Dr Rhiannon Mae Armitage
Postdoctoral Researcher and Academic Content Facilitator
I'm an interdisciplinary researcher at the University of Sussex, working on a 4-day week interventional trial alongside projects in the broader areas of ingestive behaviour, biological and occupational psychology. This includes co-investigating the use of novel technology to monitor eating behaviour while teaching, delivering outreach programmes and co-supervising UG, MSc, and placement students.
Research Interests
My current research investigates how a four-day working week changes biological health, such as immune function, and lifestyle factors, such as diet, mental health, and sleep. I am also leading analyses of how employment interacts with diet, physical, and mental health in the UK Biobank using a big data approach. Alongside this, I am a co-investigator exploring the use of novel technology for monitoring eating behaviour and weight loss.
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I continue to work on projects related to the behavioural, genetic and neural basis of individual differences in liking for sweet tastes as a marker of risk for developing obesity. Drawing on methods from genetics, psychology, nutrition, and neuroscience such as body composition analysis, functional magnetic resonance imaging and twin modelling.
I am also interested in all things ingestive behaviour-related, well-being and wider sensory responses, including multisensory processing. I have previously worked on projects investigating Synaesthesia, brain plasticity and cross-modal responses following sight restoration and, most recently, a Leverhulme Trust grant on the behavioural and neural basis of odour-taste associations.​
Most Recent Publications
Padmanabhan, A., Stankoski, S., Panchevski, F., Armitage, R.M., ... & Yeomans, M.R. (2025). Validating OCOsense Smart Glasses in a Three-Week Home-based Study: Assessing Detection of Eating, Food Identification and the Use of Haptic Feedback to Aid Behaviour Modification. Under review.
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Armitage, R.M., Stankoski, S., Sazdov, B., Padmanabhan, A., Harvey, T., Baert, C., Gjoreski, H., Nduka, C., & Yeomans, M.R. (2025). Sensing the Future of Eating Behaviour Measurement: Validation of OCOsense Glasses to Detect Chewing Behaviour. In publication.
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Armitage, R.M., Iatridi, V., Gaysina, D., Tuorila, H., Yeomans, M.R., Kaprio, J.K. & Zellers, S. (2025). Genetic and Environmental Influences on Sweet Taste Liking and Related Traits: New Insights from Twin Cohorts. Behaviour Genetics, 55, 407–421. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10519-025-10232-2