Research in the School of Psychology
83 per cent of our research is world leading or internationally excellent.
Research and research training has a high priority in the school.
Our excellence has been recognised through the Research Excellence Framework, in which 83 per cent of school activity was judged to be of world leading or internationally excellent standard, placing us within the top 20 psychology, neuroscience and psychiatry schools across the country.
We have a thriving PhD community, with around 80 doctoral students, purpose-built research facilities.
Please take a look at our School of Psychology staff publications page for 2020, with links to the online versions and staff pages. You can also access the full list of 66 publications for 2019, additionally listings of 83 publications for 2018, 77 papers from 2017, 78 papers from 2016, 84 papers from 2015 and over 100 papers from 2014 are also available.
Papers published recently
Bault, N., & Rusconi, E. (2020). The art of influencing consumer choices: A reflection on recent advances in decision neuroscience. Frontiers in Psychology, 10 doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2019.03009
Martin, L., White, M. P., Hunt, A., Richardson, M., Pahl, S., & Burt, J. (2020). Nature contact, nature connectedness and associations with health, wellbeing and pro-environmental behaviours. Journal of Environmental Psychology, 68 doi:10.1016/j.jenvp.2020.101389
Rothen, N., Berry, C. J., Seth, A. K., Oligschläger, S., & Ward, J. (2020). A single system account of enhanced recognition memory in synaesthesia. Memory and Cognition, doi:10.3758/s13421-019-01001-8
Torre, I., Goslin, J., & White, L. (2020). If your device could smile: People trust happy-sounding artificial agents more. Computers in Human Behavior, 105. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chb.2019.106215
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.
Educational research
Improving how children learn
The School of Psychology at the University of Plymouth and Get My Grades are excited to announce their first research study together! Get My Grades is an online learning platform for secondary education in English, maths and sciences. The aim of this research is to gain further insight into the most effective methods for studying - by applying the research from the “Learning from Total Failure” project to the real world. We are currently looking for both parents of children in Years 9-11 and school teachers with classes in Years 9-11 to take part in our study. To find out more please visit the Get My Grades research page.
For more details, information for teachers, and the chance to enter a prize draw please download the flyer (pdf).
Thank you to our collaborators
Our world leading applied research would not be possible without the help of many external organisations – we are very grateful to them for their support.Find out more about some of the groups who have helped with our research
Online psychology research
Discover some of the many research projects underway here by taking part online.
Help us with our research by doing online questionnaires.
Have a look at some current surveysResearch seminars in the School
A wide range of exciting speakers from all over the world.
4pm every term-time Wednesday
Have a look at our seminar programme