Staff profile

I am a Postdoctoral Research Associate working within the Institute for Medical Humanities and Department of Psychology at Durham University. My current role involves investigating the imagination through an ambitious project exploring questions around how we read and imagine called ReaderBank. In collaboration with the Edinburgh Book Festival and the IMH Narrative and Cognition Lab, I work as a 'full-stack researcher', designing experimental cognitive methods and studies to better understand the mind of the reader and investigate the hidden experience of what it is to imagine. I'm particularly interested in how readers engage in cognitive processes like mental imagery, inner-speech, cognitive control, and top-down perceptual processing.

I completed my PhD at Northumbria University between 2021 and 2023, where I investigated the role of cognitive control (e.g., intentional inhibition, working memory, thought control, and emotion regulation) within the relationship between sleep health and hallucinatory experiences. I have experience working with polysomnography and EEG in a sleep laboratory, as well as implementing sleep deprivation paradigms to understand the impact of sleep loss on cognitive performance and capacities.

I am also a keen mixed-methods researcher with a deep interest in phenomenological approaches to understanding mental wellbeing and experiences of mental health systems.

Journal Article

• Towards an Integrative Account of Potential Mechanisms Mediating the Path From Sleep Dysfunction to Hallucinations
  
  Sheaves, B., Cropley, V. L., Moseley, P., Woodruff, P. W. R., Punton, G., Speth, C., Speth, J., Meerlo, P., & Brederoo, S. G. (2025). Towards an Integrative Account of Potential Mechanisms Mediating the Path From Sleep Dysfunction to Hallucinations. Schizophrenia Bulletin, 51(Supplement 3), S304-S316. https://doi.org/10.1093/schbul/sbaf107
• What Does Community Well-Being Mean in the University Setting? Staff Perspectives on Connection, Compassion, and Culture
  
  Dodd, A. L., Punton, G., Thomas, L., Orme, E., Martin, S., Hey, N., & Byrom, N. C. (2025). What Does Community Well-Being Mean in the University Setting? Staff Perspectives on Connection, Compassion, and Culture. Social Indicators Research, 179(2), 1025-1047. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11205-025-03651-5
• How Can the University Environment Support Student Quality of Life? A Novel Conceptual Model
  
  Dodd, A. L., Punton, G., McLaren, J. M. A., Sillence, E., & Byrom, N. (2024). How Can the University Environment Support Student Quality of Life? A Novel Conceptual Model. Education Sciences, 14(5), Article 547. https://doi.org/10.3390/educsci14050547
• Frequent gamblers’ perceptions of the role of gambling marketing in their behaviour: An interpretative phenomenological analysis
  
  Houghton, S., Punton, G., Casey, E., McNeill, A., & Moss, M. (2023). Frequent gamblers’ perceptions of the role of gambling marketing in their behaviour: An interpretative phenomenological analysis. PLOS ONE, 18(6), Article e0287393. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0287393
• ‘You’re on the waiting list’: An interpretive phenomenological analysis of young adults’ experiences of waiting lists within mental health services in the UK
  
  Punton, G., Dodd, A. L., & McNeill, A. (2022). ‘You’re on the waiting list’: An interpretive phenomenological analysis of young adults’ experiences of waiting lists within mental health services in the UK. PLOS ONE, 17(3), Article e0265542. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0265542