Research
The Department of Psychology is committed to supporting staff to produce high quality research across a range of topics, both basic and applied, and to developing strong links between research, teaching and out-reach activities. Research in the department covers all the major areas of Psychology and includes language, evolutionary psychology, working and autobiographical memory, visual perception, developmental psychology, forensic psychology, teaching and learning methods and research into fans' attitudes at football matches.
The department has good facilities for conducting research. For a more detailed account of this please see our facilities section of the website. We have weekly research seminars with contributions from external speakers and from staff and research students within the department. In addition to this, we provide demand responsive research workshops on a variety of topics.
Our staff actively collaborate both within the university, and with staff at other institutions. Within the university, we have particularly close links with the School of Computing and Technology and from within that School, the Institute for Automotive and Manufacturing Advanced Practice (AMAP). AMAP houses an advanced driving simulator with a 180 degree field of vision, a portable eye-tracking system, and brain imaging equipment. Programmes of collaborative research have been supported by the EU fund AGILE and EPSRC JREI DrEAM projects investigating the effects of age and experience on driving. In addition to this, we collaborate with staff in the School of Health, Natural and Social Sciences on a project examining knowledge and responsibility diffusion in the operating theatre. This is a collaborative research project with the Sunderland Eye Infirmary, where Mr. Scott Fraser, Consultant Ophthalmologist, is the external adviser supporting a PhD student.
