Psychology Research Seminar Series
We are pleased to welcome the following guest speakers to Aberystwyth for the first seminars of the 2011/2012 academic year. The seminars are open to colleagues and students from across the University.We look forward to seeing you there.
Psychology Research Seminars
The face of dispute: When does the human brain distinguish between visual object categories?
Guest speaker:Dr Guillaume Thierry, University of Bangor
The human face is the most studied object category in visual neuroscience. In a quest for markers of face processing, event-related potential (ERP) studies have debated whether two peaks of activity –P1 and N170– are category-selective. I will briefly present datasets from six studies involving two-by-two experimental designs showing that P1 mean amplitude significantly distinguishes faces from cars –an object category often compared to faces– independently of modulations elicited by inter-stimulus variability, external feature cropping, and inter-category morphing: (1) By manipulating randomly generated inter-stimulus variability (high vs. low) and object category (cars, faces, butterflies), I show that P1 is weakly sensitive to variability but robustly category-selective, whilst the N170 unexpectedly shows the reverse pattern of response (Thierry et al. 2007; Dering et al., 2009). (2) By manipulating stimulus integrity via deletion of peripheral features of faces (hair, ears, and neck) and cars (rooftop, wing mirrors, and wheels), I show that cropping artificially increases N170 but not P1 amplitude and leaves P1 category-sensitivity intact. (3) When morphing full-front views of faces and cars to different extents, P1 category-selectivity resists 30% contamination of one category by visual information from the other category, whilst the N170 fails to respond to the amount of face information embedded in the stimulus. In sum, the N170 peak of visual event-related brain potentials is highly sensitive to factors other than object category, whereas P1 amplitude is modulated in a face-selective fashion as early as 100 ms after picture onset.
Biography: Professor of Cognitive Neuroscience and Director of Innovation for the Pontio project. Using experimental psychology, functional brain imaging and Event-Related Potentials (ERPs) Dr Thierry is a leading researcher in language comprehension in the auditory and visual modalities.
This talk should be of interest to all Psychology students, particularly those interested in cognitive psychology, and is a value added component of PS11220.
Date: 23rd April, 2012, 5-6pm.
Venue: Physics main
The Pleasure Pursuers: Examining new female sexual subjectivities
Guest Speaker:Dr Adrienne Evans, Coventry University
This paper identifies the ‘new sexual subject’; a woman who is confident with her sexual identity and discerning in forms of sexual consumerism. Situated in the context of an increasingly sexualised culture and set against a backdrop of neoliberalism, postfeminism and consumer culture, this subject’s consumer practices represent the shift away from a passive femininity, and towards a knowing, sassy and 'up for it' sexual identity. The paper draws on data collected in a series of co-operative inquiry inspired focus groups with four white, heterosexual, middle-class women. The participants presented themselves as knowledgeable, hedonistic pleasure pursuers. But their identities were predicated on comparisons with others, positioning the participants as better than some women whose age, class, knowledge or taste meant they represented the hallmark of how not to engage in sexiness; but not as good as celebrities who had greater resources than the participants. In constructing themselves as expert and always knowing, but also failing in comparison to some others, these women appeared always in the pursuit of pleasure – and never in possession of it.
Adrienne Evans is Senior Lecturer in Media and Communication at Coventry University. She has a number of publications on sexualised culture including the forthcoming book: Evans, A. & Riley, S. (2013). Technologies of Sexiness: Sex, Identity and Consumption. New York: Oxford University Press, USA.
This talk should be of interest to all Psychology students, in particular those interested in social psychology, qualitative methods and gender. Second years who plan to take 21st Century Self final year option are advised to attend.
Date: 22nd March, 2012, 5-6pm
Venue: Edward Llwyd. 0.26 Bio Main
Studying emerging musicality during the early years: A consideration of some methodological challenges
Studies of communication in early infancy and childhood have noted the significance of rhythm, sound and music for emotional and social development. There is however, little detailed empirical data on the emergence of naturalistic music-related behaviour by children in the early years. The aim of the research presented in this talk is focused on examining instances of musicality with respect to their form and function, and to trace out developmental indices of musically related behaviours and competencies. Work from two studies will be discussed, - the first employing a single-case study approach considers spontaneous musical moments produced by a child (over a three year period) – the second, using a test battery of musical tasks, examines the specific singing skills children, between aged 5 and 11, exhibit when asked to sing. Using both qualitative and quantitative indices, the results highlight relationships between musicality, early word use, interpersonal skill and narrative development. Concluding comments re-consider the significance of emerging musicality for communicative development.
Date: 15th November; 5-6pm
Venuw: Physics B
“Fatties Cause Global Warming!” Disciplining bodies and governing souls
Every age and society, it seems, creates its own folk devils – monsters so grotesque or whose behaviour is so repugnant that they are seen to ‘deserve’ our condemnation. Here and now, increasingly, this is how we see obesity.
In this seminar I will look critically at what is going on in the ‘obesity epidemic’ that is currently dominating public health agendas. Using ideas drawn from critical psychology in relation to identity and location of agency, and by reference to examples from popular culture, I will explore the implications for public health funding and activity, and at the real costs we may be paying in terms both of wasting resources and undermining wellbeing.
This, however, is no dry or formal presentation. It starts with the way obesity is portrayed in the UK’s ‘red top’ newspapers (the quote in the title is a headline from The Sun), looks at the ways icons like Posh Beckham and Nigella Lawson provide metaphors for bodily ‘control’ and ‘indulgence’, rubbishes the claims made about the so-called epidemic, and generally makes a little trouble around our ideas about health, food, eating and the idea of ‘choice’.
Date: Tuesday 22nd November, 16.00-17.00
Venue: Hugh Owen A14.
Past Research Seminars 2010/2011
Two psychology research seminars will be taking place on 11th of May. At 9am in A6 Llandinam, Dr Daniel Richardson from University College London will lecture on “Eye and though: Eye movements and social cognition”. At 5pm in A14 Hugh Owen, Dr Natasha Kirkham from Birkbeck, University of London will discuss “Attention and Learning in Infants and Children”. All are warmly welcomed. For more information, please email I-Chant Chiang at iac@aber.ac.uk or see below.
Eye and thou: Eye movements and social cognition
Dr Richardson will present three projects demonstrating that social factors, in addition to cognitive factors, also have a substantial contribution to eye movements. In the first, participants watched a video of people giving their views on a sensitive political issue. One speaker made a potentially offensive remark. If participants believed these remarks could be heard by others, they fixated individuals who were likely to be offended. In a second study, two participants in adjacent cubicles had a discussion over an intercom while they were eye tracked. We found that their gaze coordination was modulated by what each believed the other could see on the computer screen. In the final set of experiments, we simply showed groups of four stimuli to pairs of participants. We found that individuals looked at photographs differently if they believed that the other person was looking at the same images as them rather than a set of random symbols. Together these experiments demonstrate that social forces have a strong effect on perceptual mechanisms. Gaze patterns are determined by what we think others will feel, what we think our conversation partners can see, and simply whether or not we think we are looking alone or with other people.
The use of the microgenetic methodology to measure analogical development in pre-school children
Charlotte Greenway will discuss how a microgenetic method as a research design obtains detailed information about particular changes in human development. Specifically, Dr Greenway will discuss its uses in examining pre-school children’s analogical development and how it has enabled researchers to follow individual development across the age range being explored.
To access a recording of the lecture, please click here
Play, language, and graphics
How does children's language predict playing and drawing? Dr Julie Kirkham from SELL will present research investigating the concurrent and predictive relationships between development in graphic, language and symbolic play domains from the fourth to the fifth year in children; all staff and students are welcome to attend.
To access a recording of this lecture, please click here
Mindfulness practice for well being and psychological change
Dr Peter Malinowski from Liverpool John Moore’s University will be presenting his recent research examining how Mindfulness-based interventions are becoming increasingly popular as means for promoting psychological well-being. This talk will provide an introduction to some of the main ideas and principles of mindfulness, discuss ideas and evidence regarding related psychological change and highlight challenges in advancing this field of research.
To access a recording of this lecture, please click here.
Past Seminars 2009/2010
Inferences in language comprehension: The Psycholinguistics of Gricean implicatures
What is communicated can be broken down into what we say and what we imply (Grice, 1969). Dr. Lewis Bott will present new research that investigate this issue by testing how the Gricean notion of default communication applies to sentence processing.
The science of psychoaesthetics: Fractal dimension and visual complexity in art
Dr Alex Forsythe from the Psychology department will identify the challenges in reaching a scientific consensus as to what is beautiful and what is ugly and will discuss the extent to which psychoaesthetics can provide objective measures of beauty.
Motion can amplify the face inversion effect
Professor Ian Thornton from Swansea University will present his research entitled “The human face in motion.” The talk will be held between 5.30-7.00 p.m. in the Board Room of the See3D Building. Professor Thornton will identify the unique aspects of human faces in terms of their complexity and social relevance.
Past Seminars 2008/09
The Margins of Hegemonic Military Masculinities
Guest Speaker: Dr Hannah Hale
Podcast of Dr Hannah Hale discussing male masculinities within the British forces
Deception and Strategic Decision-Making
Dr Rachel Taylor (University of Glamorgan)
Podcast of Dr Rachel Taylor presenting about the strategies and motivation behind deception
Living with Genetic Risk of Cancer: Some Problems, Some Solutions
Prof Paul Bennett (Cardiff University)
Risks, Emotions, and Decision
Prof Peter Ayton (City University)
(podcast available on request)