Mr Simon Hanzal

  • Graduate Teaching Assistant (Psychology & Neuroscience Education Hub)

Research interests

My main research interest is the intersection between fatigue and motivation and their effects on attention. During my PhD, I contributed to research using electroencephalography (EEG) to detect biomarkers associated with mechanisms involved in fatigue. I also investigated the role of ageing in sustained attention. I developed behavioural testing protocols for online attentional experiments and worked on methods for data collection through public engagement.

I am now particularly interested in applying behavioural experiments and non-invasive EEG to study motivational drivers of individual differences in attentional performance. I am especially keen to identify underlying drivers of motivation in student populations, including long-term motivators such as belief in science. I believe that the experience of experimental participation provides a valuable context for examining these dynamics, particularly in relation to biases that may skew performance. To this end, I draw on both objective markers (EEG signals, physiological measures, task performance) and subjective measures (questionnaires, assessments, and qualitative studies of lived experience). I maintain an ongoing interest in how reframing the experimental setting through public engagement and outreach to underrepresented populations can enhance the generalisability of psychological findings.

Publications

List by: Type | Date

Number of items: 4.

Articles

Hanzal, Simon, Learmonth, Gemma ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4061-4464, Thut, Gregor ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1313-4262 and Harvey, Monika ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1694-1174 (2024) Probing sustained attention and fatigue across the lifespan. PLoS ONE, 19(7), e0292695. (doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0292695) (PMID:39018279) (PMCID:PMC11253940)

Hanzal, Simon, Tvrdá, Lucie ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7776-578X and Harvey, Monika ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1694-1174 (2023) An investigation into discomfort and fatigue related to the wearing of an EEG neurofeedback headset. medRxiv, (doi: 10.1101/2023.02.16.23284115)

Turner, C. et al. (2023) Developmental changes in individual alpha frequency: recording EEG data during public engagement events. Imaging Neuroscience, 1, pp. 1-14. (doi: 10.1162/imag_a_00001) (PMID:37719836) (PMCID:PMC10503479)

Conference or Workshop Item

Hanzal, Simon, Learmonth, Gemma ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4061-4464, Thut, Gregor ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1313-4262 and Harvey, Monika ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1694-1174 (2023) Neural Correlates of Inducing Fatigue with a Sustained Attention Task. Journal of Vision 23(9):4923. Meeting abstract: 23rd Annual Meeting of the Vision Sciences Society, St Pete Beach, Fl., USA, 19-24 May 2023. p. 4923. (doi: 10.1167/jov.23.9.4923)

This list was generated on Fri Sep 19 06:21:18 2025 BST.

Supervision

Supervisor

Teaching

Undegraduate Dissertation Projects

MSc Cognitive Brain Imaging Methods

Level 3 Psychometrics

Level 2 Psychobiology

Level 1 Research Methods Labs