Staff Members

Dr Rebecca Sargisson

Role: Lecturer Qualifications: B.SocSc, MSocSc (Waikato), PhD (Otago) Email: rebeccas Location: WIND V.20 Contact: 37 7506

Research Interests:

I have a background in:

- Behavioural psychology, particularly involving animals:
* Memory processes in pigeons (PhD - Otago University)
* The use of dogs to detect landmines and UXO(Geneva International Centre for Humaitarian Demining and the United Nations, 2003 - 2005)
* Issues related to companion animals

- Educational Psychology:
* Assessing new entrant children on range of skills (Ministry of Education partnership)
* Investigating the use of playgrounds by children

My particular focus since my PhD has been on the application of psychology to real-world issues.

Selected Publications:

White, K. G., & Sargisson, R. J. (2011). Maintained generalization of delay-specific remembering. Behavioural Processes, 87, 310-313.

Butler, R., Sargisson, R. J., & Elliffe, D. (2011). The efficacy of systematic desensitization for treating the separation-related problem behaviour of domestic dogs. Applied Animal Behaviour Science, 129, 136-145.

Sargisson, R. J., & McLean, I. G. (2010). The effect of reinforcement rate on hits and false alarms in Remote Explosive Scent Tracing with dogs. Journal of ERW and Mine Action, 14.3, 64-68.

Sargisson, R.J., McLean, I.G., Brown, G.S., & White, K.G. (2007). Seasonal variation in pigeon body weight and delayed matching-to-sample performance. Journal of the Experimental Analysis of Behavior, 88, 395-404.

Sargisson, R. J., & White, K. G. (2007). Remembering as discrimination in delayed matching to sample: Discriminability and bias. Learning & Behavior, 35, 177- 183.

Sargisson, R. J., & White, K. G. (2007). Timing, remembering, and discrimination. Journal of the Experimental Analysis of Behavior, 87, 25-37.

McLean, I. G., & Sargisson, R. J. (2004). Optimising the use of REST for mine detection. Journal of Mine Action, 8.2, 100-104.

Sargisson, R. J., & White, K. G. (2003). The effect of reinforcer delays on the form of the forgetting function. Journal of the Experimental Analysis of Behavior, 80, 77-94.

Sargisson, R. J., & White, K. G. (2001). Generalization of delayed matching to sample following training at different delays. Journal of the Experimental Analysis of Behavior, 75, 1-14.

Research Publications:

You may like to view publications from 1997 onwards for Dr Rebecca Sargisson

General Interests:

I am based at the Tauranga campus, where I take most of the lectures in PSYC102. I also currently provide support for PSYC225, PSYC226, PSYC227, PSYC228, and PSYC301 in Tauranga.

Expertise:

I received a PhD from Otago University in 2003.

I went immediately from Dunedin to Afghanistan in April 2003 to study environmental and behavioural determinants of dogs' abilities to detect buried landmines. During 3 years of working for the Geneva International Centre for Humanitarian Demining (which works closely with the United Nations and other humanitarian organisations) I also investigated the efficacy of a laboratory technique for the detection of landmines and UXO by dogs (Angola), and assisted on projects in Tanzania, Bosnia, and Croatia.

Since returning to work after the birth of my two children, I have begun to develop interests in Early Childhood Education, Educational psychology, and child development, as well as maintaining an interest in behavioural psychology in applied contexts (for example, for the treatment of companion animals problems).