Professor Alan Pickering

Alan’s research aims to understand the cognitive functions and behaviours that are affected by rewards.

Staff details

Position

Emeritus Professor

Department

Psychology

Email

a.pickering (@gold.ac.uk)

Website

http://homepages.gold.ac.uk/aphome/

Summary

In my research I want to understand why certain people learn especially well when they are rewarded, whereas other people do no benefit as much when their behaviour is reinforced by rewards. This may have something to do with the way that particular brain pathways, and receptors on certain brain cells, operate differently in differently people. It seems that these differences might be found on brain pathways and receptors that particularly rely upon a chemical called dopamine. A group of colleagues and students, who work on these and related topics, form the Goldsmiths Affective Science and Personality (GASP) lab.

On the web

Twitter account - https://twitter.com/ad_pickering
Personal homepage - http://homepages.gold.ac.uk/aphome/
Lab homepage - forthcoming
Google Scholar - https://scholar.google.com/citations?hl=en&user=lH6sbA4AAAAJ
ResearchGate - https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Alan_Pickering

Publications and research outputs

Book Section

Implicit and Explicit Effects of Music on Brand Perception in TV Ads Müllensiefen, Daniel ; Davies, Christopher; Dossman, Lauri; Hansen, Jon Ludvig; and Pickering, Alan . 2013. Implicit and Explicit Effects of Music on Brand Perception in TV Ads. In: C Ringe; K Bronner and R Hirt, eds. Audio Branding Academy Yearbook 2012/2013. Hamburg: Audio Branding Academy, pp. 139-153. ISBN 9783832978785
Five Into One Doesn’t Go: A Critique of the General Factor of Personality Ferguson, Eamonn; Chamorro-Premuzic, Tomas ; Pickering, Alan ; and Weiss, Alexander. 2011. Five Into One Doesn’t Go: A Critique of the General Factor of Personality. In: Tomas Chamorro-Premuzic; Sophie von Stumm and Adrian Furnham, eds. The Wiley-Blackwell Handbook of Individual Differences. London: Wiley-Blackwell. ISBN 978-1-4443-3438-8
J.A.Gray's reinforcement sensitivity theory (RST) of personality Pickering, Alan ; and Corr, Philip. 2008. J.A.Gray's reinforcement sensitivity theory (RST) of personality. In: Gregory Boyle; Gerald Matthews and Donald Saklofske, eds. The SAGE Handbook of Personality: Theory and Assessment Personality Measurement and Testing (Volume 2). London, New Delhi and Thousand Oaks: Sage, pp. 239-255. ISBN 9781412946520

Formal and computational models of Reinforcement Sensitivity Theory Pickering, Alan . 2008. Formal and computational models of Reinforcement Sensitivity Theory. In: Philip J. Corr, ed. The Reinforcement Sensitivity Theory of Personality. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, pp. 453-480. ISBN 9780521617369
The behavioural activation system: Challenges and opportunities Pickering, Alan ; and Smillie, Luke D. . 2008. The behavioural activation system: Challenges and opportunities. In: Philip J. Corr, ed. The Reinforcement Sensitivity Theory of Personality. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, pp. 120-153. ISBN 9780521617369
The neuropsychology of impulsive antisocial sensation seeking personality traits: From dopamine to hippocampal function Pickering, Alan . 2004. The neuropsychology of impulsive antisocial sensation seeking personality traits: From dopamine to hippocampal function. In: Robert M. Stelmack, ed. On the psychobiology of personality : essays in honor of Marvin Zuckerman. Amsterdam: Boston, MA: Elsevier, pp. 455-478. ISBN 9780080442099
Dopamine, appetitive reinforcement, and the neuropsychology of human learning: An individual differences approach Pickering, Alan ; and Gray, JA. 2001. Dopamine, appetitive reinforcement, and the neuropsychology of human learning: An individual differences approach. In: UNSPECIFIED, ed. Advances in Research on Temperament. Germany: PABST Science Publishers Lengerich,, Germany, pp. 113-149. ISBN 3-936142-07-6
Individual differences in reactions to reinforcing stimuli are neither black nor white: To what extent are they Gray? Pickering, Alan ; Corr, Philip J; Powell, Jane H; Kumari, Veena; Thornton, Jasper C; and Gray, Jeffrey A. 1997. Individual differences in reactions to reinforcing stimuli are neither black nor white: To what extent are they Gray? In: Helmuth Nyborg, ed. The scientific study of human nature : tribute to Hans J. Eysenck at eighty. Oxford; New York: Elsevier Science, pp. 36-67. ISBN 9780585474496
Conditioning and learning Pickering, Alan . 1997. Conditioning and learning. In: Andrew Baum, ed. Cambridge Handbook of Psychology, Health, and Medicine. Cambridge, UK; New York, NY, USA: Cambridge University Press, pp. 12-17. ISBN 9780521430739
The flexibility of implicit memory: An exploration using discrimination learning Pickering, Alan . 1994. The flexibility of implicit memory: An exploration using discrimination learning. In: M Jane Riddoch and Glyn W. Humphreys, eds. Cognitive neuropsychology and cognitive rehabilitation. Hove, UK: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates Ltd, pp. 549-569. ISBN 9780863772917

Article

Towards Greater Computational Modeling in Neurocognitive Creativity Research Lloyd-Cox, James ; Pickering, Alan ; Beaty, Roger; and Bhattacharya, Joydeep . 2025. Towards Greater Computational Modeling in Neurocognitive Creativity Research. Psychology of Aesthetics, Creativity, and the Arts, 19(6), pp. 1383-1401. ISSN 1931-3896
Evaluating poetry: Navigating the divide between aesthetical and creativity judgments Chaudhuri, Soma ORCID logo ; Pickering, Alan ORCID logo ; and Bhattacharya, Joydeep ORCID logo . 2025. Evaluating poetry: Navigating the divide between aesthetical and creativity judgments. Journal of Creative Behavior, 59(1), e683. ISSN 0022-0175
Electronic cigarette use among adult smokers: longitudinal associations with smoking and trait impulsivity Kale, Dimitra; Pickering, Alan ; and Cooper, Andrew . 2025. Electronic cigarette use among adult smokers: longitudinal associations with smoking and trait impulsivity. Journal of Substance Use, 30(1), pp. 46-53. ISSN 1465-9891

Report

Review of treatments for severe personality disorder Warren, Fiona; Preedy-Fayers, Katherine; McGauley, Gill; Pickering, Alan ; Geddes, Kingsley Norton John R; and Dolan, Bridget. 2003. Review of treatments for severe personality disorder. Other. Home Office Research, Development and Statistics Directorate.
Childhood accidents and their relationship with problem behaviour Junger, M; West, R; Train, H; Pickering, Alan ; Taylor, E; and West, A. 1998. Childhood accidents and their relationship with problem behaviour. Technical Report. Department of the Environment, Transport and the Regions, London.

Thesis

Does amnesia arise from a specific deficit in memory for contextual information Pickering, Alan . 1987. Does amnesia arise from a specific deficit in memory for contextual information. Doctoral thesis, University of Manchester

Research Interests

I have a wide-range of research interests, but currently they focus on the following topics

The biological bases of personality traits (such as extraversion, anxiety-neuroticism, impulsivity, schizotypy) and their influence on cognitive and motivational processes.
Psychopathologies (anxiety, addiction, schizophrenia) that might be related to the above personality traits and cognitive-motivational processes.
Dopamine, reward and behaviour.
Computational models of reinforcement, learning and cognitive control.
Statistical methods in psychology.

With Dr Andrew Cooper I coordinate the Goldsmiths Affective Science and Personality (GASP) Lab. The lab webpage is forthcoming.

Selected publications (linked to ongoing research)

Pickering, A. D., & Pesola, F. (2014). Modeling dopaminergic and other processes involved in learning from reward prediction error: contributions from an individual differences perspective. Frontiers in Human Neuroscience, 8, 740.

Kuhn, G., Pickering, A., & Cole, G. G. (2016). “Rare” emotive faces and attentional orienting. Emotion, 16(1), 1–5.

Smillie, L. D., Cooper, A. J., & Pickering, A. D. (2011). Individual differences in reward-prediction-error: extraversion and feedback-related negativity. Social Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience, 6(5), 646–652.

Smillie, L. D., Cooper, A. J., Proitsi, P., Powell, J. F., & Pickering, A. D. (2010). Variation in DRD2 dopamine gene predicts extraverted personality. Neuroscience Letters, 468(3), 234–237.

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.

Pickering, A. D., & Gray, J. A. (2001). Dopamine, appetitive reinforcement, and the neuropsychology of human learning : An individual differences approach. In A. Eliasz & A. Angleitner (Eds.), Advances in research on temperament (pp. 113–149). Lengerich, Germany: PABST Science Publishers.

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