Psychology research hero
Psychology experiments in the BabyLab
 

Research strands

 

Research and impact

Research Impact

Changing understanding and practice in anaesthesia
Led by Jackie Andrade this research focuses on developing strategies for the prevention and management of accidental awareness during general anaesthesia.

Led by Judy Edworthy this research focuses on reducing sensory overload on clinicians due to the excessive number of alarms

Led by Helen Lloyd this research focuses on developing models and approaches for people with multiple long-term conditions.

Latest publications

Some recent papers published by the School of Psychology

  • Pazhouhi S, Garza R & Pazhoohi F 2024 'Association of life history strategy and mate retention behavior in men and women' Personality and Individual Differences 225, 112685-112685 Publisher Site , DOI
  • Gabay AS, Pisauro A, O’Nell KC & Apps MAJ 2024 'Social environment-based opportunity costs dictate when people leave social interactions' Communications Psychology 2, (1) Publisher Site , DOI
  • Haslam SA, Haslam C, Cruwys T, Sharman LS, Hayes S, Walter Z, Jetten J, Steffens NK, Cardona M & La Rue CJ 2024 'Tackling loneliness together: A three-tier social identity framework for social prescribing' Group Processes & Intergroup Relations Publisher Site , DOI Open access
  • Berry CJ & Shanks DR 2024 'Everyday amnesia: Residual memory for high confidence misses and implications for decision models of recognition' Journal of Experimental Psychology: General Publisher Site , DOI Open access
  • Foster-Collins H, Calitri R, Tarrant M, Orr N, Whear R & Lamont RA 2024 ''I can still swing a spade': a qualitative exploratory study of gardening groups for people with dementia' Ageing and Society , DOI Open access
  • Croucher R, Eastman L, Hooper A, Gee P & Gallichan DJ 2024 'Evaluating a ‘Capable Environments’ intervention protocol in residential settings for adults with intellectual disabilities' FPID Bulletin: The Bulletin of the Faculty for People with Intellectual Disabilities 22, (1) 5-15 Publisher Site , DOI Open access
  • Forby L, Pazhoohi F & Kingstone A 2024 'Autistic traits and anthropomorphism: the case of vehicle fascia perception' Cognitive Processing Publisher Site , DOI
  • Pereira-Doel P, Font X, Wyles K & Pereira-Moliner J 2024 'Reducing Shower Duration in Tourist Accommodations: A Covert True Experiment of Continuous Real-Time Eco-Feedback and Persuasive Messaging' Journal of Travel Research , DOI Open access
  • Bennett PJ, Hashemi A, Lass JW, Sekuler AB & Hussain Z 2024 'The time course of stimulus-specific perceptual learning' Journal of Vision 24, (4) 9-9 Publisher Site , DOI
  • Ji JL, Kyron M, Saulsman L, Becerra R, Lin A, Hasking P & Holmes EA 2024 'Picturing self‐harm: Investigating flash‐forward mental imagery as a proximal and modifiable driver of non‐suicidal self‐injury' Suicide and Life-Threatening Behavior Publisher Site , DOI
  • Rhodes J, Nedza K, May J & Clements L 2024 'Imagery training for athletes with low imagery abilities' Journal of Applied Sport Psychology 1-14 Publisher Site , DOI Open access
  • Fouragnan EF, Hosking B, Cheung Y, Prakash B, Rushworth M & Sel A 2024 'Timing along the cardiac cycle modulates neural signals of reward-based learning' Nature Communications 15, (1) Publisher Site , DOI
  • Groyecka-Bernard A, Sorokowski P, Karwowski M, Roberts SC, Aavik T, Akello G, Alm C, Amjad N, Asao K & Atama CS 2024 'Conservatism Negatively Predicts Creativity: A Study Across 28 Countries' Journal of Cross-Cultural Psychology 55, (4) 368-385 Publisher Site , DOI
  • Abu-Zhaya R & Arnon I 2024 'Does Early Unit Size Impact the Formation of Linguistic Predictions? Grammatical Gender as a Case Study' Language Learning Publisher Site , DOI
  • Ji JL & MacLeod C 2024 'Less bang for my buck: Diminished anticipated enjoyment contributes to dysphoria-linked deficit in activity behavioural engagement choice' Behaviour Research and Therapy 177, 104526-104526 Publisher Site , DOI
  • Gillespie J, Wright H, Pinkney J & Lloyd H 2024 'Blending Behavioural Theory and Narrative Analysis to Explore the Lived Experience of Obesity and Assess Potential Engagement in a UK Weight Management Service: Theory and Narrative Approaches in Weight Management' Healthcare 12, (7) 747-747 Publisher Site , DOI Open access
  • McKeown S, Di Bernardo GA, Charlesford J, Vezzali L & Sagherian-Dickey T 2024 'Peer inclusion and school equality norm associations with intergroup contact, and academic self‐efficacy amongst ethnic majority and ethnic minority youth' Journal of Applied Social Psychology Publisher Site , DOI Open access
  • Milne-Ives M, Homer S, Andrade J & Meinert E 2024 'The conceptualisation and measurement of engagement in digital health' Internet Interventions 36, Publisher Site , DOI Open access
  • Bault N, Yaakub SN & Fouragnan E 2024 'Early-phase neuroplasticity induced by offline transcranial ultrasound stimulation in primates' Current Opinion in Behavioral Sciences 56, Publisher Site , DOI Open access
  • Weltzien S, Marsh L, Kanngiesser P & Hood B 2024 'Young dictators - Speaking about oneself decreases generosity in children from two cultural contexts' PLoS ONE
 

Open Science Strategy

This strategy commits the School of Psychology to three key open science goals by 2021. The first is preregistration of all research that will be published. The second is open access to all research publications. The third is open access to the raw data, stimuli, materials, and analysis pipelines of all published papers (except where so doing would cause insurmountable ethical or privacy issues). Four members of staff are signatories to the Peer Reviewers' Openness Initiative (Bach, Walsh, Whalley, Wills), which seeks to use peer review as a lever to improve open science practices. Wills is a Trustee of the Nurture Science Publishing Group, a non-profit organisation dedicated to the promotion of affordable open-access publication in the context of rigorous, reproducibility-focused peer review.

 

Facilities and labs

Brain Research & Imaging Centre

The Brain Research & Imaging Centre (BRIC), the most advanced multi-modal brain imaging facility in the South West, will provide the sea-change to enhance the quality of our research in human neuroscience.

With seven cutting-edge human research laboratories, BRIC will include an MRI suite with the most advanced 3-Tesla scanner in the region. It will critically advance our enquiry toward the most advanced brain research, improved radiological diagnostics and better patient care.

Find out more about the facility

BRIC building development, December 2020

Neuroscience facilities

Located on our main city-centre campus, these facilities are ideally placed for large-sample studies of neurotypical individuals. The facilities comprise three eye-tracking labs, three 128-channel EEG labs (one suitable for infant participants), a Neural Modulation laboratory, a functional Near Infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) lab, and a data analysis suite. The Neural Modulation laboratory provides facilities for singlepulse and rapid TMS, and tDCS, combined with 64-channel EEG recording and 3D scalp surface and electrode digitisation.

Babylab

The Babylab provides facilities that are essential to the developmental component of our Experimental Psychology research. Babylab provides excellent, dedicated facilities for infant testing including a family-friendly reception space, two observation rooms, and six individual sound-attenuating booths, with a Tobii 300 Hz system and a head-turn preference setting.

Learn more about the Babylab

Dedicated behavioural testing facilities

A total of 26 purpose-built testing rooms, most of them multi-seat. This facility supports much of the core work of Experimental Psychology group. There are also two dedicated 'soft labs': comfortable, relaxing spaces more conducive to the study of human interaction and counselling than standard labs. We also have three research-dedicated state-of-the-art Virtual Reality Labs.

Specialist equipment

Multichannel EMG systems, respiratory belts, skin thermometers, GSR devices, and pulse meters. There are also movement-measurement devices, including force transducers, accelerometers and laser displacement meters, and somatosensory and pain research devices that enable peripheral percutaneous electrical nerve stimulation.

Non-human animal research

In the School of Biological and Marine Sciences there are eight dedicated observation labs, including two specialist temperature-controlled facilities suitable for aquatic animals. All labs are set up for video recording and remote logging with Noldus observer. Our Animal Behaviour researchers also make regular use of shared resources in the School of Biological and Marine Sciences, including animal housing, Home Office licensed space, plus physiology and molecular biology labs. Our research on sustainability is substantially facilitated by the presence of the Plymouth Marine Institute - the first and largest such institute in the UK.

Virtual reality research

Our team are conducting research into virtual reality, working on topics including:

  • Foundations of search and navigation
  • Connecting people with the ocean
  • Using augmented reality to deliver an imagery-based intervention for behaviour change

Discover more about our latest virtual reality research.

EEG Lab
NeMo Lab / TMS
Softlab
 

Our researchers