Dr Teodor Nikolov
(he/him)
MA (Hons), MRes, PhD, FHEA
Teams and roles for Teodor Nikolov
Lecturer
Overview
I am a Lecturer (T&R) at the School of Psychology.
Research
Broadly, my research interest lies in exploring visual attention and visual memory. By investigating eye movements, in my previous research I have explored the role of text in reading comic books and the influence of semantic associations on gaze following. My PhD focused on investigating how we use our eyes during the encoding and maintenance of verbal and spatial information, under the guidance of Dr Candice Morey. I also contributed to a project led by Dr Hana D’Souza examining the everyday visual experiences of children with motor difficulties, where I developed and benchmarked machine-learning pipelines for automated face detection and analysis of egocentric video data.
I am currently developing new research directions at the intersection of psychology and artificial intelligence. I am especially interested in how principles of visual attention and memory can be applied to understand human behaviour in AI-assisted environments, particularly how people decide when to rely on or question AI outputs.
Publication
2025
- Nikolov, T. Y., Allen, R. J., Havelka, J., Darling, S., van de Vegte, B. and Morey, C. C. 2025. Navigating the mind's eye: Understanding gaze shifts in visuospatial bootstrapping. Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology 78(2), pp. 391-404. (10.1177/17470218241282426)
2024
- Nikolov, T. 2024. Gaze and memory: An investigation into the role of eye movements in maintaining verbal and spatial information. PhD Thesis, Cardiff University.
Articles
- Nikolov, T. Y., Allen, R. J., Havelka, J., Darling, S., van de Vegte, B. and Morey, C. C. 2025. Navigating the mind's eye: Understanding gaze shifts in visuospatial bootstrapping. Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology 78(2), pp. 391-404. (10.1177/17470218241282426)
Thesis
- Nikolov, T. 2024. Gaze and memory: An investigation into the role of eye movements in maintaining verbal and spatial information. PhD Thesis, Cardiff University.
Biography
Education
2019 - 2024: PhD in Psychology, Cardiff University
2018 - 2019: MRes in Psychology, University of Aberdeen
2014 - 2018: MA (Hons) Psychology, University of Aberdeen