Goldsmiths - University of London

Professor Alan Pickering BA PhD

Learning, reward, memory, neuropsychology, neuropsychiatry, the biological basis of personality, statistics, neural networks.

Academic qualifications

BA, PhD

Teaching

on Sabbatical leave in 2009-10

Research interests

My research is primarily concerned with understanding the neuropsychological basis of the processes involved in learning, memory, control of attention and response selection. I am particularly interested in the role of the hippocampal system in episodic memory and the role of basal ganglia structures (eg,striatum) in various processes: stimulus-response habit learning; selective attention; and motivation. In these latter topics I am also trying to understand the role that the neurotransmitter dopamine plays in modulating the function of basal ganglia (hippocampal and cortical) structures.

In pursuit of these topics I have tried to use a range of converging methodologies: neural network and other formal modelling; studies with neuropsychological and psychiatric subject groups; psychopharmacology; neuroimaging; plus studies into the effects of biologically-based personality dimensions on these processes.

Major ongoing projects (all suitable for PhD research projects):

Project 1: Aims to construct a biologically-constrained neural network model capable of SR learning under reward. The model incorporates plastic corticostriatal pathways interacting under ascending dopaminergic neuromodulatory control. The model is being tested against category learning data especially and is being used as a tool for understanding the possible influences of dopamine-related personality traits on behaviour (see 2).

Project 2: Attempts to find specific cognitive correlates of major biological personality dimensions. The dimensions of impulsive unsocialised sensation seeking, extraversion, and schizotypal personality are all interrelated, and some or all of these dimensions may be related to variations in dopaminergic neurotransmission. Each dimension has been proposed to relate to various learning, motivational and/or attentional processes. The project so far has carefully developed tasks which attempt to separate these processes, and has begun to find clear dissociations in the patterns of personality-task correlations. These relationships are being modelled with the neural networks developed in 1 above.

Project 3: Aims to develop and test a formal version of reinforcement sensitivity theory (RST). RST proposes that much of human personality and psychopathology can be understood in terms of a small number of interacting brain-behavioural systems. These systems (Behavioural Activation System; Behavioural Inhibition System; Flight-Fight-Freeze System; and a non-specific arousal system) are proposed to be activated by specific classes of input stimuli, and are thought to vary in their sensitivity to these input stimuli across individuals. The data from large numbers of experiments, testing the hypothetical behavioural consequences of system activation, have been very inconsistent, but predictions under the various different versions of this theory are quite complex. The research project seeks to remedy this situation by the development of a formal model which can be rigorously tested (and modified) in the light of findings from specific behavioural experiments suggested by the model.

Selected publications

Smillie, L.D., Cooper, A.J., Proitsi, P., Powell, J.F., & Pickering, A.D. (in press). Variation in DRD2 dopamine gene predicts extraverted personality. Neuroscience Letters.

Cochrane, M., Petch, I., & Pickering, A.D. (in press). Do measures of schizotypal personality provide non-clinical analogues of schizophrenic symptomatology? Psychiatry Research.

Dawkins, L., Powell, J.H., Pickering, A., Powell, J.F., & West, R. (2009). Patterns of change in withdrawal symptoms, desire to smoke, reward motivation, and response inhibition across three months of smoking abstinence. Addiction, 104, 850–858

Tharp, I. & Pickering, A. (2009). A note on DeCaro, Thomas, and Beilock (2008): Further data demonstrate complexities in the assessment of information–integration category learning. Cognition, 111, 411-415.  

Pickering, A. & Corr, P. (2008). J.A.Gray's reinforcement sensitivity theory (RST) of personality. In G.Boyle, G.Matthews, & D.H.Saklofske (Eds.), Handbook of personality testing and theory. London: Sage.

Pickering, A.D., & Smillie, L.D. (2008). The behavioural activation system: Challenges and opportunities. In P.J.Corr (Ed.), The reinforcement sensitivity theory of personality (pp. 120-154). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Pickering, A.D. (2008). Formal and computational models of reinforcement sensitivity theory. In P.J.Corr (Ed.), The reinforcement sensitivity theory of personality (pp. 452-481). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Steel, C., Hemsley, D.R., & Pickering, A.D. (2007). Associations between schizotypal personality traits and the facilitation and inhibition of the speed of contextually cued responses. Psychiatry Research, 150, 131-140. 

Dawkins, L., Powell, J.H., West, R., Powell, J., & Pickering, A. (2007). A double-blind placebo controlled experimental study of nicotine: II. Effects on response inhibition and executive functioning. Psychopharmacology, 190, 457-467.

Dawkins, L., Powell, J.H., West, R., Powell, J., & Pickering, A. (2006). A double-blind placebo controlled experimental study of nicotine: I. Effects on incentive motivation. Psychopharmacology, 189, 355-367.

Smillie, L. D., Pickering, A. D. & Jackson, C. J.  (2006).  The new reinforcement sensitivity theory: Implications for personality measurement.  Personality and Social Psychology Review, 10, 320-335.

Fagot, J., Goldstein, J., Davidoff, J., & Pickering A. (2006). Cross-species differences in colour categorisation. Psychonomic Bulletin and Review, 13, 275-280.

Click here for more pages and links

Conferences

(*presenting author)

Pickering, A. D.*, Tharp, I.J., & Pesola, F. (July, 2009). Why Complex Biocognitive Theories of Personality Need to Adopt Formal Modelling Approaches. Paper presented at the 14th Biennial Meeting of the International Society for the Study of Individual Differences (ISSID), Chicago, USA. (and co-chaired the Symposium of which this paper was part.)

Tharp I. J.*, Pickering A. D., Smillie L. D., & Cooper A. J. (July, 2009). Individual differences in cognitive control during attentional and rule-based set-shifting. Paper presented at the 14th Biennial Meeting of the International Society for the Study of Individual Differences (ISSID), Chicago, USA.

Pickering, A.*, Pesola, F., & Tharp, I. (July, 2008). Building bottom-up cognitive neuroscience models of personality. Paper presented at the 14^th European Conference on Personality. Tartu, Estonia.

Pickering, A* & Pesola, F. (April, 2008) Reward prediction errors and reinforcement sensitivity theory: A neurobiological account. Paper presented at the Annual Meeting of the British Psychological Association, Dublin.