Conor O'Regan

I am a PhD researcher in the Applied Cognitive Science team at the University of Exeter, working in partnership with Smiths Detection. My research focuses on human performance in aviation security, with a particular focus on how contextual demands influence threat detection, decision-making, and operator performance.

Airport baggage screening is a complex visual search task in which screeners must identify rare and potentially dangerous items within visually cluttered images under time-pressured conditions. My PhD explores how external factors such as distraction, workload, fatigue, and the screening environment may affect operator behaviour and performance. A key feature of this research is the use of large-scale operational datasets provided by Edinburgh Airport, combined with controlled experimental methods and psychophysiological measures, to examine how real-world contextual demands shape screening performance.

My work combines laboratory-based experiments, applied aviation security tasks, psychophysiological measures, and analysis of operator performance metrics. The aim is to better understand the conditions under which screening performance is most likely to be supported or hindered, and to use this evidence to inform training, system design, and operational practice.

This research is conducted in collaboration with industry partners and is intended to improve safety and efficiency in threat detection systems, supporting the development of more effective human-centred security technologies and practices.