About

I am an Associate Professor in Psychology in the College of Science and Engineering. I also lead the Mathematics Anxiety Research Group. 

Research interests

I have a broad range of interests across psychology, but the main focus of my work is within maths education and professional occupations that require number processing (such as drug dosage calculations in nurses and healthcare professionals). I research the interplay between emotion and mathematical processing. This encompasses factors such as maths anxiety, maths resilience, maths confidence, maths self-efficacy, and maths attitudes.

Recent publications

Peer-Reviewed Research Papers

Soll, B., Petronzi, D., & Hunt, T. E. (2026). The validation of a therapy dog intervention for math anxiety in early elementary school children. Journal of Research in Childhood Education, 1-24. https://doi.org/10.1080/02568543.2026.2648930

Gaffiero, D., Suárez-Pellicioni, M., & Hunt, T. E. (2025). Investigating the content-specificity and time course of attentional biases in mathematics anxiety: a dot-probe approach. Cogent Psychology, 13(1), 2604325. https://doi.org/10.1080/23311908.2025.2604325

Daroczy, G., Cramer, F., Artemenko, C, Hunt, T. E., & Nuerk, H.-C. (2025). The mathematics anxiety-complexity effect in word problems. Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology, 1-15. https://doi.org/10.1177/17470218261425251

Szczygieł, M., Hunt, T. E., & Sari, M. H. (2025). Domain-specific and domain-general predictors of math anxiety in adolescents and adults. Contemporary Educational Psychology, 82 102400. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cedpsych.2025.102400

Szczygieł, M., Hunt, T. E., Sari, M. H., Milovanović, I., Asanjarani, F., Guncaga, J., & Osadan, R. (2025). Anxiety and attitudes towards math and math teaching in early childhood education teachers: A multi-country study. European Educational Research Journal, 1-30. https://doi.org/10.1177/14749041251401767

Marmolejo-Ramos, F., Marrone, R., Korolkiewicz, M., Gabriel, F., Siemens, G., Joksimovic, S., Yamada, Y., Mori, Y., Rahwan, T., Sahakyan, M., Sonna, B., Meirmanov, A., Bolatov, A., Som, B., Ndukaihe, I., Arinze, N. C., Kundrát, J., Skanderová, L., Ngo, V-G., Nguyen, G., Lacia, M., Kung, C-C., Irmayanti, M., Muktadir, A., Samosir, F. T., Liuzza, M. T., Giorgini, R., Khatin Zadeh O., Banaruee, H., Özdogru, A. A., Ariyabuddhiphongs, K., Rakchai, W., Trujillo, N., Valencia, S. M., Janyan, A., Kostov, K., Montoro, P. R., Hinojosa, J., Medeiros, K., Hunt, T. E., Posada, J., Freitag, R. M. K., & Tejada, J. (2025). Factors influencing trust in algorithmic decision making: An indirect scenario-based experiment. Frontiers in Artificial Intelligence, 7: 1465605. https://doi.org/10.3389/frai.2024.1465605

Book Chapters

Santos, F., Hunt, T. E., & Ansari, D. (2025). The intersection of cognitive and emotional factors in diagnosing and treating developmental dyscalculia. In Y. Gliksman, L. Kaufmann, & A. Henik (Eds.), Developmental dyscalculia: From brain mechanisms to educational applications. Elsevier.

Books

Kirkland, H. R., & Hunt, T. E. (2025). Maths anxiety: Solving the equation. Routledge. http://dx.doi.org/10.4324/9781003426547

Membership of professional bodies

• Senior Fellow of the Higher Education Academy
• Chartered Psychologist as recognised by the British Psychological Society

Professional interests

My professional interests are connected to my research interests. I work with various schools, colleges, and education-based organisations that have an interest in psychological factors linked to maths engagement, learning, and performance, e.g. discussing strategies to reduce maths anxiety in the classroom. My work also extends to professional areas in which maths anxiety is a key consideration, such as anxiety when carrying out drug dosage calculations.

I am a chartered psychologist and senior fellow of Advance HE. I am also a committee member of the Maths Anxiety Trust and regularly work with organisations such as Learnus UK and National Numeracy.

Qualifications

• BSc (Hons) Psychology
• PgCert Research Methods
• PhD

Recent conferences

Apolostolidou, M., & Hunt, T. E. (2026). Understanding maths anxiety and maths self-efficacy in further education maths students [Poster presentation]. International Maths Anxiety Conference, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, U.K.

Hunt, T. E. (2026, July). Not only learners: The importance of acknowledging maths anxiety in teachers. International Maths Anxiety Conference, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, U.K.

Hunt, T. E., Soll, B. A., & Petronzi, D. (2026, June.). The validation of a therapy dog intervention for math anxiety in early elementary school children. In F. Shelton (Chair), From dogs to outdoor delivery: Varied interventions to promote child wellbeing and prosocial behaviours [Symposium]. International Perspectives in Education Conference, Leeds, U.K.

Hunt, T. E. (2026, Jan.). Maths and gender: A psychological perspective. PiXL Primary Conference, London, U.K.

Hunt, T. E. (2025, Nov.). Girls in maths: A psychological perspective. PiXL Maths Conference, London, U.K.

Kayani, A., & Hunt, T. E. (2025, Nov.). Exploring the effect of virtual colouring mandalas on anxiety in higher education students [Poster presentation]. University of Derby Undergraduate Research Scholarship Scheme Conference, University of Derby, Derby, U.K.

Hunt, T. E. (2025, Nov.). Maths anxiety, maths teaching anxiety, and maths attitudes in primary school teachers: A multi-country study [Invited presentation]. LearnusUK FutureEd25 Conference, London, U.K.

Prados, J., Donaldson, M., Waldron, M., Parente, F., & Hunt, T. E. (2025, Oct.). Cognitive transfer between spatial and numerical skills: effects of mental rotation training and anxiety on arithmetic problem solving [Paper presentation]. XXXV International Congress of the Spanish Society for Comparative Psychology. San Sebastian, Spain.

Experience in industry

I have carried out various consultancy activities on the topic of maths anxiety. Organisations I have worked with include: Bristol City Council; De Ferrers Community School; Derbyshire County Council; Luminate Education Group; Numeracy for Life; PiXL; REC Parenting; Sigma Trust; Teach First; Uxbridge and Harrow College; White Rose Education, Pearson. 

I regularly give talks and workshops on understanding and overcoming maths anxiety and test anxiety.

In the media

I have published various blogs via different organisations, e.g. National Numeracy and Pearson Education. I have given radio interviews in which I talk about maths anxiety, and appeared in an episode of BBC Radio 4's Bringing up Britain: BBC Radio 4 - Bringing Up Britain, Series 15, Why Does Maths Make Me Anxious?

I have also appeared in various local and national newspapers.

International experience

I have visited other countries (including Turkiye, Uganda, and Romania) to meet with academic colleagues and teachers in local schools to discuss the issue of maths anxiety and ways to tackle it.

I have also presented at several international conferences and much of my research involves collaboration with colleagues from across the world.

Teaching responsibilities

I teach on various modules and lead a third-year undergraduate module called Psychology in Education. 

In addition, I supervise research projects across a range of programmes.