Dr Valerie Benson

Associate Professor

School: Psychology

I began my academic career at the University of Durham, UK where I was awarded my PhD in Psychology (2004), having been supervised by one of the instrumental figures in eye movement research in the UK, Prof John Findlay. I subsequently worked as a Research Fellow with one of the central figures in vision, Prof David Milner. In 2006 I was awarded a prestigious Roberts Research Fellowship, and relocated to the University of Southampton, UK where I spent the next five years developing an independent research profile, specialising in investigating eye movements in typical and atypical populations. In 2011 I became a Lecturer in Psychology, and I was promoted to a Senior Lecturer in 2011. In 2018 I relocated back to the North of England to take up a part-time Senior Lectureship in Atypical Cognition at the University of Central Lancashire (UCLan). I was promoted to Reader in 2022, and in November 2025 I moved to Northumbria University to take up a PT Associate Professorship in Experimental Psychology.

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Research Themes and Scholarly Interests

My research investigates how patterns of eye movements can reveal on-line cognitive processing differences for a range of tasks and with a range of populations. The aim is to show how processing differences might contribute to the observed behavioural characteristics of atypical populations, and the findings are used to develop theoretical accounts as to how cognition drives or underpins aspects of behaviour in specific groups. I am currently leading National, European and International collaborative projects to examine various aspects of cognition in the deaf; in autism; in anxiety; in stroke patients and in older adults.

Key Publications

Please visit the Pure Research Information Portal for further information
EXPRESS: Inferential processing in autistic and non-autistic readers: New opportunities for inquiry, Howard, P., Martin, N., Benson, V., Liversedge, S. 18 May 2026, In: Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology
Language experience and reading ability modulate word recognition in deaf readers, Lan, Z., Guo, M., Liu, N., Yan, G., Benson, V. 1 Jan 2026, In: Journal of Deaf Studies and Deaf Education
Age differences in preference and memory for advertisements: the roles of advertisement type and product type, Chen, W., Zhang, L., Yang, S., Shen, Z., Xie, F., Benson, V. 1 Dec 2025, In: Humanities and Social Sciences Communications
Attentional disengagement differences in young children with autism: A comparative eye-movement study using static and dynamic stimuli, Zhou, L., Benson, V. 1 Sep 2025, In: Research in Autism
Attentional processing of preserved face and scrambled face distractors in preschool children with autism spectrum condition, Zhang, L., Zhou, L., Kang, L., Xu, Y., Jiang, H., Benson, V. 2024, In: Journal of Cognitive Psychology
Eye-movement methodology reveals a shift in attention from threat to neutral stimuli with self-reported symptoms of social anxiety across children, adolescents and adults, Pavlou, K., Manoli, A., Benson, V., Hadwin, J. 15 Sep 2024, In: Journal of Cognitive Psychology
The impact of circumscribed interest distractors on attentional orienting in young children with autism: eye-tracking evidence from the remote distractor paradigm, Zhou, L., Yang, F., Benson, V. 3 Jul 2024, In: Journal of Cognitive Psychology
Saccadic orienting in special populations, Benson, V. 31 May 2023, Cognitive and Cultural Influences on Eye Movements, London, UK, Taylor & Francis
Attentional Engagement and Disengagement Differences for Circumscribed Interest Objects in Young Chinese Children with Autism, Zhou, L., Zhang, L., Xu, Y., Yang, F., Benson, V. 27 Oct 2022, In: Brain Sciences
Phonological Coding during Sentence Reading in Chinese Deaf Readers: An Eye-Tracking Study, Yan, G., Lan, Z., Meng, Z., Wang, Y., Benson, V. 4 Jul 2021, In: Scientific Studies of Reading

Further Information

In everyday life the default strategy to sample the visual environment is to move our eyes in fast ballistic movements (saccades) interspersed with periods where the eye remains still (fixations). This is known as saccadic orienting, and its purpose is to re-position the high acuity area of the retina, the fovea, so that detailed inspection can be carried out at the point of fixation. Information is processed in detail during fixations. Where and when the eyes move for given tasks are tightly linked to on-line cognitive processing, and patterns of eye movements have the potential to reveal processing differences that might account for behavioural effects observed for various special or atypical populations. Eye movement methodology enables me to investigate on-line cognitive processing differences, for a range of tasks, with a range of participant populations.