Department of Psychology
Our academic staff
Our academics are experts in their fields of research, covering areas such as memory, interpersonal relationships, sexuality and attraction, and action understanding.
Academic members of staff
Dr Ayten Bilgin
Lecturer, Department of Psychology
Research interests:
Child and adolescent mental health; Developmental psychopathology; Infant regulatory problems (excessive crying, sleeping or feeding problems); Infant mental health; Parenting; Socioemotional development after preterm birth; Screen media exposure in childhood
Dr Liam Chawner
Lecturer, Department of Psychology
Research interests:
I am interested in most topics relating to food and eating behaviour - Everything from making food choices to food consumption. The majority of my research includes children learning to eat disliked or novel foods and how parents may facilitate learning through feeding practices.
Dr Alasdair Clarke
Senior Lecturer, Department of Psychology
Dr Geoff Cole
Senior Lecturer, Department of Psychology
Research interests:
Cognitive neuropsychology; Visual cognition; Comparative psychology; Colour vision
Dr Nicholas Cooper
Senior Lecturer, Department of Psychology
Research interests:
Transcranial magnetic simulation (TMS); Transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS); Mirror neurons; Stress & Ageing; Nature-based socal prescribing
Dr Katie Daughters
Lecturer, Department of Psychology
Research interests:
Emotion; Hormones; Oxytocin; Social Behaviour; Social Cognition; Social Perception; Wellbeing; Mental Health
Dr Rael Dawtry
Lecturer, Department of Psychology
Research interests:
Social cognition; political psychology; social comparison; relative deprivation; inequality; socioecological psychology; applied social psychology; just-world theory; immanent justice reasoning; judgment and decision making. I have a particular interest in how socioecological factors (e.g., economic structure, culture, institutions) shape political cognition, beliefs and attitudes.
Dr Carina De Klerk
Senior Lecturer, Department of Psychology
Research interests:
imitation; facial mimicry; action processing; development of the mirror neuron system;
Dr Kevin Dent
Lecturer, Department of Psychology
Research interests:
Visual cognition; Understanding basic mechanisms of visuo-spatial attention; Visuo-spatial short-term memory; The effects of experience on object and word processing
Dr Maria Filippetti
Senior Lecturer, Department of Psychology
Research interests:
body representations; interoception; hunger and satiety; multisensory development
Dr Tom Foulsham
Reader, Department of Psychology
Research interests:
Visual cognition; Perception of pictures and videos; Eye movements; Cognitive neuropsychology
Dr Nicolas Geeraert
Reader, Department of Psychology
Research interests:
Acculturation, acculturative stress & well-being in acculturation; Cross-cultural differences in social cognition; Acculturation in migrants and international students; Acculturation within the family context; Social Psychology
Dr Helge Gillmeister
Reader (R), Department of Psychology
Research interests:
Visual body representations and effects of body image in eating and body dysmorphic disorders; Somatosensory processes, multisensory processes involving somatosensation; Sensorimotor learning, neural plasticity, integration of external objects/tools into the body schema; Mirror touch, action representation, and social cognition; The bodily self in depersonalisation-derealisation disorder
Dr Yan Gu
Lecturer, Department of Psychology
Research interests:
Perception of time; Child language acquistion; Language and thought; Immigrants and migration; Aging and pension planning; Language and economics; Cross-cultural / linguistics comparison; Multimodal communication; Gesture and prosody; Drug use and well-being; Chinese Sign Language
Dr Eva Gutierrez-Sigut
Senior Lecturer, Department of Psychology
Research interests:
Cognitive psychology of language; Reading; Deafness; Hearing impairment; Atypical language development; Sign Language processing; Psycholinguistics; Experimental Psychology; Deafness; Sign Language; Altered Language Experience; Atypical Language Development; Reading; Literacy; Reading Acquisition; Visual Word processing; Orthographic Processing; Phonological Processing; Electrophysiology; Event Related Potentials; Brain Lateralization for Language; Development of brain lateralisation
Dr Paul Hanel
Senior Lecturer, Department of Psychology
Research interests:
Human values; Stereotypes and prejudice; Political psychology; Working from home/remote work; Cross-cultural research; Similarities
Dr Anna Hughes
Lecturer, Department of Psychology
Research interests:
Visual search; Visual camouflage and mimicry; Cognitive modelling; Meta-Anaysis of fMRI in Psychiatric Disorders
Dr Gethin Hughes
Head of Department - Reader, Department of Psychology
Research interests:
Sense of Agency; Metacognition; Action Understanding; Multisensory Integration; Neurodiversity
Professor Marie Juanchich
Professor, Department of Psychology
Research interests:
Risk communication; Gender equality
Dr Steffan Kennett
Senior Lecturer, Department of Psychology
Research interests:
Multisensory attention and perception; Tactile effects on visual spatial attention; Viewing the skin changing tactile judgements; Changes in body posture modifying spatial attention; Methods ERPs, EOG, TMS, Reaction time
Dr Megan Klabunde
Lecturer, Department of Psychology
Research interests:
Interoception; Interoceptive Development; Interoception and its links to Mental Health Development during Adolescence
Dr Sebastian Korb
Senior Lecturer, Department of Psychology
Research interests:
Embodiment in facial emotion recognition
Dr Veronica Lamarche
Senior Lecturer, Department of Psychology
Research interests:
Trust and interdependence; Motivated cognition and relationship maintenance; Risk, vulnerability and uncertainty regulation; Romantic relationships; Consent & Intimate Partner Violence
Dr Nikhila Mahadevan
Lecturer, Department of Psychology
Research interests:
social status and inequality; social inclusion; self-esteem; narcissism; emotion and well-being; interpersonal behaviour; decision-making
Dr Keith May
Lecturer, Department of Psychology
Research interests:
Visual encoding; Coding efficiency; Edge processing; Visual grouping; Visual attention; Face perception; Facial attractiveness; Memory
Dr Angela Meadows
Lecturer, Department of Psychology
Research interests:
Weight stigma; Physical activity behaviour; Stigma resistance
Dr Hong-Viet V Ngo-Dehning
Lecturer, Department of Psychology
Research interests:
Sleep (Disorders); Memory (Consolidation); Non-invasive Brain Stimulation
Dr Rick O'Gorman
Senior Lecturer, Department of Psychology
Research interests:
Cooperation and altruism; Computer modelling of social phenomenon; Applications of social cognition techniques to evolutionary questions; Biosocial psychology; Evolutionary psychology; Volunteering: Understanding the mental health and wellbeing benefits
Professor Sheina Orbell
Professor, Department of Psychology
Research interests:
Intention-behaviour relation; Self-regulation; Social psychology of volition and volitional strategies in behavioural change; Motivational models of health-related behaviour; Social psychology of sexual health; Social-cognitive accounts of motivation and health-related behaviour; Cervical screening; Colorectal cancer screening; Arthritis and Interoception
Professor Silke Paulmann
Executive Dean (Science and Health) - Professor (R), Department of Psychology
Research interests:
Social language processing in normal and special populations (e.g., bilinguals, brain damaged, aging); Emotional and attitudinal language processing across different cultures; Motivational prosody processing; Event-related brain potentials; How teachers' tone of voice can influence students' wellbeing and behaviour
Professor Reinhard Pekrun
Professor, Department of Psychology
Research interests:
Achievement Emotions; Personality Development; Psychological Assessment and Evaluation
Dr Marlene Poncet
Lecturer, Department of Psychology
Research interests:
Visual neuroscience; Perception; EEG; Object recognition; Numerosity
Dr Silvia Rigato
Senior Lecturer, Department of Psychology
Research interests:
Face and emotion processing in infancy.; The development of body representation and tactile localisation.; The development of the neural basis of shared touch.; Perinatal mental health.
Dr Tracy Robinson
Senior Lecturer, Department of Psychology
Research interests:
The role of emotion and anxiety in attentional biases
Dr Nathaniel Schermerhorn
Lecturer, Department of Psychology
Research interests:
Gendered Ideology; Social Identity Threats; How Nostalgia Can Maintain the Status Quo
Dr Alex Sel
Senior Lecturer, Department of Psychology
Research interests:
Understanding brain networks underpinning higher order cognitive functions in the human brain
Dr Dale Shaffer-Morrison
Lecturer, Department of Psychology
Research interests:
Gratitude and Well-Being; Pro-environmental Decisions; Pro-social Behaviour
Dr Andrew Simpson
Senior Lecturer, Department of Psychology
Research interests:
The emergence of inhibitory control in children. Inhibitory control is the capacity to regulate our thoughts, behaviour and emotions, and so take charge of our own lives.
Professor Miroslav Sirota
Professor, Department of Psychology
Research interests:
In my research, I am trying to understand how people judge, reason, and make decisions in situations of uncertainty.; My current research interests are centred on two key topics: (i) exploring the reasons and mechanisms behind why individuals do or do not correct their errors, and (ii) examining the psychology of human behaviours and cognition in relation to antimicrobial resistance.; Why people expect antibiotics even when not needed?; Risk and probability communication; Why people (do not) correct their own errors in judgments and reasoning (e.g., intuitive and deliberate errors, effect of feedback)
Professor Gijsbert Stoet
Professor, Department of Psychology
Dr Elia Valentini
Senior Lecturer, Department of Psychology
Research interests:
Climate and ecological emergency; Existential and symbolic threats; Pain and sensory threats; Emotional facial expressions; Self-harm and trauma
Dr Wijnand Van Tilburg
Senior Lecturer, Department of Psychology
Research interests:
Boredom; Nostalgia; Economic psychology; Emotion; Meaning in life
Dr Pascal Vrticka
Senior Lecturer, Department of Psychology
Research interests:
Functional Near-Infrared Spectroscopy (fNIRS) Hyperscanning; Social Cognitive Affective Neuroscience; Attachment; Bio-Behavioural and Interpersonal Neural Synchrony; Caregiving; Epigenetics; (Functional) Magnetic Resonance Imaging - (f)MRI
Professor Geoffrey Ward
Professor, Department of Psychology
Research interests:
Similarities and differences between different memory tasks, especially immediate serial recall and free recall; General properties of episodic memory; Memory structures and processes; The use of technology to enhance human memory
Dr Motonori Yamaguchi
Senior Lecturer, Department of Psychology
Research interests:
Cognitive Control; Visual Attention; Skill Acquisition; Cognition & Emotion; Implicit Biases; Computational Modelling of Human Cognition; EEG; Mind and Technology
Dr Natalia Zarzeczna
Lecturer, Department of Psychology
Research interests:
Psychology of Meaning, Science Attitudes, Religion, Spirituality, Science-religion Conflict, Science Communication, Threat Compensation
Research members of staff
Aakash Bansal
Graduate Laboratory Assistant, Department of Psychology
Postgraduate Research Student, Department of Psychology
Research Assistant, Department of Psychology
Ines Branco Rodrigues
Senior Research Officer, Department of Psychology
Dr Paolo Di Luzio
Senior Research Officer, Department of Psychology
Evie Dilkes
Postgraduate Research Student, Institute for Social and Economic Research
Senior Research Officer, Department of Psychology
Dr Mika Fowles
Research Officer, Department of Psychology
Holly Harwood
Research Assistant, Department of Psychology
Hasibah Hashim
Research Assistant, Department of Psychology
Helen Leckie
Research Officer, Department of Psychology
Jessica Leov
Senior Research Officer, Department of Psychology
Gabriele Navyte
Senior Research Officer, Department of Psychology
Joe Perkins
Research Officer, Department of Psychology
Kyiah Robinson
Research Assistant, Department of Psychology
Dr Guyan Sloane
Senior Research Officer, Department of Psychology
Chloe Tasker
Graduate Laboratory Assistant, Department of Psychology
Postgraduate Research Student, Department of Psychology
Senior Research Officer, Department of Psychology
Research interests:
Menopause
Dr Andriana Theodoropoulou
Senior Research Officer, Department of Psychology
Dr Denise Wallace
Senior Research Officer, Department of Psychology
Engagement Officer, UK Data Archive
Mark Wheeler
Senior Research Officer, Department of Psychology
Associate Researchers
Dr Jordi Asher
Visiting Fellow, Department of Psychology
Research interests:
Visual Field Loss; Migraine with (and without) Visual Aura; Megacognition, confidence and perceptual learning
Dr Maxwell Roberts
Visiting Fellow, Department of Psychology
Research interests:
Inductive and deductive reasoning; Individual differences in reasoning strategies; The cognitive psychology of intelligence; Spatial reasoning and imagery; The development of expertise
Emeritus Professors
Prof Madeline Eacott
Emeritus Professor, Department of Psychology
Professor John Hanley
Emeritus Professor, Department of Psychology
Research interests:
Disorders of reading, writing, memory, and face processing; Learning to read in different writing systems; Speech production; Tip-of-the-tongue states; Effects of irrelevant speech on memory
Professor Riccardo Russo
Emeritus Professor, Department of Psychology
Professor Arnold Wilkins
Emeritus Professor, Department of Psychology
Research interests:
Visual perception, including colour vision and the design of ophthalmic tints; Use of ophthalmic tints in autism and multiple sclerosis; The response of the brain to visual stimuli measured using near infrared spectroscopy; Lighting and its biological effects; Visual dysfunction in migraine; Photosensitive epilepsy and migraine; Reading disorders and the design of text for children; Spectral and chromatic analysis of uncomfortable images
