Cognitive Psychology and Neuroscience Research Group
The Cognitive Psychology and Neuroscience Research Group in the Department of Psychology researches lower- and higher-level cognition, as well as applied topics including:
- Attention
- Embodied cognition
- Explicit and implicit memory
- Judgement and decision making
- Cognitive ageing
- Fear acquisition
- Temporal expectancy
- Mental imagery and creativity
- Typical and atypical language and reading
- Social cognition
- Risk perception
- Uncertainty communication
Our research employs a wide range of methods from experimental psychology, cognitive neuroscience, psychophysics, modelling and psychometrics. Within this research group, we have the Jones,Silas & Ward Cognitive Neuroscience Lab and the Music Cognition and Communication Lab. We have used some of our work to solve problems in the clinical domain, criminal justice system, and defence and security sector.
Equipment and facilities
We use a range of equipment and have access to state of the art facilities dedicated to our research. Our research includes the use of several high-end EEG systems (e.g. 128 electrode BioSemi, 64 electrode ActiChamp, Wireless LiveAmp, R-Nets, BioRadio) as well as both magnetic and electrical brain stimulation such as transcranial Alternating/Direct Current Stimulation (tACS/tDCS) and transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS).
Moreover, we have several eye-trackers (Tobii) used in both adult and infant research. Our psychophysiology laboratory has a PowerLab system.
Available resources
Cognitive Psychology researchers at Middlesex have considerable resources available to them, including:
- EDA & Biofeedback monitoring
- Electroencephalogram (EEG)
- Eye-tracking
- Transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS)
- Cardio-respiratory monitoring for Respiratory Sinus Arrhythmia (part of the ViVo Sense package)
Research group members
Dr Nicky Brunswick
Associate Professor in Neuropsychology
Dr Brunswick's research focuses on the relationship between language, literacy, musical and artistic ability in children and adults, with a particular focus on typical reading development and developmental dyslexia. Her recent focus has been on creativity and self-perception in dyslexic readers, and how this influences subject studied at university and future career aspirations. Dr Brunswick is chair of the Cognitive Psychology and Neuroscience Research Group and she is on the editorial boards of the journals Dyslexia and Learning Disabilities: A Contemporary Journal.
Read Dr Brunswick's full profile
Professor Mandeep Dhami
Professor in Decision Psychology
Professor Dhami's research focuses on human judgement and decision-making, risk perception and risk taking, and understanding and communicating uncertainty. She has examined these issues extensively in the criminal justice and defence and security domains. Professor Dhami is co-editor of Judgement and Decision Making, the official journal of the Society for Judgement and Decision Making as well as the European Association for Decision Making.
Dr Alexander Jones
Associate professor in Psychology
Dr Jones' research interests include attention, prediction, action, and timing, and using cognitive neuroscience techniques to investigate how the brain and behaviour relate. His recent focus has been on exploring how we select and attend to information presented to our senses. In particular, how we process and attend to the sense of touch and how neural oscillations entrain to rhythmic events. Dr Jones also co-leads the Silas & Ward lab.
Dr Gemma Reynolds
Senior Lecturer in Psychology
Dr Reynolds' research explores the development of emotions such as fear, anxiety and disgust during childhood, in particular the cognitive mechanisms and mediating factors associated with the development of these emotions.
Dr Yvan Russell
Senior Lecturer in Psychology
As an interdisciplinary researcher, Dr Russell publishes on diverse topics surrounding his main research interest on the evolution of expert cognition and social behaviour. His research covers both humans and animals. He has studied the social behaviour of chimpanzees and other great apes in captivity, and he has conducted laboratory-based studies on aspects of human cognition.
Dr Jon Silas
Associate professor in Psychology
Dr Silas' research is in the field of cognitive neuroscience. His interests are varied but usually involved in understanding the interaction between neural mechanisms and cognitive processes involved in perception, cognition and social interactions. He has expertise in using a variety of neuro-scientific methods including; EEG, TMS, tDCS and fMRI and has an interest in these methods in and among themselves. He also has a specific interest in the biological and cognitive mechanisms involved in olfactory processing.Dr Silas co-leads the Jones, Silas & Ward Lab
Dr Letitia Slabu
Senior Lecturer in Psychology
Dr Slabu's research interests revolve around trying to understand the precursors and outcomes of state authenticity, and the cognitive mechanisms underlying the impact of social power on people’s feelings, perceptions and actions.
Dr Emma Ward
Associate Professor in Psychology
Dr Ward's research focuses on the relationship between different expressions of memory and how they are affected by ageing. She is also interested in incidental vs intentional memory, and how memory encoding and retrieval are affected by attention, depth of processing, context, rhythm, and prediction. Dr Ward co-leads the Jones, Silas & Ward Lab.
Current Research Associate, Research Assistant and Doctoral Student Members
Member |
Project |
|---|---|
| Maryam Al Abdullah PhD student supervised by Dr Emma Ward |
Effects of ageing and processing style on explicit and implicit memory |
| Wayne Anderson Research Assistant and part-time PhD student working with Dr Alex Jones and Dr Jon Silas |
Exploring the role of neural entertainment in attention processes. Funded by the BIAL Foundation |
| Dr Ian Belton British Academy of Management postdoctoral researcher |
Working with Professor Mandeep Dhami on a project entitled "The effect of scenario planning on individuals' perception of uncertain futures". |
| Mahen Deonaran PhD student under the supervision of Professor Mandeep Dhami and Dr Yvan Russell |
Research focusing on expert evidence in criminal courts |
| Tatiana Sobolewska PhD student working with Dr Nicky Brunswick |
Investigating infant perception of musical affect cues (dissonance) in cross-modal tasks using eye-tracking and online methods |
| Dr Anthony Mangiacotti Post-doctoral researcher |
The MusiCare project funded by the Dunhill Medical Trust (PI Dr F Franco), investigating the benefits of music therapy in care-homes and healthy older adults. Started November 2020 |
| Maria Chifa MSc by Research student |
The relationship between informal musical interaction in the home environment and early language development in pre-term infants and toddlers. |
| Lola Zao-Sanders PhD student working with Dr Jon Silas and Dr Alex Jones |
Exploring the role of embodied cognition in perspective taking |
|
Dr Tamara Fedotiuk Researcher at Risk Fellow (MCCLab) |
Music-based interventions to support wellbeing and parenting in displaced dyads (with Letitia Slabu) |
Research student applications and placements
We are always keen to attract PhD students, MSc by Research Students, and Research Assistants, so if you’d like an opportunity to come and work with us to gain some research experience, please email one of us directly according to our areas of expertise.
Our recent and current projects
The effect of scenario planning on individuals’ perceptions of uncertain futures
A British Academy of Management (BAM) funded project (Professor Mandeep Dhami, Co-I) that aimed to identify psychological mechanisms inducing or inhibiting scenario planning’s perspective-broadening effect, in order to develop interventions that maximise perspective-broadening and minimise perspective-narrowing.
Are alpha oscillations generated by the somatosensory cortex involved in tactile attention?
A registered report using transcranial Alternating Current Stimulation (tACS). This is an ongoing preregistered study, see more details.
Does rhythm enhance recognition memory?
Project funded by the BIAL Foundation (Emma Ward, Alexander Jones, Jon Silas). As part of an ongoing programme of research on the effects of rhythm and temporal expectation on memory, this project investigated how the rhythmic presentation of stimuli affects memory formation using behavioural and EEG measures. See resulting publications here and here.
Effects of ageing and processing style on explicit and implicit memory
Project funded by the Leverhulme Trust (Emma Ward). This research aimed to understand age-related changes in explicit (e.g., recognition) and implicit (e.g., repetition priming) forms of memory, and clarify interactions with processing style and different demands involved at memory encoding and retrieval. See resulting Registered Report in the Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology here
Do musical training and practise support reading? A study of professional dancers and musicians
Project funded by the Society of Education and Music Psychology Research (Nicky Brunswick and Fabia Franco). This ongoing research project is exploring the relationship between musicality and reading ability in professional ballet dancers and musicians.
MusiCare – Protecting cognitive functions and wellbeing using music therapy and innovative technology with an ageing population
Project funded by the Dunhill Medical Trust to study the effect of different types of music therapy on cognitive functions and biomarkers in people aged 65+, with an international multidisciplinary team including colleagues at Middlesex (Anthony Mangiacotti and Emma Ward, Psychology, and Eris Chinellato, Design Engineering and Maths).
Music4DisplacedDyads: Music therapy intervention to support wellbeing and parenting in Ukrainian refugee caregivers and toddlers
Project funded by SEMPRE to study mental health, cognitive function, parenting and social measures pre/post a short music therapy intervention In collaboration with colleagues at Middlesex Dr L Slabu (Psychology), Dr F Palermo (Music), Dr T Fedotiuk (Psychology), SWU Dr E Coombes and Buckingham New University, Dr T McGorrian. Other collaborators: Dr A Mangiacotti and T Sobolewska (MCCLab).
Additional projects
- Decision Science of intelligence analysis (Lead: Prof Dhami)
- Temporal and spatial attention in touch (EEG/ERP) (Lead: Dr Jones)
- Ageing and implicit memory: A benefit of distraction? (Lead: Dr Ward)
Participate in research
If you wish to participate in any of our ongoing or upcoming research then please contact any member of staff directly.