psychology phd supervision
Our school has a large, vibrant, and highly collaborative community of PhD students and academic staff with good interdisciplinary links. 
Currently the School of Psychology has 80+ students registered for a PhD or studying for a DClinPsy. Students will have access to extensive, modern and well-equipped laboratory facilities supported by a dedicated team of technical staff, the newly constructed  Brain Research & Imaging Centre (BRIC) as well as a Baby- and SchoolLab. For more details of the school’s research activity, please visit our research pages and our individual staff pages.
Currently, we do not have any funded studentship opportunities. Please check back here regularly for updates on funding opportunities.

Potential PhD projects

Cognition and social cognition

Autism and Perception of Attractiveness
Dr Farid Pazhoohi and Professor Jeremy Goslin 
Recognizing and perceiving faces are essential for social interactions in humans. Faces can convey information about an individual's genetics, underlying physiology, and health status, all of which contribute to our perception of attractiveness. Individuals with high levels of autistic traits often struggle to interpret nonverbal social cues conveyed through faces. Previous research has extensively identified the contributors of perceived facial attractiveness for neurotypical individuals. In this project, we examine whether individuals with high levels of autistic traits exhibit a distinctive preference for facial attractiveness and measure their gaze behaviour when assessing attractiveness.
Autism, spatial navigation in real and virtual built environments, and brain connectivity
Dr Matt Roser, Dr Alejandro Veliz Reyes and Dr Alastair Smith
Autism spectrum conditions have been associated with a constellation of strengths and weaknesses within the visuospatial domain. One component that has received relatively little scientific attention is the difficulty that many individuals can have with everyday spatial navigation. Some empirical reports have identified the potential cognitive bases of these individual differences, although they have generally been based on relatively simple screen-based virtual environments. In this project, we will use state-of-the-art Immersive Media technologies to comprehensively explore navigation in autism. The work will focus on the documentation of realistic models of the built environment, including models from actual buildings and spaces constructed using long-range 3D scanning technologies. These environments will not only be used to provide a realistic and valid platform to experimentally characterise the range of abilities that contribute to differences in daily navigation, but also to test more applied questions of whether learning in realistic immersive environments can transfer to the real world. This will carry important ramifications for supporting difficulty and improving quality of life for some individuals. The project will also make use of brand-new facilities in Plymouth’s flagship Brain Research and Imaging Centre to examine neural connectivity (include diffusion imaging and white-matter tractography) in relation to navigational performance.
Changing attitudes toward nature: a methodological approach
Dr Jon Rhodes, Dr Kayleigh Wyles and Dr Farid Pazhoohi 
The natural environment significantly influences human emotion and well-being. Developing a deep connection with nature (nature connectedness) requires regular contact with it, such as a weekly walk in urban green spaces. However, in our busy world, many struggle to find time for such experiences. Watching nature documentaries at home doesn't foster the same level of nature connectedness. This PhD programme will therefore explore alternative ways to promote our nature connectedness and thus health and wellbeing. This will include examining different modes of engaging with nature indirectly (e.g. 360 virtual reality, imagery, and 2D video), as well as exploring what are the optimum environmental settings on physiological arousal, psychological health and wellbeing, and nature connectedness.
Comfort distance and robots
Dr Farid Pazhoohi and Professor Jeremy Goslin 
The comfort distance between humans and robots is a critical element in human-robot interactions. However, due to theoretical and methodological constraints, there is a lack of systematic research in this area. Although prior studies have examined the human-robot comfort distance using robots, they do not offer a comprehensive and systematic comparison between humans and robots as agents in an ecologically valid setting. This research examines human-robot interactions through virtual reality and investigates how the comfort distance from robots is affected by both robot appearance and individual differences.
Developmental trajectories of social comparison and competitive attitudes
Dr Nadege Bault and Dr Elsa Fouragnan
A rich research tradition in sociology, social psychology and economics has demonstrated how concern for status strongly motivates human behaviour. Happiness and well-being are strongly affected by the comparison between the individual’s own income and the income of others. Individuals in dominant position use their status to secure privileged access to resources, such as food and mates. Therefore, social comparison is important for monitoring one’s social status and might emerge early during development. Recent research in cognitive neuroscience suggests that counterfactual and social comparison rely on different brain mechanisms and that the latter induces competition. Emotional responses elicited by social comparison (envy and gloating) engage the reward system as well as social cognition areas more than their private counterparts (regret and relief). We propose to investigate the developmental trajectory of social comparison and competitive behaviour. You will use monetary tasks/games, combined with neuroimaging methods to link interindividual differences in cortical development with attitudes toward social comparison and cooperative/competitive behaviour. Some experience with, or at least strong willingness to learn, computer programming (e.g. matlab, R, Python) is essential for this project. The use of computational models of decision making will be possible (and supported) depending on the student’s interest. You will have access to the school lab and to the brand new state-of-the-art human neuroimaging facility (Brain Research & Imaging Centre) of the University.
Envisioning the future – understanding the function of component processes
Dr Julie Ji 
The human capacity to envision novel future experiences via episodic simulation (sensory mental imagery-based mental representations of events) is theorised to confer evolutionary advantages due to its capacity to motivate and guide goal-directed behaviour as it allows us to predict what might happen, how we might feel about it, and how to approach/avoid desirable/undesirable future outcomes. However, key questions remain about the functional implications of its core components. This multi-component project aims to understand the impact of the following components on emotion, evaluative judgment, and motivation: a) self-generation (vs. viewing); b) temporal location (future vs. atemporal); c) perceptual vividness vs. episodic detail.
Effective learning through testing: The testing effect in basic and applied research
Dr Michael Verde
A great deal of recent interest has focused on the role of testing in learning. Both basic and applied research suggests that revising information through active retrieval is one of the most effective ways to promote long term retention (Roediger & Karpicke, 2006; Roediger & Pyc, 2012). This research project has two goals. The first is to investigate the factors that make testing such an effective method of revision. We will consider theories of associative strengthening, information integration, and contextual reinstatement. The second goal is to apply our findings to ecologically valid materials and settings such as science education. This project has strong potential for interdisciplinary work with researchers in education and biology.
Exploring experimental ethics
Dr Jan K. Woike
Many of the decisions we make and the actions we take or fail to take impact others directly or indirectly. Whether intended or not, our actions may help or harm others and have the potential for shaping reactions and even complex chain reactions. How do we navigate complex social environments, how do we motivate and justify decisions with consequences for others? Experimental ethics in this project combines empirical methods from experimental economics and experimental philosophy to study decision making and interaction with moral implications. Possible topics include: consequences of cooperation and competition, distributive justice, honesty and cheating, promises and threats, social dilemmas, collective action, rivalry, negotiation and conflict escalation. Programming skills would be an asset, and the project would be ideal for students with an interest in (1) developing and analyzing interactive online games and experiments and (2) engaging with literature across different disciplines (psychology, philosophy, and economics).
Getting lost in a virtual world
Dr Alastair Smith and Professor Christopher Mitchell
Our health and wellbeing are dependent on our ability to set goals for ourselves, and to achieve those goals. For example, suppose you have secured a new job that is in a different part of town from where you have worked for the last five years. It is important that you are able to navigate your way efficiently to that new workplace on the first day. One way in which this might go wrong is that (anxious and distracted on your first day) you may accidentally drive to your old workplace. That is, a habit that has developed over five years might undermine your goal. We have recently developed a procedure to produce habitual behaviour of this kind in the laboratory. The current project is to extend the examination of these habitual “action slips” to the domain of navigation. Students will create virtual computer-based environments through which participants will be required to navigate to achieve certain goals. The research will examine when and why we are sometimes not in control of our behaviour, as a consequence of learned habits. The project will also relate navigational errors to the contents of the environment (e.g. landmarks, boundaries) in order to examine whether some environments or routes are more likely to engender habitual errors than others. This will have implications for the treatment of navigational impairments found in typical (e.g. ageing) and atypical (e.g. dementia, developmental conditions) populations.
Imagination and lying
Dr Clare Walsh
When we think about past events, we often reflect on how things might have happened differently, for example, if I had left home earlier, I might have caught the train. This mental simulation of alternatives to the past is known as counterfactual thinking. The aim of this project is to examine the idea that this process may also be an important part of how people generate lies. Like counterfactual thinking, lying involves making minimal changes to past events and these changes should be consistent with other events that have happened. Lying therefore also requires keeping in mind what the listener knows to be true. The project will examine the processes underlying the generation of lies and whether as a result, some lies are easier than others to generate.
Imagination, judgements and emotions
Dr Clare Walsh
When we reflect on past events, we frequently reflect on how things might have happened differently. We might imagine that things could have turned out better, for example, if I had been paying attention, I wouldn’t have tripped or instead that they could have turned out worse, e.g., I am lucky that I didn’t break my arm. These alternatives shape how we feel about events that have happened and the judgements that we make about them, for example, where we place responsibility or blame. They can also influence decisions about how to behave in the future. This project will therefore examine the types of thoughts that people imagine and their consequences.
Improving face recognition accuracy with a smile
Dr Mila Mileva
The human face is an extremely rich source of information – just by looking at someone’s face, we can extract information about their age, gender, mood and even their personality. More importantly, we use faces to recognise the people we know as well as to prove our own identity to unfamiliar observers (such as passport control officers at airports). Research has demonstrated that familiar and unfamiliar face recognition are fundamentally different processes – while we can recognise familiar identities somewhat automatically and with no effort whatsoever, unfamiliar face recognition is a surprisingly error-prone task. There have been many attempts to find ways to improve unfamiliar face recognition accuracy by providing feedback, targeted training or by using multiple images of the same person. While successful, to an extent, these approaches have important limitations. Previously, I have identified an easy and consistent route to recognition accuracy improvement – to simply smile. When we compare two smiling images, compared to two neutral images, we are more likely to accurately determine whether they belong to the same person or to two different people. This project aims to explore this smiling effect further by identifying the reasons why we find smiles so beneficial – this might be because when we smile, further idiosyncratic information is available, because a smile increases motivation to perform well or because we spend more time looking at smiling rather than neutral images. The project will also focus on the extent of the smiling advantage by increasing the difficulty of the task, introducing an age gap between the images or with other-race faces.
Learning object categories in biological and non-biological machines
Professor Andy Wills
Since around 2014, there have been substantial advances in Artificial Intelligence, with cutting-edge machines now able to classify objects with a level of accuracy that some engineers describe as 'human like'. How well founded are these claims of human-level performance on such tasks? And to what extent are these machines – whose designs are often inspired by neuroscience – good models of human behaviour? Some experience with, or at least strong willingness to learn, computer programming (e.g. R, Python, or C++) is essential for this project. Use of neuroscience methodologies (e.g. eye-tracking, EEG, fMRI) may be possible, depending on your interests.
Memory: Is forgetting an adaptive mechanism?
Dr Michael Verde
Theories of memory have traditionally viewed forgetting as a negative consequence of limitations of the memory system. Anderson’s (2003) retrieval inhibition theory proposes that, on the contrary, forgetting is adaptive and the ability to suppress certain memories is beneficial to the normal function of the memory system. This research will use a range of empirical paradigms and quantitative modelling techniques to investigate the factors that contribute to forgetting, including interference from other memories, conscious inhibition, and context change. Although the focus is on basic research, there is scope for investigating the implications of inhibition and forgetting in applied areas. For example, are emotional or traumatic memories more difficult or easy to suppress? Does suppressing irrelevant information facilitate problem-solving? In revising educational materials, does the strategic inhibition of knowledge actually, improve long-term learning?
Perception of Physical Disability
Dr Farid Pazhoohi and Professor Jeremy Goslin 
Humans are acutely aware of their own physical appearance, as well as the appearances of others. Our perceptions of physical attractiveness can significantly influence our thoughts and behaviours towards others. Despite extensive research on the perception of attractiveness, the vast majority of studies have focused on natural variations in intact human body configurations. As a result, there has been little investigation into how individuals with physical disabilities are perceived in terms of their attractiveness and personality, and even less research on the impact of prosthetics on how disabled individuals are judged. Therefore, the goal this project is to examine the perception of physical attractiveness and personality of individuals with disabilities, including those with and without prosthetics. This research has the potential to enhance the social circumstances of individuals who have physical disabilities by offering factual data about the impact of non-organic body parts (such as prosthetics) on disabled individuals' perceptions of their own attractiveness, as well as how others perceive them. This project utilizes eye-tracking and virtual reality to address its research questions.
Social predictions in autism and schizophrenia
Dr Matthew Hudson
Whilst autism and schizophrenia are easily distinguishable, they share remarkable similarities in the social difficulties that they encounter. However, it is not clear if the mechanisms that cause this are the same, or whether there are distinct causes that coincidently elicit the same difficulties. Recent predictive coding accounts of perception, whereby the brain generates predictions of what we will see to compare to what we actually observe, suggest that the predictions made by those with autism and schizophrenia may be different, and help us distinguish between them. Furthermore, making predictions about other people facilitates social interactions, and a different style of prediction may explain why people with autism and schizophrenia feel more comfortable interacting with others with the same condition. The aim of this project is therefore to employ predictive models of social perception to devise a behavioural test that is sensitive enough to easily distinguish between autism and schizophrenia, and to assess their social capacities in a more ecologically valid environment of real-world social situations that takes into account the people they are interacting with.
Studying climate change cognition using a game-based approach
Dr Jan K. Woike and Dr Patricia Kanngiesser
Climate change is an unprecedented global threat and understanding the dynamics involved in climate change is cognitively challenging. This project sets out to explore climate change cognition such as understanding exponential dynamics, social dilemmas, and their interplay using a game-based approach. It focuses on how people make decisions in a complex environment and which interventions can support mitigating actions. We have recently used a similar game-based approach to study decision making in a pandemic-like simulation (Woike et al., 2022). This project is ideal for someone who enjoys the conceptual and technical development of online games and has experience with statistical analyses.
Testing models of explicit and implicit memory
Dr Christopher Berry
Computational models are powerful tools for understanding human cognition, and their use has led to new, often counterintuitive, theoretical insights. Projects are available that combine computational modelling with behavioural experimentation to investigate the relation between explicit (conscious) and implicit (unconscious) memory. Although the traditional view of explicit and implicit memory is that they are driven by distinct memory systems in the brain, numerous lines of research have converged on the view that memory systems may not divide so sharply on consciousness. Indeed, computational modelling approaches have shown that an alternative, single-system model explains numerous key findings thought to be indicative of distinct systems; it also makes predictions that can be verified empirically. This type of project would suit someone who has experience or interest in programming and has strong statistical/research methods skills. Applicants are advised to make contact to discuss the specific direction of the project before applying.
Theory protection in learning
Dr Peter Jones 
When one event precedes another, we learn this relationship so that we can behave appropriately. A common assumption is that this learning is caused by prediction error, or the difference between our expectations and reality, with more prediction error resulting in more learning. However, recent data from experiments conducted in our lab cast doubt on this idea. In our experiments we changed the outcomes that followed certain cues. According to prediction error, learning should be greatest for cues whose outcomes changed the most. However, we observed the opposite result. Our results are more consistent with the idea of stubbornness, or ‘theory protection’, than with prediction error. We propose that, once participants learn what follows a cue, they are resistant to changing their beliefs. They therefore attribute unexpected outcomes to the cues that are most consistent with those outcomes, even though these will often be the cues that have the smallest prediction error. This project will examine this theory protection principle, to discover the circumstances in which it applies. This work is expected to have implications for a wide range of fields that use prediction error to explain how we understand the world.
Understanding human foraging behaviour
Dr Alastair Smith
Foraging is a fundamental behaviour for many species. In humans, it has even been typified as the context of our cognitive evolution, and many societies today still subsist on hunting and gathering. However, foraging behaviour is present in all societies, from searching a supermarket shelf to scouring your home for a lost set of keys. This activity is supported by a variety of psychological functions that include, perception, attention, memory, and decision making. Traditionally, psychologists have studied human search behaviour using the visual search paradigm, although this tends to constrain our understanding to simple two-dimensional spaces presented on a monitor. Advances in methodology now present exciting opportunities to create controlled three-dimensional search spaces for participants to explore, and this project will examine the psychological factors that support efficient environmental search behaviour. This can include explorations of environmental structure (e.g. shape, landmarks), statistical properties of the array (e.g. fruiting patterns, spatial likelihoods), and the individual differences that underlie search (e.g. working memory, autistic traits). Experiments could make use of Plymouth’s world-class environmental simulation capabilities, and there may also be the opportunity to address some of these issues in patients who have sustained neurological damage, and to look at changes in search behaviour associated with typical ageing.
Understanding human heterogeneity in learning, memory, and decision-making
Professor Andy Wills 
In psychology, we typically assume that the average behaviour of a group of people is representative of a common set of underlying cognitive processes. In reality, we’ve known for some time that the group average can be unrepresentative of the vast majority of individuals that make it up. In a recent experiment, Lenard Dome (one of my current Ph.D. students) found only 3% of participants showed the group-level result! How can we build better theories of human learning, memory, and decision-making that capture the variety of behaviours exhibited within a group (and only the range observed)? Such would be the topic of your Ph.D. Some experience with, or at least strong willingness to learn, computer programming (e.g. R, Python, or C++) is essential for this project. Use of neuroscience methodologies (e.g. eye-tracking, EEG, fMRI) may be possible, depending on your interests.
Variability in perceptual learning
Dr Zahra Hussain 
Practice improves perception, even for basic visual tasks such as discriminating the tilt of a line (is it clockwise or counterclockwise?). Such improvements, termed perceptual learning, tell us that sensory brain regions are malleable long into adulthood. Nearly everyone improves with practice, but some people don’t, and others reach near-perfect performance with little practice. Furthermore, performance at baseline may differentiate what people learn in a task (e.g., stimulus-specific vs. non-specific information). This project will examine individual differences in perceptual learning, with attention to the stimulus- and task components of learning, and predictors of the time-course and overall amount of learning in perceptual tasks. The goal is to understand how people vary in the information they select during perception, and how practice alters that selection. Strong analytical and programming skills desired.
Why and when do habits control our behaviour?
Professor Christopher Mitchell
Habits can be very useful. For example, an experienced car driver can change gear habitually, leaving plenty of mental capacity to monitor complex traffic conditions. However, habits sometimes to lead to errors, such as picking up a chocolate bar in the Newsagent when trying to lose weight. These kinds of errors – where our learning leads us to do things that we would prefer not to, and which feel outside of our control – allow important insights into our psychology. Important questions remain as to why this kind of automatic behaviour occurs, the situations in which it is most likely to be observed and who is most likely to be susceptible. This project would suit a student who has an interest in learning, memory or attention.

Developmental psychology

Bullying behaviour and minoritised populations in school and youth work settings
Dr Steve Minton 
The first major studies into bullying behaviour at school began half a century ago, and since that time a considerable body of knowledge regarding its frequency and typology. Although some empirical research to this effect has appeared over the past fifteen years or so, comparatively rather less is known about the specific experiences of young people who belong to minoritised groups; and still less is known about bullying behaviour in youth work settings. Given these gaps in the research knowledge, this project will involve the collation of data on bullying behaviour in both schools and youthwork settings, with specific attention being paid to experiences of young people who belong to minoritised groups (e.g., LGBTQ+, SEN, ethnicity, gender identity and expression), in two locations – an area that we have referred to as ‘southwestern England’ (comprising the counties of Cornwall and Devon), and an area that we have referred to as ‘southeastern Norway’ (comprising the counties of Vestfold og Telemark and Viken). This particular Ph.D. opportunity will concern itself with ‘southwestern England’), with a Ph.D. student operating in parallel in ‘southeastern Norway’. The successful candidate will be expected to (i) recruit and maintain a geographically representative network of secondary schools and youth work organisations for participation in the project; (ii) to engage in the revision, and to implement, a specifically-designed digital survey within the secondary schools and youth work organisation; (iii) to liaise throughout with the parallel research team in Norway; and, (iv) to analyse the outcomes of the survey in order to prepare a Ph.D. write-up, and other disseminations.  
The development of cooperation in collective action problems.
Dr Patricia Kanngiesser
Collective action problems are at the heart of many of the most challenging problems of our time be it the current pandemic, climate change, or scarce resources. Collective action problems arise when individual interests are in conflict with group interests and although cooperation would be beneficial for everyone, it can break down due to free-riders trying to maximize their own benefits. Developmental studies can help to shed light on factors that influence cooperation such as social norms and values that are acquired during childhood. These insights could also be leveraged to develop educational tools (e.g. games and simulations) to foster better understanding of collective action problems. Methods would primarily include behavioural experiments with children and adolescents in the lab/schools/online and there may be opportunities to conduct cross-cultural work. The exact shape and scope of the PhD project would depend on students’ interests. Candidates with an interest to develop online experiments/games are particularly welcome.
The development of political attitudes in children
Professor Jeremy Goslin
Political attitudes are central to our moral beliefs about the world, but when and where do we acquire these attitudes? It has long been suggested that children largely inherit the political beliefs of their parents, and yet the development of the political attitudes of young children, and how these attitudes subsequently shape our early moral outlook remains a mystery. This project will draw upon techniques used in experimental psychology and behavioural economics to make an experimental investigation that explores the relationship between the political beliefs of parents and the implicit attitudes of their children to economic decision making, inequality, and sharing. A systematic examination of children over the course of development (from 3–14) will allow an understanding of how children develop politically, and how this affects their behaviour and moral interpretations of society.

Health, applied, and social psychology

Attachment in people with intellectual disabilities
Dr Deanna Gallichan 
There has been increasing focus on the influence of attachment on clinical problems affecting adults with intellectual disabilities (ID), but the field has been hampered by a lack of reliable and valid measures with which to advance our understanding of the relationship between internal working models and clinical presentations.  The Adult Attachment Projective Picture System (or AAP; George and West, 2012) has offered a potential solution to this impasse.  Pilot work with has demonstrated good inter-rater reliability for the AAP with adults with ID (Gallichan & George, 2014, 2016, 2018), but the small samples used so far have limited power, and validity is much more difficult to address.  Moreover, data thus far has demonstrated a consistent pattern of high rates of unresolved classifications in this group, but the underlying reasons for this are unclear.  This PhD would aim to address this by gathering a larger sample of adults with ID in order to more robustly evidence the psychometric properties of the AAP in this group, and develop a deeper theoretical understanding of the influence of ID on the development of internal working models of attachment. 
Body compassion
Dr Nicholas Troop
Body compassion refers to self-compassion directed to one’s own body. It incorporates elements of self-kindness, common humanity, and mindful awareness, as well as elements of sensitivity to body-related distress, pain and suffering, and the motivation and ability to combat this. We have previously developed measures of body compassion and found that it is related to a number of outcomes such as eating concerns, body shame and wellbeing in people in a range of contexts and with a range of conditions. Furthermore, simple body compassion expressive writing exercises can improve mood, body image and physical activity with effects lasting 1–3 months. The aim of this PhD is two-fold: the first aim is to further develop other strategies to improve body compassion (such as guided imagery); the second aim, because body compassion relates to a number of health-related outcomes, is to examine whether a single common intervention (addressing body compassion) can impact on multiple outcomes simultaneously. There is a possibility for the PhD candidate to develop these studies in contexts or conditions for which they have a particular interest and/or to be guided by previous research by the supervisor. 
Psychological factors in women's health
Dr Alison Bacon and Dr Alyson Norman
We welcome proposals for novel research which will increase understanding of women’s health and which can potentially help to improve health outcomes longer term. Topics for investigation might include trauma, childhood experiences, personality, coping, stress, resilience, attachment, or relationships with health professionals. Work focussed on specific health conditions is also of interest. These are just examples and we are open to other suggestions. While projects may include aspects of mental health, the primary focus would be on physical health. We are happy to support research using psychometric or qualitative methods, or a combination of the two.
Spirit and science: Projects in clinical and transpersonal psychology
Dr Sophie Homer and Dr Edith Steffen 
We welcome proposals for novel research into the nature of self and consciousness, the concept of spiritual health and wellbeing, and the overlap between transpersonal and clinical psychology. Transpersonal psychology is about going beyond the individual, beyond ego, beyond everyday thinking, and beyond ‘normal’ states of consciousness. It is considered a form of critical psychology in that it does not rely solely upon the ideas about science, epistemology, ontology, and axiology that pervade in this culture at this point in time. It considers materialism as a working hypothesis rather than an unquestionable truth, and it appreciates that knowledge gained outside of normal waking consciousness can be meaningful and valid. Projects could explore the relationship between transpersonal phenomena, which can be experienced as healing and/or distressing, and physical and mental health and wellbeing. Possible topics could include spiritual emergence and spiritual emergency, exceptional human experiences (e.g. contact with deceased loved-ones, ‘awakening’, near-death or out-of-body experiences, mystical experiences, kundalini, altered states of consciousness, transpersonal connectedness, clairsentience, etc.), and processes of self or spiritual transformation (e.g. through practices such as meditation). Methods can include experimental, quantitative, qualitative, and mixed-methods approaches. We can work together to help shape your idea.   
Understanding risk and expertise in multidisciplinary clinical teams
Dr Ben Whalley and Dr Pete Keohane
Experts make accurate predictions and successful interventions in complex environments. Research on expert judgement strongly suggests that, to develop expertise, the environment in which professionals operate must have ‘high validity’: experts require information that is genuinely predictive of important outcomes, and accurate feedback to evaluate decisions and actions. On both counts clinical psychologists are at a disadvantage: because psychological distress is complex and multiply caused clinicians face real challenges in extracting and acting-on regularities in a ‘noisy’ system. Numerous studies show that clinical experts struggle to make accurate predictions and decisions in important domains (e.g. suicide risk, risk of harms in psychosis). This is sometimes taken as evidence that clinical psychologists lack true expertise, but we start from the position that the glass is half-full. Clinical decisions are complex, and humans make mistakes of memory and reasoning. But clinical psychologists probably do gain expertise through practice: meta-analyses show psychotherapy is effective, and psychological perspective and techniques (biopsychosocial model, formulation) are viewed as useful by other professionals. However, we are interested to understand whyeffective techniques to improve expert decision making are not widely adopted in clinical psychology and what can be done about it. The project will recruit professionals in MDTs and service users in acute adult and forensic settings, crisis services, and related outpatient adult services. We will (likely) adopt a mixed-methods approach, combining qualitative analysis of talk in MDTs with structured interviews and surveys. Bayesian elicitation methods and related quantitative methods will be used to characterise the expectations – and agreement in expectations – among MDT members, and explore how this relates to the decision making process.
Understanding the role of imagination in tackling environmental issues and/or promoting human health and wellbeing
Dr Kayleigh Wyles, Dr Julie Ji and Professor Jackie Andrade
The main premise of this PhD is to pull together two areas of Psychology to understand and promote a healthy world to live in: 1) Environmental Psychology, extending theories and empirical evidence on our relationships with the physical environment around us, and 2) Mental simulation, the cognitive capacity to simulate novel or hypothetical experiences via the imagination. This PhD aims to explore how imagination-based mental simulation may augment our engagements with the physical world. This could go in one of two directions: how it impacts the environment’s health or how it impacts our own health and wellbeing. First, to investigate the role of imagination in tackling environmental issues, this PhD could examine to what extent imagination-based mental simulation can be used to motivate pro-environmental behaviours. For example, by manipulating the levels of mental simulation (e.g. asking people to imagine a scenario vs. providing external stimuli to support and guide that imagination, such as through Virtual Reality, VR), this PhD could examine whether these different types of interactions can strengthen a person’s connectedness and/or commitment to protecting the natural world through reduce the psychological distance between the spectator (the individual) and the victim (wildlife and/or natural environments). The second alternative direction would be to investigate the role of imagination in promoting human health and wellbeing. Vast amount of research has shown that spending time in nature or even watching a natural scene on a computer can improve a person’s mood and overall wellbeing. Can the imagination augment the wellbeing benefits of nature exposure, such as through extending the experience via mental simulation, or a combination of mental simulation and actual/virtual exposure?

Human neuroscience

Brain Imaging and Biomechanics: neural control of real-world movement performance
Professor Stephen Hall
The neuroanatomical and neurophysiological process that control the movement of individual muscles and limbs is reasonably well understood. However, the mechanisms by which the brain coordinates the complex coordination of biomechanics, to enable whole-body movement through the real-world, is an exciting area of future research.
This research programme will use the unique capabilities of the Brain Research & Imaging Centre at the University of Plymouth (BRIC). The project aims to: (1) use functional MRI (fMRI) to identify the brain networks involved in the control of movement; (2) combine mobile-electroencephalography (EEG), complex biomechanical measurements (GRAIL) and virtual reality (VR) to determine the neural signatures associated with real world movement and: (3) use brain stimulation methods to determine the causal role of brain structures and signals in the generation of effective movement.
We will apply a range of analysis methods, from signal processing to machine learning, to optimise our interaction with neurophysiological features and to develop methods of neural interaction that improve performance in health and neurological disorders.
Breaking through the brain barrier: transcranial ultrasound stimulation and the visual system
Dr Giorgio Ganis and Dr Elsa Fouragnan
Transcranial ultrasound stimulation (TUS) is an exciting and innovative non-invasive technique that has the potential to revolutionize the field of brain research. This cutting-edge method allows for unparalleled spatial precision in modulating brain activity, opening up new avenues for exploring the intricacies of neural function. While still in its early stages, TUS has already shown promising results in both animal and human studies. This project aims to take advantage of the well-established organization of the human visual system to investigate the behavioural and neural effects of TUS. By combining psychophysics, TUS, electroencephalography (EEG), and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI/fMRI), we will explore the specific effects of TUS on different levels of the visual hierarchy in humans. This will include examining low-level vision in retinotopically organized early visual areas, motion processing in motion-sensitive areas, and object processing in shape-sensitive visual areas. With this project, we hope to shed light on the potential of TUS as a powerful tool for modulating brain activity and exploring the intricacies of neural function. By investigating its effects on different levels of the visual hierarchy, we aim to better understand the mechanisms underlying this exciting new technique and its potential applications in a wide range of fields. Apply for this project, if you would like to join us on this journey of discovery as we explore the fascinating world of TUS and the human brain.
Functional parcellation and characterization of human auditory cortex using multimodal imaging
Dr Julien Besle
The organisation of the human into functionally distinct cortical areas that undertake different cognitive operations is not well understood. Previous work using non-invasive neuroimaging tools, such as functional or structural MRI, to identify human auditory cortical areas in individual participants, has shown that the functional organization of the human auditory cortex differs from that of other non-human primates (Besle et al., 2019), but the exact location and function of different auditory cortical areas remains unclear. PhD project topics will pursue this line of inquiry along one or several of the following axes (or contact me if you have your own suggestion for research questions on perception in the auditory or other sensory modalities): 1. Improving non-invasive methods for parcellating functionally-distinct auditory cor tical areas in individual participants: functional markers used previously to differentiate between auditory cortical areas (frequency preference, frequency selectivity and intracortical myelin content) have proved insufficient for a complete mapping of human auditory cortex. This project will explore the use of alternative non-invasive measurements, including fMRI mapping of other topographically-organized acoustic features and connectivity-based parcellation from diffusion-weighted or resting-stage functional MRI data. 2. Functional role of identified auditory cortical areas in auditory perception: the ability to identify the location of auditory areas in individual human participants opens new avenues for exploring the role of these areas in auditory perception. Performance in psychoacoustics tasks will be correlated to the functional features of different auditory cortical areas to study the contribution of each area to specific cognitive operations involved in auditory perception.
Projects will combine data acquisition using one or several neuroimaging modalities, psychophysical measurements, state-of the art analysis techniques and/or computational modelling approaches. Experience with (or a strong interest to learn) computer programming is highly desirable. Successful candidates will have access to the school lab and to the brand new state-of-the-art human neuroimaging facility (BRIC). Applicants are advised to make contact to discuss the specific direction of the project before applying.
Investigating the neuropsychological markers of highly visual social media & body image concerns
Professor Helen Lloyd and Dr Matt Roser 
In 2017, the Royal Society for Public Health (RSPH), highlighted the need for awareness and investigation on the impact of the internet – in particular social media – on shaping ideas of self-perception and body image. Body image is described as a person’s perceptions, thoughts, and feelings about their body and body image dissatisfaction (concerns) is defined as a person’s negative thoughts and feelings about their body’ (Grogan, 2007). The increasing popularity of social media, particularly in young adults, has led to concerns regarding the addictive and potentially harmful nature of various platforms. Social Media Use (SMU) has been associated with mental health and wellbeing problems such as Anxiety, Depression and Self-Esteem issues (Kelly et al., 2018). In particular, increased usage of highly visual and image based social media (HVSM) (Marengo et al., 2018), presents a potentially greater risk of body image concerns in both males and females. 
Kim and Chock (2015), found that exposure (i.e. time spent on social media) was unrelated to body image concerns, but instead was related to ‘social grooming’ behaviours (i.e. viewing, commenting on peer’s profiles). They also reported that appearance comparisons significantly mediated the relationship between social grooming and the drive for thinness in women. This suggests that ‘active’ use of HVSM (e.g. social grooming) coupled with the propensity to compare oneself to ‘idealised types’ has the potential to explain why some individuals experience body dissatisfaction and aspire to idealised thinness. Indeed, an integrated model of internet use proposed by Rodgers (Rodgers, 2016), implicates online cultures of body thin ideals and the psychological processes of social comparison as key interacting mechanisms driving body shame and disordered eating. 
Work has already begun to test if it is feasible to identify relationships between exposure and interaction with HVSM (as material that exploit psychological mechanisms) and neuropsychological markers of HVSM processing in individuals scoring high and low on measures of body image satisfaction.  This PhD would extend and develop this work, building on the proof of concept foundation work that has already been initiated. This PhD offers the opportunity for a suitable candidate to be part of a cutting edge and exciting project with opportunities to develop advanced statistical skills, neuropsychological and fMRI techniques.  
Ongoing thoughts, human cognition, and brain architecture
Dr Nerissa Ho
Human existence depends on the capacity to experience things happening in our lives, as denoted in René Descartes’ famous quote, “I think, therefore I am”. From neuroscientists’ perspective, experiences exist only if they can be represented in the brain, and these representations are commonly referred to as ‘trains of thought’. Past studies of ongoing experiences mostly focused on mind-wandering by examining thoughts that are unrelated to the performing task. However, mind-wandering is simply the nature of the human brain. In fact, our thoughts continuously drift to and from the external and internal world, and between diverse events. And mind-wandering is not just about task-unrelated thoughts, instead, it encompasses a much wider variety of experiences, including thoughts that are stimulus-independent, unintentional, meandering, and unguided. Common to this family of thoughts is that they all rely on the capacity to process information decoupled from ties of external stimulation, an important aspect of human experience known as introspection. Importantly, there is increasing evidence showing that mind-wandering is associated with both beneficial processes, such as goal-directed thinking, planning, creativity, and intelligence, as well as processes linked with negative outcomes such as impaired task performance, disruptions to learning and affective dysfunction. Together, they suggest the prevailing task-negativity account of mind-wandering is simply inadequate for explaining the complexity and richness of the experiences and mechanisms underpinning mind-wandering. Our project aims to extend our knowledge of ongoing thoughts to better understand how these thoughts reflect human cognition, based on the strategy of triangulation to examine self-report data with both behavioural and neuroimaging evidence. Specifically, we will examine how patterns of ongoing thought, their content, form, intentionality, emotionality, task-relatedness, relationship with external stimuli and so on, are related to factors such as brain architecture and activation patterns, environmental and task contexts, as well as cognitive performance indicators and other personal characteristics. Ultimately, we would hope to apply our understanding of the neurocognitive underpinnings of ongoing thought patterns, together with their impacts on cognitive and emotional experiences, in order to translate into applications in the clinical and ageing domains.
Passing the neuroscience of tool use to robots
Professor Jeremy Goslin
In embodied models of cognition our representations of objects are formed around the motor programs used to manipulate them. This means that not only do we automatically prepare relevant actions when viewing objects, but also that our actions modulate our perception of our environment and those interacting within it. Robots with a similar embodied architecture should also benefit from a more seamless sensory-motor integration. In this project electrophysiological brain imaging techniques will be used in virtual reality environments to examine how object-based affordances help us to learn and manipulate tools. This new understanding will then be used to directly inform interactive models of human-robot object manipulation and collaboration.
Spatially-accurate ultrasound stimulation of topographically-organized sensory cortex
Dr Julien Besle, Dr Giorgio Ganis, and Dr Elsa Fouragnan 
Brain stimulation techniques allows the study of the causal role of different brain regions in perception and behaviour. Transcranial focused ultrasound stimulation (tFUS) is a novel non-invasive brain stimulation method that holds much promise both in terms of clinical and basic applications. Compared to other currently available stimulation methods (e.g. TMS), tFUS is more spatially accurate and allows the stimulation of deeper brain structures. The effect of tFUS on neuronal activity and perception/cognition is not very well characterized however. This project will systematically characterize the behavioural consequences of stimulating visual and auditory primary cortices, which are both located deep inside cortical fissures and have a known fine-grained spatial organization, allowing a test of the spatial accuracy of tFUS. The topographical organization of visual and auditory cortex will first be measured using functional MRI in individual participants, and the measured maps will be used to accurately stimulate restricted parts of visual or auditory cortex corresponding to different locations in visual space (different locations in the outside world) or in auditory space (different sound frequencies). Depending on the intensity of the tFUS, stimulation should result in either a decrease in sensory discrimination performance or the induction of phantom sensations at the stimulated location in sensory space, but not at other locations. Projects will combine neuroimaging data acquisition (structural and functional MRI), neuro-navigated brain stimulation (tFUS), psychophysical measurements and state-of the art analysis techniques. Experience with (or a strong interest to learn) computer programming is highly desirable. Successful candidates will have access to the school lab and to the brand new state-of-the-art human neuroimaging facility (BRIC). Applicants are advised to make contact to discuss the specific direction of the project before applying.
The ageing brain – structural degeneration and functional consequences
Dr Matt Roser
We have previously demonstrated, in studies of callosotomy patients (Roser et al., 2011) and using functional MRI (fMRI) (Fugelsang, Roser et al., 2005) that the two cerebral hemispheres make different contributions to the perception of causality in object interactions and to the drawing of inferences about causality. Furthermore, we have shown (Linnet & Roser, 2012) that ageing (>65 years) has deleterious effects upon behavioural processes that depend on interhemispheric brain connectivity and (Roser et al., 2012) that indices of structural connectivity are related to behavioural performance in young adults. This project proposes that age-related decline in fundamental processes of perception, learning, and reasoning will be partly explicable by the degeneration of white-matter pathways in the brain, particularly between the two cerebral hemispheres and between anterior-posterior regions, and that this will be reflected in patterns of functional-network activity across the brain. We predict that deficits (relative to young adults) in behavioural performance will be most marked in those processes that depend on widely-distributed networks of activity and which are vulnerable to disruption by age-related degeneration of microstructural connectivity. We will use our established paradigms for investigating causal perception, causal and real-world reasoning, observational learning and hypothesis generation, with young adults, healthy-aged participants, and patients with early-stage dementia while recording brain activity using fMRI and brain microstructural connectivity using diffusion MRI. The same cohort will undertake several experimental tasks, over two one-hour long scanning sessions, so as to facilitate the cross-paradigm meta-analysis of the effect of age-related structural degeneration upon distributed brain processes. Further behavioural testing and characterization of dementia status will be conducted outside the scanner. Analyses of distributed brain function (as in Karuza…Roser, et al., 2017) will be informed by MRI indices of microstructural connectivity. The project will make use of brand-new facilities in Plymouth’s flagship Brain Research and Imaging Centre to examine neural connectivity (including diffusion imaging and white-matter tractography) in relation to navigational performance. Some experience with computer programming (e.g. matlab, R, Python) and MRI analysis is essential for this project.
The pharmacology of self-doubt and its effect on cognitive control
Dr Sean Fallon
One of the features of many psychiatric and neurological disorders is corrosive self-doubt. For example, even when they are performing tasks at normal (or even above normal) levels, patients with depression can often feel like they performed terribly. This suggests that there is a dissociation between one’s cognitive ability and one’s perception of performance. Such a discrepancy may arise because there is a dissociation in the neurocognitive systems that support actual performance (cognitive control) and confidence. This project will assess the effect of a range of pharmacological compounds on cognitive control and self-doubt in healthy and neuropsychiatric populations (e.g., People with Parkinson’s disease, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder).
The science of deception: A cognitive neuroscience approach to understanding how people hide information
Dr Giorgio Ganis
Are you interested in the neuroscience behind deception and how the brain conceals information? This PhD project aims to address some of the fundamental questions surrounding this intriguing topic. This project utilizes state-of-the-art cognitive neuroscience methods such as EEG, brain stimulation, and fMRI to investigate the cognitive and neural processes associated with concealing information. Recent electrophysiological findings have identified several neural signatures that are associated with concealed information, such as the frontal N2, multiple P3s, and late positivities. However, two broad questions remain unanswered: (i) What cognitive and neural processes do these signatures reflect? Do they reflect recognition or inhibitory processes? (ii) Are these neural signatures causally related to information concealment or just epiphenomena useful for forensic purposes? In this project, we will use cutting-edge cognitive neuroscience techniques and theories to investigate the timecourse and causality of these neural processes. By combining EEG, brain stimulation, and fMRI, we aim to uncover the underlying mechanisms of concealed information and provide a more comprehensive understanding of the neural processes involved in deception. Our research will have significant implications for forensic investigations and could potentially contribute to the development of new techniques for detecting deception. Apply for this project if you’d like to join us in this exciting and innovative research project and make significant contributions to the field of cognitive neuroscience.
Using brain imaging and brain stimulation to see what’s in your mind
Dr Giorgio Ganis
Visual mental imagery is our ability to conjure visual scenarios in our mind in the absence of actual visual stimuli in the environment. This ability plays a critical role in many cognitive skills and mental disorders and is pervasive in our mental life. Current theories propose that visual mental imagery is carried out in our brain by means of top-down processes that reactivate neural representations similar to those engaged during visual perception at multiple levels in the visual hierarchy. However, the details of such processes are unclear. For example, some recent EEG evidence using multivariate analyses has suggested that these top-down processes may be conveyed by oscillations in the alpha range, whereas other EEG evidence has implicated oscillations in the gamma and theta ranges. This project aims to use a set of rigorous visual mental imagery tasks to shed light on the details of these top-down processes using multivariate analyses on a combination of behavioural, EEG, brain stimulation, and fMRI measures.