide variety of experimental methods to pursue research questions. These include psychophysiological methods (measures of reaction time and eye tracking), behavioural methods (e.g. questionnaire measures and performance accuracy measures), physiological measures (e.g. stress hormones, blood pressure and heart-rate variability), neuroimaging methods (measures of MEG, EEG and fMRI) and qualitative methods (e.g. thematic analysis).
Further research interests include visual attention and effects of related psychological phenomena such as cognitive load and expertise; and learning/pedagogy in HE including the development and assessment of critical thinking and micro-skills of compassionate communication
Membership of professional bodies
I am a member of the Mindfulnes Initiative steering group, which provides the secretariat for the Mindfulness All_PArty Parliamentary Group
I am a member of the British Association of Cognitive Neuroscience, the American Psychological Society and the British Psychological Society.
Qualifications
Postgraduate qualifications
PGCert in Learning & Teaching in HE, University of Derby, Derby. (2007)
Research qualifications
PhD Cognitive Neuroscience, Aston University, Birmingham. (2005)
Occupational qualifications
Occupational Ability Test User, Psytech International (2014)
Recent Invited Talks/Keynotes (limited to past 5 years)
Invited Speaker: Progressing compassionate mind training in school settings, an international study. Exeter University, January 2020.
Keynote Opening Speaker: Progressing compassionate mind training in school settings to improve well-being – An international research study. Applied Psychology Conference, Singapore, June 2019
Keynote Speaker: Mental Health in Schools: Why is it important and what can be done? Mental Health Awareness Conference, October 2018
Symposium Organiser: Relations between Emotion, Attention, Psychopathology and the Brain. CERE, Glasgow, April 2018 Speakers: Professor Luiz Pessoa (University of Maryland, USA); Professor Narayanan Srinivasan (University of Allahabad, India); Dr Frances Maratos (University of Derby, UK), Dr Nick Hedges (University of Reading, UK), Dr Nathan Ridout (Aston University, UK).
Invited Speaker: Improving well-being in Education: An evaluation of a Compassionate Mind Training Intervention with Teaching Staff Values in HE, Oxford, September 2017
Keynote Speaker: Evaluation of a compassionate mind training intervention with teachers to improve well-being. Mental Health UK, London, June 2017
Invited Speaker: What drives the prioritization of threat? International Conference on Cognition and Emotion. Allahabad, December 2015
Invited Speaker: Using self-compassion and/or touch to aid general well-being and coping: Implications for Physical Health Care. 4th International Conference of the Compassionate Mind Foundation, Manchester, October 2015
Currently I am serving as an external expert collaborater on a 5-year $1,000,000 National Institute of Health Grant, with Anastacia Kudinova to understand 'Neural Mechanisms Underlying Self-Critical Rumination and Self-Reassurance and Suicidal Thoughts and Behavior in Youth.'
I am also regularly invited to speak on BBC radio Derby, as well as GEM 106, Mansfield FM etc. and I have featured on television (for example East Midlands tonight).
Maratos, F.A.*, Simione, L. & Raffone, A. (2020). Emotional faces, visuo-spatial working memory and anxiety. Psychology & Psychiatry. 9(4) 43-51
Maratos, F.A.*, Montague, J., Ashra, H. et al. (2019) Evaluation of a Compassionate Mind Training Intervention with School Teachers and Support Staff. Mindfulness 10, 2245–2258.
Maratos, F.A.* & Pessoa, L. (2019). What drives prioritised stimulus processing? An argument for motivational salience. Progress in brain research. 247, 111-148.
McEwan, K., Gilbert, P., Dandeneau, S., Maratos, F.A., Gibbons, L., Chotai, S. & Elander, J. (2019). Searching Compassion in a Crowd: Countering Self-Criticism with a Novel Compassion Visual Search. Psychology & Psychiatry.8(5), 322-333
Said, O., Elander, J. & Maratos, F.A. (2019). An international study of analgesic misuse and dependence among people with pain in the general population. Substance Use & Misuse. 54, 1319-1331
Gaffiero, D., Elander, J., Maratos, F. A. (2019). Do individuals with Chronic Pain show attentional bias to pain-related information? An early stage systematic review of the eye-tracking evidence. Cognitive PsychologyBulletin, 4, 37-45
Wahl, J., Sheffield, D. Archer, S. & Maratos, F.A. (2018) Development of a compassion-based training for cancer (CforC) curriculum for female breast cancer patients in stages I-III and cancer survivors. Origins, rationale and initial observations. Mindfulness & Compassion3, 47-76.
Maratos, F. A.*, Duarte, J., Barnes, C., McEwan, K., Sheffield, D., & Gilbert, P. (2017). The physiological and emotional effects of touch: Assessing a hand-massage intervention with high self-critics. Psychiatry Research, 250, 221-227.
Elander, J., Said, O., Maratos, F. A., Dys, A., Collins, H., & Schofield, M. B. (2017). Development and validation of a short-form Pain Medication Attitudes Questionnaire (PMAQ-14). Pain, 158, 400-407
Stupple, E. J., Maratos, F. A., Elander, J., Hunt, T. E., Cheung, K. Y., & Aubeeluck, A. V. (2017). Development of the Critical Thinking Toolkit (CriTT): A measure of student attitudes and beliefs about critical thinking. Thinking Skills and Creativity, 23, 91-100
Elmore, N., Burt, J., Abel, G., Maratos F. A., Montague, J., Campbell, J. & Roland, M. (2016). Investigating the relationship between consultation length and patient experience: a cross-sectional study in primary care. British Journal of General Practice, bjgp-dec16
Kelly, L., Maratos, F.A.*, Lipka, S., & Croker, S. (2016). Attentional Bias towards Threatening and Neutral Facial Expressions in High Trait Anxious Children. Journal of Experimental Psychopathology, 7(3) 343-359
Richardson, M., McEwan, K., Maratos, F.A., & Sheffield, D. (2016). Joy and calm: how an evolutionary functional model of affect regulation informs positive emotions in nature. Evolutionary Psychological Science, 2(4) 308-320
Yuenyongchaiwat, K., Baker, I., Maratos, F.A., & Sheffield, D. (2016). Do Cardiovascular Responses to Active and Passive Coping Tasks predict Future Blood Pressure 10-Months Later? The Spanish journal of psychology. 19 (E10)
Owen, S., and Maratos, F. A.* (2016) Recognition of subtle and universal facial expressions in a community-based sample of adults classified with intellectual disability. Journal of Intellectual Disability Research, 60(4), 344-354
Maratos, F. A.*, Garner, M., Hogan, A. M., & Karl, A. (2015). When is a Face a Face? Schematic Faces, Emotion, Attention and the N170. AIMS Neurosci, 2, 172-182.
Duarte, J., McEwan, K., Barnes, C. & Maratos, F.A.* (2015) Do therapeutic imagery practices affect physiological and emotional indicators of threat in high self-critics? Psychology and Psychotherapy: Therapy, Research and Practice 88(3) 270-284
Maratos, F.A* & Staples, P. (2015) Attentional biases toward familiar and unfamiliar foods in Children: The role of food neophobia. Appetite, 91, 220-225.
Yuenyongchaiwat, K., Sheffield, D., Baker, I., & Maratos, F.A. (2015). Hemodynamic responses to active and passive coping tasks and the prediction of future blood pressure in Thai participants: A preliminary prospective cohort study. Japanese Psychological Research, 57(4), 288-299.
Simione L, Calabrese L, Marucci FS, Belardinelli MO, Raffone A, & Maratos, F.A.* (2014) Emotion Based Attentional Priority for Storage in Visual Short-Term Memory PLoS ONE 9(5): e95261. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0095261
McEwan K, Gilbert P, Dandeneau S, Lipka S, Maratos F.A., et al. (2014) Facial Expressions Depicting Compassionate and Critical Emotions: The Development and Validation of a New Emotional Face Stimulus Set. PLoS ONE 9(2): e88783. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0088783
Elander, J., Duarte, J., Maratos, F.A. & Gilbert, P. (2014) Predictors of painkiller dependence among people with pain in the general population. Pain Management 15 (4), 613-624
Duro, E., Elander, J., Maratos F. A., &Stupple E. J. N., (2013). In Search of Critical Thinking: An Exploration of University Students’ and Tutors’ Understandings. Psychology, Learning & Teaching, 12, 275-281
Maratos. F.A.*, Rippon, G.,Mogg, K., Bradley, B.P. & Senior, C. (2012)Threatening faces modulate early gamma band activity in occipital cortex. Cognitive Neuroscience 3, 62-68
Maratos, F.A*. (2011) Temporal processing of emotional stimuli: The capture and release of attention by angry faces, Emotion, 11, 1242-1247 [IF: 3.02]
Croker, S & Maratos, F.A. (2011) Visual Processing Speeds in Children. Child Development Research, Article ID 450178
Longe, O., Maratos, F.A., Gilbert, P., Evans, G., Volker,F., Rockliffe, H & Rippon G (2010). Having a word with yourself: Neural correlates of self-criticism and self-reassurance. Neuroimage, 49, 1849-1856
Maratos, F.A*., Mogg, K, Bradley, B.P, Rippon, G. & Senior, C. (2009). Course threat images reveal oscillations in the amygdala: A magnetoencephalography study. Behavioural, Affective & Cognitive Neurosciences, 9, 133-143
Maratos F.A*., Mogg, K. & Bradley, B.P. (2008). Identification of angry facial expressions in the attentional blink. Cognition & Emotion, 22, 1340-1352
Maratos F.A., Anderson S.J., Hillebrand A., Singh K.D & Barnes G. (2007). The spatial distribution and temporal dynamics of brain regions activated during the perception of object and non-object patterns. Neuroimage. 34, 371-383
Professor Frances Maratos, Associate Professor and Reader in Emotion Science at the University of Derby, explains why she and fellow psychologists are concerned about recent messaging about Covid-19.
Professor Frances Maratos, Associate Professor of Emotion Science at the University of Derby, offers suggestions on how to help children manage their worries about COVID-19 and self isolation.
Professor Frances Maratos discusses whether in terms of the health and well-being of our pupils and teachers, the UK education system is arguably nearing breaking point, after recent reports reveal that up to 54% of teachers state their job ‘often’ or ‘always’ impacts negatively on their mental and/or physical health.
Professor Frances Maratos, Reader in Emotion Science, and Jayne Trovati, PhD student, explain give top tips to parents who have children who are picky eaters.
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