Helen Williams

Dr. Helen Williams is a Senior Lecturer in Psychology at the School of Psychology, Keele University. She holds a BSc, MSc, and PhD from the University of Leeds, followed by postdoctoral fellowships at the University of Richmond, Virginia (2010-2012) and the University of Victoria, Canada (2012-2013).

• Current role since October 2013
• ESRC-funded research on aging and cognitive impairment

Her research focuses on higher-order cognitive processes, particularly memory recognition mechanisms through the Remember-Know procedure, aging-related cognitive deficits, and metacognitive awareness. She has secured significant grants including a £213,355 ESRC Future Research Leaders award (2016) for studying recollection-familiarity dynamics in aging populations.

Recent publications span memory testing methodology, metacognitive monitoring, and cognitive aging. Her teaching portfolio includes biological psychology, cognitive development, research design, and advanced memory studies. Administrative roles include MSc Cognition & Cognitive Neuroscience Programme Lead, Health & Safety Officer, and Undergraduate Academic Mentor.

Notable scientific contributions include:

• Developing the Keele Photo Stimulus Set (2024)
• Clarifying Remember-Know paradigm ambiguities (2019)
• Demonstrating cross-cultural memory network patterns (2008)
• Establishing writing communities for early-career academics (2017)

Her metacognition research examines how individuals monitor their own memory processes, with applications to obsessive-compulsive checking behaviors and aging populations. Technical collaborations include computational modeling of memory monitoring systems (2019) and comparative analysis of recognition procedures (2014).