About
I am an Associate Professor (Learning & Teaching) of Psychology and Assistant Psychology Subject Lead in the School of Science.
In terms of my research, teaching, and professional activities, I have consistently found myself drawn to controversial, challenging, and difficult questions: from parapsychology, to why we believe in things, to dark personality traits, to addressing awarding gaps, the use of AI, and through to how playing roleplaying games can make us feel better.
Research interests
I have research interests in parapsychology, paranormal belief, religious belief, dark personality characteristics, how roleplaying games can have wellbeing benefits, AI use, and research into teaching and learning.
I am the Lead of the Transformational Learning Research Group at the University of Derby.
I am currently supervising the following doctoral students:
- Linda Renshaw (PhD Candidate) - Investigation into the interaction between cognitive fatigue and the mechanisms of balance in older adults
- Ian Danton (PhD Candidate) - Prejudice, social schema and the relationship with common human values; working towards a new scale
- Caroline Adams (PhD Candidate) - I feel, therefore I am: Investigating what emotions underlie the variables that correlate with paranormal belief and experience
- Katherine Trimby (PhD Candidate) - Tabletop Roleplaying Games (TTRPGs) and Wellbeing
- Ceylon Dell (Professional Doctoral Candidate) - Community Mental Health Nurses and their use of Generative AI in clinical practice
I have also supervised several students to the successful completion of their MRes projects, and I have supervised four students to the successful completion of their PhDs:
- Dr Kornanong Yuenyongchaiwat - Do haemodynamic responses to mental stress tests predict future blood pressure one year later? Prospective studies in the United Kingdom and Thailand (Completed September 2013)
- Dr Michael Batashvili – The electrophysiological correlates of maths anxiety: Exploring the role of gamma activity (Completed March 2014)
- Dr Malcolm Schofield – The Cognitive and Personality Differences of Supernatural Belief (Completed September 2017)
- Dr Louise Katz - The Dark Side of Humanity Scale: A Reconstruction of the Dark Tetrad Constructs as they Manifest in the General Population (Completed May 2021)
Professional interests
I am the Co-Chair of both the College of Health and Humanities and College of Science and Enginerring Access and Participation Plan Steering Groups, where we are responsible for implementing the University's Access and Participation Plan for the two Colleges. I have been involved in institutional efforts to address awarding gaps for many years and I am passionate in trying to help address these issues.
I am the Chair of a Task and Finish Group producing a set of Guidelines for the use of AI in Research for the British Psychological Society.
I was also the UK Representative on the Digitalisation Expert Reference Group for the European Federation of Psychologists' Associations (EFPA) in 2024-2025.
Qualifications
- BSc (Hons) Psychology - Coventry University
- Postgraduate Certificate in Learning and Teaching - University of Derby
- MSc by Research in Psychology - University of Edinburgh
- PhD in Psychology - University of Edinburgh
I am qualified in psychometric test use, and I hold the following qualifications that are awarded by the British Psychological Society (BPS):
- Assistant Test User: Occupational
- Test User: Occupational Ability
- Test User: Occupational Personality
- Test User: Forensic
Recent conferences
During 2023-2024, Prof. Ian Turner and I have organised several online conferences exploring research into playing Tabletop Roleplay Games (TTRPGs), such as Dungeons and Dragons, as part of our D&D Research Tarvern series.
Conferences:
- Lindley, M., Williams, S., Baker, I. S., & Burgess, S. (March 2024). Bridging the gap between anti-oppressive practice and academic practice. Advance HE’s Equality, Diversity, and Inclusion Conference, Liverpool, UK
- Baker, I.S., (July 2020). People, People, People: Pedagogy in the COVID and Post-COVID HE Landscape. International (Online) Conference entitled “The Higher Education Sector in the Post Pandemic Landscape"
- Schofield, M., Baker. I.S., Staples, P. & Sheffield, D. (2018). The creation and validation of the Belief in the Supernatural Scale. The 61 Annual Convention of the Parapsychological Association, Petaluma, California
- Baker, I.S. (May 2009). Staring at the Brain: EEG Activity When Being Watched Remotely. The Society for Psychical Research Study Day No. 56: Psi and Brain
- Baker, I. S. (2008). Parapsychology and investigating haunting experiences: The ethics of investigating haunting experiences [Panel paper and discussion]. In S. Sherwood & B. Carr (Eds.), Proceedings of the Parapsychological Association 51 & the Society for Psychical Research 32nd Annual Convention (pp. 368). The Parapsychological Association, Inc
- Baker, I. S. (March 2007). An anomaly of an anomaly: Exploring the feeling of being watched. University of Derby, Psychology Department Research Seminar Series
- Baker, I. S. (September 2006). Exploring the Limits of Human Perception: The Psychological and Physiological Perception of Normal and Remote Staring. The 34 Annual Scientific Meeting of the British Association for Cognitive Neuroscience
- Baker, I. S. (August 2005). The Electrophysiology of Remote Staring Detection. Getting the most from Event-Related Potential (ERP) studies of Human Cognition, a workshop held in the Department of Psychology at the University of Stirling, sponsored by the Royal Society of Edinburgh
- Baker, I. S. (March, 2005). The Electrophysiology of Remote Staring Detection. The Institut fur Grenzgebiete der Psychologie und Psychohygiene (IGPP), and Frieburg University Hospital, Germany
- Baker, I. S. (February 2005). Don't look now, but I think he's behind us! - Investigating the Electrophysiology of Remote Staring Detection. University of Northampton, Psychology Department Research Lecture Series
- Baker, I. S. (September 2002). Remote staring detection: A research review. 26th International Conference of the Society for Psychical Research
- Baker, I. S. (March 2001). Do Ghosts Exist? - A Summary of Parapsychological Research into Apparitional Experiences. Early Modern Ghosts Conference, Centre for Seventeenth-Century Studies, University of Durham
- Baker, I. S. (September 1998). Investigation of a Reportedly Haunted Public House in Derbyshire. 22nd International Conference of the Society for Psychical Research
Teaching responsibilities
I teach on a range of modules on the BSc (Hons) in Psychology degree and I lead the Philosophy of Science in Psychology module on the MRes in Psychology degree. Much of my teaching focuses on the use of quantitative research methods.
Additional interests and activities
From January 2025 to present I am the Co-Investigator on the £200,000 Office for Students funded project "Inducing Empathatic Equality using Game-Based Learning" as part of their Equality in Higher Education Innovation fund, in partnership with the NHS and Applio.
From February 2026 to July 2026 I was the Co-Investigator on the £80,000 NHS England tender for "Evaluation of NHSE Education Quality Data Indicators", providing a critical evaluation of their education quality data, including the National Education and Training Survey (NETS) and other measures.
During 2018 and 2019 I was responsible for leading the quantitative data analysis and delivering on key project objectives for the Office for Students funded “Student Attainment Project” for their “Addressing Barriers to Student Success programme”. This £683,000 project was led by the University of Derby, in partnership with Southampton Solent University and the University of West London.
I have received over £200,000 of internal and external funding to date, and I have been a BIAL Foundation Research Fellow on several occasions.
In 2026 I was the Guest Editor of a Special Issue of the journal Behavioural Sciences on Roleplaying Games and Wellbeing.
I am a reviewer for over a dozen academic journals in several areas, an Article Editor for SAGE Open, acted as an Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) Rapporteur, and I was the Editor of the European Journal of Parapsychology (EJP). In 2004, I received the Eileen J. Garrett Scholarship Award from the Parapsychology Foundation, New York.
