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

  • Bamforth K, Rae P, Maben J, Lloyd H & Pearce S 2023 'Perceptions of healthcare professionals’ psychological wellbeing at work and the link to patients’ experiences of care: A scoping review' International Journal of Nursing Studies Advances 5, 100148-100148 , DOI
  • Ben Brahim F, Vera Cruz G, Courtois R, May J & Khazaal Y 2023 'Strength of Pornography Craving Experience (PCE-S): psychometric properties of a new measure based on the Elaborated Intrusion theory of desire' Addictive Behaviors , DOI Open access
  • Swami V, Tran US, Stieger S, Aavik T, Ranjbar HA, Adebayo SO, Afhami R, Ahmed O, Aimé A & Akel M 2023 'Body appreciation around the world: Measurement invariance of the Body Appreciation Scale-2 (BAS-2) across 65 nations, 40 languages, gender identities, and age' Body Image 46, 449-466 , DOI
  • Linge-Dahl L, Heintz S, Ruch W, Bley M, von Hirschhausen E & Radbruch L 2023 'Evaluation of a Study Protocol of the Application of Humor Interventions in Palliative Care Through a First Pilot Study' Palliative Medicine Reports 4, (1) 239-248 , DOI
  • Yaakub SN, White TA, Roberts J, Martin E, Verhagen L, Stagg CJ, Hall S & Fouragnan EF 2023 'Transcranial focused ultrasound-mediated neurochemical and functional connectivity changes in deep cortical regions in humans' Nature Communications 14, (1) , DOI
  • Flaus A, Jung J, Ostrowky-Coste K, Rheims S, Guénot M, Bouvard S, Janier M, Yaakub SN, Lartizien C & Costes N 2023 'Deep‐learning predicted <scp>PET</scp> can be subtracted from the true clinical fluorodeoxyglucose <scp>PET</scp> co‐registered to <scp>MRI</scp> to identify the epileptogenic zone in focal epilepsy' Epilepsia Open , DOI
  • Meier-Diedrich E, Davidge G, Hägglund M, Kharko A, Lyckblad C, McMillan B, Blease C & Schwarz J 2023 'Changes in Documentation Due to Patient Access to Electronic Health Records: Protocol for a Scoping Review' JMIR Research Protocols 12, e46722-e46722 , DOI
  • Noad R, Newman C, Chynoweth J, Mayes J, Hall S & Murphy D 2023 'A pilot examination of the validity of stylus and finger drawing on visuomotor-mediated tests on ACEmobile' Journal of Clinical and Experimental Neuropsychology 1-7 , DOI
  • Richter I, Lim VC, Fadzil KSB, Riordan O, Pahl S & Goh HC 2023 'Addressing illegal practices: intergenerational transfer and creative engagement as a way to compensate boomerang effects' Frontiers in Communication 8, , DOI
  • Ji JL & MacLeod C 2023 'Investigating the role of action-contingent expectancy biases in dysphoria-linked activity engagement behavioural choice' Behaviour Research and Therapy 167, 104353-104353 , DOI
  • Rogers D, Andrews T & Mileva M 2023 'A NARROW BAND OF IMAGE DIMENSIONS IS CRITICAL FOR THE LEARNING AND RECOGNITION OF FACE IDENTITY' Journal of Vision 23, (9) 4918-4918 , DOI
  • Andrews T, Rogers D, Mileva M, Watson D, Wang A & Burton AM 2023 'A narrow band of image dimensions is critical for face recognition' Vision Research 212, , DOI Open access
  • Fallon SJ, Plant O, Tabi YA, Manohar SG & Husain M 2023 'Effects of cholinesterase inhibition on attention and working memory in Lewy body dementias' Brain Communications , DOI Open access
  • Komarnyckyj M, Retzler C, Whelan R, Young O, Fouragnan E & Murphy A 2023 'Anticipatory reward dysfunction in alcohol dependence: An electroencephalography monetary incentive delay task study' Addiction Neuroscience 8, , DOI Open access
  • Lawrence HR, Balkind EG, Ji JL, Burke TA & Liu RT 2023 'Mental imagery of suicide and non-suicidal self-injury: A meta-analysis and systematic review' Clinical Psychology Review 103, 102302-102302 , DOI
  • Vylobkova V & Heintz S 2023 'Who is Flexible and Adaptive in Everyday Life?' Psychological Test Adaptation and Development 4, (1) 195-206 , DOI
  • Simola S, Hörhammer I, Xu Y, Bärkås A, Fagerlund AJ, Hagström J, Holmroos M, Hägglund M, Johansen MA & Kane B 2023 'Patients’ Experiences of a National Patient Portal and Its Usability: Cross-Sectional Survey Study' Journal of Medical Internet Research 25, e45974-e45974 , DOI
  • Voronkova A, Richter I, Henderson L, Aruta JJBR, Dumbili E, Wyles K & Pahl S 2023 'Plastics, Behavior Change, and the Ocean' in Fleming LE; Creencia LBA; Gerwick WH; Goh HC; Gribble MO; Maycock B; Solo-Gabriele H Oceans and Human Health: Opportunities and Impacts
  • Floccia C, Ratnage P & Nazzi T 2023 'Vowels and Consonants Matter Equally to British English-Learning 11-Month-Olds’ Familiar Word Form Recognition' Journal of Child Language 1-24 , DOI Open access
  • Kanngiesser P, Sunderarajan J & Woike J 2023 'Cheating and the effect of promises in Indian and German children' Child Development
 

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.

 

Our researchers