PsychologyCognition

Our research focuses on learning, memory, attention, perception, executive functions, visuospatial function, language and affect. We incorporate a wide range of techniques, including paper and pencil tests, digital paradigms, surveys, electroencephalography (EEG), neuroimaging techniques (e.g., functional/structural magnetic resonance imaging), eye-tracking technologies, brain stimulation (using transcranial direct current stimulation) and motion capture.

Our research projects include healthy younger and older people, in addition to people with neurological and neurodegenerative conditions (e.g., stroke, Alzheimer’s disease), or mental health problems (e.g., anxiety, depression, suicidal ideation).

Many of our projects contribute to the University’s strategic priority research theme of Health and Wellbeing, and we have a variety of industry and international partnerships.

Multidisciplinary research networks

Many of our projects contribute to the University’s strategic priority research theme of Health and Wellbeing, and we have a variety of industry and international partnerships. A range of innovative University-wide, multi-disciplinary research networks are also led by researchers within the Psychology Cognition research theme.

Our lab groups/facilities

We have a number of specialised research groups and dedicated research laboratories:

Staff research interests

Academic staff

Staff memberRoleResearch interests
Dr Louise Brown Nicholls Senior Lecturer Working memory; visual cognition; cognitive ageing; cognitive interventions; cognition & emotion
Dr Stephen Butler Senior Lecturer

Eye movements; Attention and biases; Cerebral asymmetry; Face processing; Neuropsychology; Industry engagement; knowledge exchange

Dr Mark Elliott Senior Lecturer Applied & experimental social psychology; Attitudes; Social cognition modelsty
Professor Madeleine Grealy  Professor  Stroke rehabilitation; ageing; perceptuomotor control; positive psychology; physical activity 
Professor Ben Jones  Professor  Face processing; social perception; mate preferences; sexual behaviour 
Dr William McGeown  Reader  Alzheimer’s disease/dementias; hypnosis/suggestibility; neuropsychology; neuroimaging; neurophysiology 
Dr Mario Parra  Senior Lecturer  Cognitive ageing; dementia; neuropsychology; neuroimaging; neurophysiology; technologies; global initiativesy 
Dr Susan Rasmussen  Senior Lecturer  Suicide; self-harm; cognitions; emotion regulation; autobiographical memory 
Dr David Robertson  Lecturer  Face recognition; Identity verification; Attention; Distractibility; Fake News Detection 
Dr Jo Saunders Senior Lecturer  Theories of forgetting; Memory (odour memory, eyewitness memory, recovered memories, self-protective memory); Schizotypy

Teaching staff

Staff memberRoleResearch interests
Dr Tony Anderson Senior Teaching Fellow Critical thinking; information literacy; fake news discernment; student interaction & learning
Dr Lizann Bonnar Senior Teaching Fellow Visual attention; mental health; education; face processing
Dr Irina Campbell Teaching Associate Alzheimer’s disease; Early functional decline in people with dementia
Dr Kellyanne Findlay  Senior Teaching Fellow  Visual perception; depth perception; stereoscopic (binocular) depth perception; categorical perception; letter recognition & identification; perception of emotion; face perception 
Dr Eimear Finnegan  Teaching Fellow  Automatic stereotyping, implicit biases, interventions, language processing 
Dr Steve Kelly  Senior Teaching Fellow Explicit & implicit attitudes; transliminality 
Dr Jennifer Mattschey  Teaching Associate  Attention, language, executive function, bilingualism, history 
Dr Allan McGroarty  Teaching Fellow  Interrogative suggestibility; social comparison; self-concept clarity; beliefs relating to medications for stammeringry