Dr David Smailes

Assistant Professor

School: Psychology

David Smailes, Senior Lecturer, Faculty of Health and Life Sciences I completed my PhD, which examined the social, emotional, and cognitive correlates of psychotic-like experiences, at Durham University in 2013. Since then, I have held research posts at Durham University, the University of York, and Newcastle University, primarily working on projects related to auditory and visual hallucinations. Prior to joining Northumbria University in 2018, I held lecturing positions at Leeds Trinity University and the University of Sunderland.

Campus Address

Northumberland Building
Northumbria University
Newcastle upon Tyne
NE1 8ST

Email David

Key Publications

Please visit the Pure Research Information Portal for further information
A cross-national study examining imaginary companions and face pareidolia in British and Chinese adults, Davis, P., Fernyhough, C., Yang, L., Xi, Y., Xing, C., Smailes, D. 23 Jan 2026, In: PLoS One
Associations between aberrant salience and hoarding severity in a community sample, Rivers, H., Collins, C., Neave, N., Smailes, D. 18 Feb 2026, In: Cognitive Neuropsychiatry
Associations between sleep health, cognitive control, and hallucinations, Punton, G., Smailes, D., McCarty, K., Ellis, J., Moseley, P. 1 Dec 2025, In: Royal Society Open Science
Examining the availability/findability of stimuli employed in social media and body image research, Smailes, D., Aleksandra, A., Coakley, M., Mair, S., Ventress, J. 22 May 2025, In: PLoS One
The Effects of Acute Sleep Deprivation on Cognitive Control Mechanisms Associated With Hallucinatory Experiences, Punton, G., Ellis, J., Jensen, E., Malby, C., Sharif, F., Smailes, D., Turnbull, M., Moseley, P. 9 Dec 2025, In: Journal of Sleep Research
Evaluating the Pedagogical Effectiveness of Study Preregistration in the Undergraduate Dissertation, Pownall, M., Pennington, C., Norris, E., Juanchich, M., Smailes, D., Russell, S., Gooch, D., Rhys Evans, T., Persson, S., Mak, M., Tzavella, L., Monk, R., Gough, T., Benwell, C., Elsherif, M., Farran, E., Gallagher-Mitchell, T., Kendrick, L., Bahnmueller, J., Nordmann, E., Zaneva, M., Gilligan-Lee, K., Bazhydai, M., Jones, A., Sedgmond, J., Holzleitner, I., Reynolds, J., Moss, J., Farrelly, D., Parker, A., Clark, K. 2023, In: Advances in Methods and Practices in Psychological Science
Varieties of felt presence? Three surveys of presence phenomena and their relations to psychopathology, Alderson-Day, B., Moseley, P., Mitrenga, K., Moffatt, J., Lee, R., Foxwell, J., Hayes, J., Smailes, D., Fernyhough, C. 1 Jun 2023, In: Psychological Medicine
Associations between face pareidolia-proneness, anxiety, depression and visual hallucination-like experiences in a non-clinical population., Rivers, H., Smailes, D. 6 Dec 2022, The Early Career Hallucinations Research Group: Fourth Annual Meeting, 2022
Associations Between Hoarding Behaviours and Symptoms of Psychosis: The Role of Aberrant Salience, Rivers, H., Smailes, D., Neave, N. 7 Apr 2022, Northumbria University's Department of Psychology Postgraduate Research Conference
Measurement practices in hallucinations research, Smailes, D., Alderson-Day, B., Hazell, C., Wright, A., Moseley, P. 4 May 2022, In: Cognitive Neuropsychiatry

PGR Supervision

Mariia Goncharova Start Date: 17/06/2025 End Date: 12/03/2026
Hollie Rivers An investigation into the relationship between hoarding behaviours and psychosis symptoms, and the role of aberrant salience. Start Date: 01/10/2021