Rachael Wynne

Rachael Wynne is a Lecturer at the University of Newcastle's School of Psychological Sciences, part of the College of Engineering, Science and Environment. She holds a PhD from the University of the Sunshine Coast and a Graduate Certificate in Tertiary Education from Central Queensland University. Her research focuses on Human Factors and cognitive psychology, particularly the interplay between experience, attention, memory, and road safety. She has contributed to projects on aviation safety, driver distraction, and autonomous vehicles.

Education:

• PhD, University of the Sunshine Coast
• Bachelor of Psychological Science (Hons), Australian Catholic University
• Graduate Certificate in Tertiary Education, Central Queensland University

Research Interests: Human Factors in aviation and road safety, cognitive psychology, driver behavior, hazard perception, and touchscreen interface usability in flight decks.

Grants:

• $376,779: 'Tackling Looked-But-Failed-To-See Crashes for Motorcyclists and Cyclists' (2024)
• $1,121,313: 'Evaluation of Human Machine Interfaces in Vehicles' (2022–2025)

Awards:

• First Place, 3 Minute Thesis Competition (UniSC, 2017 and 2018)

Teaching & Supervision: Coordinated courses in cognitive psychology and human factors. Supervised 4 current and 6 past students, including PhD projects on change blindness, distraction testing methods, and environmental distractibility.

Affiliations: Formerly a Visiting Researcher at the University of Southampton and Research Fellow at the Centre for Human Factors and Sociotechnical Systems (UniSC). Active in the Transportation Research Group and Human Factors Engineering teams.