2011-2012 Departmental Seminar Series
6 Oct Prof Oliver Braddick & Prof Janette Atkinson
Department of Experimental Psychology, Oxford & Division of Psychology & Language Sciences, UCL
The Developing Visual Brain - typical and atypical
1 Dec Dr Hugo Spiers
Division of Psychology & Language Sciences, UCL
Exploring the neuroscience of memory through art
The talk will discuss collaborations conduced by Dr Hugo Spiers and a number of artists, exploring the neuroscience of memory. See http://www.ucl.ac.uk/spierslab/art-architecture for details the projects discussed. Topics explored include fragmented recall, hippocampal pattern completion and how grid cells and place cell create a map of space.
Vision is one of the first and fastest neurocognitive systems to develop after birth. As a result it provides a unique window on the developing brain in health and disease. The first four months of life see the emergence of the characteristic functions of primary visual cortex – the
ability to analyse local contours, movement, and depth, and the role of cortex in controlling the subcortical visual processes that are already present at birth, including guiding the baby’s spatial attention. Brain areas beyond primary visual cortex integrate local signals to detect
global patterns of form and motion: high density ERP recordings have allowed us to measure the how these global processes emerge and how they are radically reorganized between infancy and adulthood. These features of the early developing visual brain have allowed us to identify the effects of preterm birth, brain injury around birth, and developmental disorders. Test of global function distinguish between the ‘dorsal cortical stream’ which analyses space and motion to guide our actions, and the ‘ventral stream’ which underlies recognition of objects and faces. Across a wide range of developmental problems, we find evidence that the dorsal stream is particularly vulnerable – problems that go beyond basic vision into attention, visuo-motor control, and spatial cognition.
13 Oct
Dr Andrew Przybylski
Department of Psychology, University of Essex
A Motivational Analysis of Self-Concept in Video Games
This talk focuses on the motivational appeal and emotional correlates of videogame play that places people in touch with aspects of their ideal selves. Results from lab-based within-person and observational between-person studies are discussed. Further, the talk focuses on how, and to what extent, aspirations and behaviors enacted inside within virtual contexts transfer to psychological need satisfaction, and well-being in everyday life.
20 Oct Dr Ryoya Kanai
Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience, UCL
Brain structure and individual differences in complex social behaviour
We all appreciate the substantial differences among our friends and colleagues in their ability to see, think and act. Such variability introduces a rich diversity of culture and lifestyle into our society. While such inter-individual differences are often discarded by averaging data across participants, they can be used as a rich and important source of information to reveal the neural basis of human cognition. Brain structure exhibits systematic relationships with a variety of an individual’s cognitive abilities and such relationships can be captured by voxel-based morphometry (VBM) that computes regional gray matter volume based on anatomical MRIs. A premise of the VBM is that functional differences of a brain region across individuals can be detected as differences in gray matter volume of the brain region (Kanai & Rees 2011). This method has been successfully used to reveal brain regions that are associated with individual differences in a broad range of contexts such as perceptual performance, attention control, face recognition, introspection, bilingualism and personality traits. In this talk, I show that such relationships with brain structure extend to complex social behaviour such as political attitudes, loneliness, moral sentiments and online social network size. Unlike conventional functional neuroimaging research, the approach based on structural neuroimaging does not require a virtual environment that emulates social interactions and thus can directly link brain structure to real-world human behaviour.
27 Oct Prof Peter Ayton
Department of Psychology, City University
Deal or No Deal, Terrorism and Bicycle Accidents: Effects of emotions on risky decisions (and vice versa).
Abstract: Psychologists' experiments have the virtue of affording the study of behaviour under controlled conditions. However some sociologists & economists have criticised experimental studies of decision making for their artifice and doubt that demonstrations of irrational decisions would occur outside the laboratory - e.g. when people face real decisions with significant payoffs. I investigate how, outside of the laboratory, emotions influence decisions with significant consequences and vice versa. One study analyses the effects of terrorist attacks on people¹s transport decisions. It appears that, in attempting to avoid dreaded risks, people subject themselves to larger, albeit non-dread, risks. Another study analyses how contestants in the TV game show ³Deal or No Deal² react to the outcomes of
the decisions they make. Specifically their happiness is affected by the amounts of money they win - but also by the amounts of money they discover they could have won if only they had chosen differently. Both studies show effects incompatible with a strictly rational perspective on decision making.
3 Nov Dr Geoff Bird
Department of Psychological Sciences, Birkbeck, University of London
What underlies individual differences in social cognition? Insights from Autism Spectrum Conditions.
17 Nov Dr Netta Weinstein
Department of Psychology, University of Essex
The Importance of Motivation for Effective and Rewarding Interpersonal Interactions: Exploring the ‘Dark’ and ‘Light’ Sides of Relationships
Positive, constructive dyadic interactions are either enhanced or thwarted by characteristics specific to the context and to dyad members. The motivational qualities of group members shape their experience and bear functional implications for the success and well-being of the team and its members. Effective interactions involve two complementing aspects: Enhancement of positive interpersonal qualities such as empathy, attunement, and closeness, and down-regulation of disruptive interpersonal qualities such as aggression, self-focus, and disconnection. Studies will be presented that explored the links between two distinct types of motivation – autonomous and controlled - and well-being, task, and interpersonal outcomes. These studies draw on diverse methods using experimental and experience sampling designs and manipulate motivation through different means. The central aims of this research program are to (1) identify outcomes of motivation in prosocial and collaborative interactions, and (2) evaluate mediating mechanisms through which the quality of motivation bears on performance and well-being outcomes. In addition, a number of preliminary results will be discussed that complement study findings and point to future directions for this research.
24 Nov Prof Chris French
Department of Psychology, Goldsmiths
Failing the future? Lessons for psychology and parapsychology from the Bem controversy
When a well-respected psychologist publishes controversial findings in a well-respected psychology journal it is not surprising that these findings receive wide coverage in the mainstream science media. This is exactly what happened when Professor Daryl Bem published the results of nine experiments involving a total of over 1000 participants in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology supporting the idea that people are able to somehow “feel the future”. Bem used a variety of different techniques across the series but in general the idea was to “time reverse” commonly used psychological paradigms. For example, it is obvious that rehearsing a list of words will lead to superior recall on a subsequent memory test compared to performance on a list of words that have only been seen once. But according to Bem, recall will be superior on a list of rehearsed words even if the rehearsal does not take place until after recall has been tested. Bem encouraged other psychologists to replicate the effects that he reported and even provided the software he had used in order to encourage such attempts. Three co-ordinated but independent attempts at replication by different researchers (at Goldsmiths, Hertfordshire, and Edinburgh) are reported. None of these attempted replications were successful (neither were attempted replications elsewhere). The three studies were written up and submitted for publication to the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology but the paper was rejected by the editor without even being sent for peer review on the grounds that the journal in question “does not publish replications”. The paper received the same treatment when submitted to Science Brevia and Psychological Science. This highlights serious issues relating to publication bias in scientific publishing which themselves became the subject of discussion in the mainstream science media. Possible reasons for the failure to replicate are discussed. It is concluded that Bem’s results are likely to be spurious but that there was no single reason for the spuriously significant results reported. Instead, it seems likely that a number of factors combined to produce the pattern of results reported.
1 Dec Dr Hugo Spiers
Division of Psychology & Language Sciences, UCL
Exploring the neuroscience of memory through art
The talk will discuss collaborations conduced by Dr Hugo Spiers and a number of artists, exploring the neuroscience of memory. See http://www.ucl.ac.uk/spierslab/art-architecture for details the projects discussed. Topics explored include fragmented recall, hippocampal pattern completion and how grid cells and place cell create a map of space.