Staff Profiles

For full and up-to-date details please refer to https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2560-8760


Trained in experimental psychology at the University of London, and subsequently in psychophysics at the University of Leipzig, Germany and electrophysiology at the Max-Planck Institute for CognitiveNeuroscience, also in Leipzig, Mark is a measurement scientist with backgrounds in general psychology and cognitive science. Mark's scholarly lineage originates in the German Gestalt Schools, reflecting scientific and philosophical interests in perceptual structure, alongside the dynamics of mechanisms that bring this structure about.


Mark's scientific work in this area is referenced in the internationally standard, undergraduate textbook: Gleitman, H., Gross, J., and Reisberg, D (2011) Psychology 8th Edition, WW Norton & Company, New York, NY. (p.196).


Mark was employed as Senior Lecturer/Associate Professor in Psychology at NUI Galway in 2005, coming to Ireland from an Associate Professor position at the Ludwig Maximilian University, Munich, Germany. He was appointed Full Professor at Kyushu University (2010). Kyushu University is now one of 11 Japanese international research universities and is ranked 167 in the world (2024 QS ranking - rank 52 in Asia). This appointment was based upon election by the Faculty of Design at Kyushu University and was conferred by the Representative of the Emperor of Japan. More recently, Mark was appointed SeaSky Professor at Dalian University of Technology, China.

As former President of the International Society for Psychophysics, with 25-years post PhD experience in psychological measurement, Mark is well placed to apply expertise in the design and development of state-of-the-art human performance measures for business and industry clients. In this area, he co-founded the New York-based psychological profiling company Assessment Innovation Inc.

Mark has been involved in several research agendas: clinical research has included investigations of schizophrenia, autism-spectrum-disorder, central-auditory-processing disorder, specific-reading and language-impaired children as well as stroke-lesioned patients. Basic research has focused on examining the cognitive microstructural dynamics of visual and auditory representation using experimental methods alongside some EEG and neuroimaging. This interest has evolved into studies of the dynamics inherent in art and music, as well as investigations of microstructural dynamics in mechanisms coding art and music. Founding member of the Neurosciences Cluster and formerly Chair of the Applied Clinical Neurosciences Subgroup of the National Centre for Biomedical Engineering Sciences (2006 - 2010). In December 2012, the Neurosciences Cluster was recognised as a Centre of Excellence in Neurodegeneration by the international COEN initiative (http://www.coen.org/home.html).

Mark has authored 124 publications in peer-reviewed journals and books, including 9 invited book chapters, advanced reviews, and feature articles. There are additionally, 4 edited proceedings volumes and 2 edited special journal issues in addition to 74 articles in indexed proceedings volumes (Hirsch's h-index = 26; Egghe's g index = 41). Publications are in journals of median (estimated) impact factor 4. This is 3 * the median impact of journals within the discipline of Psychology (2010, median = 1.33).


Since 1998 Mark has delivered 90+ lectures in 15 countries including major universities or scientific meetings in the UK and Ireland, USA, Russia, Japan, China, France, Germany, India, Brazil, Turkey, Israel, Switzerland and Italy. These include 70 invited talks at colloquia or major national and international symposia and 10 named keynote lectures.


At undergraduate level Mark teaches Perception and Attention and Cognitive Neuroscience. He has previously taught experimental methods in Psychology, elements of Biological Psychology as well as The Psychology of Aesthetics and the Arts.

Curriculum development has concerned a successful application for EU TEMPUS funding and then serving as European Commission advisor to Psychology departments in Serbia and Macedonia and development of psychology curricula consistent with Bologna structures.

In the 12 years since the inception of the awards, 2 students submitting assignments for modules run by Mark A. Elliott have won awards for the best undergraduate submission in Life Sciences and Psychology at the International Undergraduate Awards. One student submission was highly commended.


Postgraduate curriculum development has involved the establishment of the M.Sc. in Neuro-Cognitive Psychology at the LMU in Munich (one of the top-10 international Masters programmes in Germany). At NUI Galway, the design and directorship of structured PhDs in Perception, Cognition and Action; Social Psychological Science and Cognitive Science (the latter in collaboration with the University of Limerick) and directorship of the inter-school structured PhD in Learning Sciences.