Tom Peney

Dr Tom Peney is a Postdoctoral Research Associate in the School of Psychology and Social Work at the University of Hull, working on the ESRC-funded project 'Beyond Belief', which investigates how adults attribute mental states to others. The project is conducted in collaboration with Dr Richard O'Connor and Professor Kevin Riggs (see here for more information: https://gtr.ukri.org/projects?ref=UKRI559).

He completed his PhD at the University of Hull in 2025, investigating how immersion in virtual reality affects basic visual attention processes. This work informed a broader interest in cognitive ethology: how far laboratory measures capture cognition as it operates in more naturalistic settings.