News and Events
All the latest research news and events in the Department of Psychology
Forthcoming events
The New Social Psychology of Citizenship seminar series
Citizenship is at the heart of contemporary social concerns, from issues as mundane as littering in public areas to the recent Arab Spring in which governments were overthrown by their citizens. Dr Clifford Stevenson, Leverhulme Visiting Research Fellow in the Psychology Department (photo), will be delivering a series of fascinating talks on this topic, starting with The social psychology of citizenship on 10 May. This is followed on 16 May by Citizenship and public space.
Find out more about the New Social Psychology of Citizenship seminar series
Latest News
26 April 2012
Psychology Department forges research relationship with Ordnance Survey
Professor Nick Braisby, Head of Psychology, has been awarded £22,560 by the Ordnance Survey for a feasibility study of the potential for using a technique known as Latent Semantic Analysis on text corpuses to discover vernacular place names. The project will last for 12 months, during which time researcher Dr Clare Davies will conduct computational analyses of corpora to extract data relating to vernacular place names. She will be based in the Psychology Department for that time.
"I am delighted that the Department has been able to forge this relationship with the Ordnance Survey, and also that we will be joined by such a strong researcher as Clare Davies. We hope that this will be the first of many such collaborations", commented Professor Braisby.
Image: The Milne 1791 map of Winchester
4 January 2012
British Psychology Society funding for seminar series on the social psychology of citizenship
The Department of Psychology's Leverhulme Visiting Research Fellow, Dr Clifford Stevenson, has been awarded a grant of £3000 by the British Psychology Society. Dr Stevenson and his colleagues Dr Russell Luyt (University of Winchester), Prof. Evanthia Lyons (Queen's University Belfast), Dr Nick Hopkins (University of Dundee) and Prof. John Dixon (Open University) will be coordinating a series of seminars on the newly emerging theme of the social psychology of citizenship.
The seminars, co-funded by the University, will bring leading academics from across the UK and Europe together with government and voluntary agencies to discuss how Social Psychology can address contemporary societal concerns. The seminar topics will include: active citizenship and volunteering; community identity and riots; marginalisation and radicalisation of minorities.
24 November 2011
Psychology Department welcomes new colleague
The Psychology team is delighted to welcome Dr Kirsty Ross, an expert in infant development and emotions. Dr Ross will be part of the team until the end of May 2012.
Find out more about Dr Kirsty Ross
24 November 2011
Psychology academic appointed Research Chair of Indian National Institute of Design
Dr Valérie Bonnardel, Reader in Experimental Psychology and an expert in human colour vision, has been seconded for 12 months to an appointment as Colour Research Chair of the National Institute of Design (NID) in Ahmedabad, India, one of the foremost multidisciplinary institutions in the field of design education and research.
Research at the NID is supported by means of Research Chairs in Innovation, Textiles, Stainless steel, Design and Colour. The NID Asian Paints colour research laboratory was set up in 2007; its main area of study was formed by the complex sociocultural dynamics associated with colour. The lab undertook several projects that covered broad areas such as colour and religion, colour in Indian festivities, colour in packaging, colour and space and colour perception. Dr Bonnardel, a colour scientist who has investigated cognitive aspects of human colour perception such as colour naming, colour memory, colour categorisation and colour preferences, will be taking forward the activities of the NID’s research colour lab until November 2012.
Dr Bonnardel is also the Treasurer of the Colour Group (Great Britain) and chairs the organisation committee of the 23rd Symposium of the International Colour Vision Society, which will be hosted by the University in July 2013.
8 September 2011
Department welcomes Leverhulme Trust-funded Visiting Research Fellow
The Psychology Department is delighted to welcome Leverhulme Research Fellow Dr Clifford Stevenson from the University of Limerick, who will be joining the Department for the duration of the coming academic year.
Find out more about Dr Stevenson
4 May 2011
External funding for groundbreaking Psychology research
Dr Wendy Kneller, Senior Lecturer in Psychology, and diver and psychologist Malcolm Hobbs have been awarded $5000 by the Professional Association of Diving Instructors (PADI) for their research into the causes and effects of nitrogen narcosis in divers. Nitrogen narcosis is a phenomenon that results from breathing air at increased ambient pressures. The symptoms include impairment of coordination, judgement, memory and alterations in mood and behaviour. Narcosis is most commonly experienced by undersea divers at depths greater than 30m, where it is a significant contributing factor in diving-related accidents and impairment of underwater work performance. An improved understanding of narcosis has implications for diver training, safety and work performance in underwater environments.
"There are many questions as to what exactly narcosis is and how it affects people, especially with respect to their cognitive functioning whilst underwater", explains Dr Kneller. "We are hoping to find the answers to some of these questions, particularly with respect to how narcosis affects memory underwater." The research was initiated by Mr Hobbs, and Dr Kneller teamed up with him 3 years ago.
The first joint study, which examined the effects of nitrogen narcosis on free recall and recognition memory in open water, was published in Undersea & Hyperbaric Medicine in 2009. The second study, which was published this year in Aviation, Space and Environmental Medicine, investigated the impact of anxiety and narcosis, in isolation and in combination, on a measure of psychomotor performance. Together with Dr Phil Higham of Southampton University, Dr Kneller and Mr Hobbs are currently investigating divers' self-awareness (metacognition) of memory impairment underwater caused by nitrogen narcosis and the possible impact of nitrox, both on reducing this impairment and its effect on metacognition. This research was also funded by PADI ($6220). The new funding from PADI will be used to extend the recent research on anxiety and impairment from nitrogen narcosis underwater.
For underwater videos by Malcolm Hobbs of the research being carried out, click here.
New books by Psychology staff
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David Giles: Psychology of the media, published by Palgrave in 2010
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Conferences
Recent Conferences
In September 2010, the Psychology Department was proud to host the BPS Social Psychology Section Conference 2010. For more information, visit the official Conference website.