Work with us
Cognition and Neuroscience Group
Hero Carousel
Cognition and Neuroscience Group
Work with us
Our team
Dr Elley Wakui - EEG and Object Recognition
Visual attention and object processing
Elley Wakui's EEG work has been on the processing of visual information, particularly that which we do not allocate attentional resources. This extends previous behavioural work investigating the development of mental representations of objects. Her PhD student (Montserrat Gonzalez-Perez) is currently investigating the enhancement of face processing using transcranial alternating current stimulation (tACS).
Dr Mary Spiller - Synesthesia and Mental Imagery
Individual differences in multisensory processing
Mary Spiller's research investigates how individual differences in multisensory perception (e.g. synaesthesia) might be related to other cognitive or visual-spatial abilities (e.g. mental imagery). For example, we have found that individuals with synaesthesia (synaesthetes) report more vivid mental imagery than non-synaesthetes. Importantly, we were the first to explore this in relation to modalities other than just visual imagery, finding that synaesthetes also report more vivid auditory, smell, touch and taste imagery. Furthermore, we have shown that sequence-spatial synaesthetes (who experience sequences such as time in a spatial sequence) perform better than non-synaesthetes on mental rotation tests.
Professor Volker Thoma - Decision Making and Visual Cognition
Cognitive reflection in judgment and decision-making
Volker Thoma's work on judgment and decision-making investigates the role of cognitive reflection, a thinking disposition as well as a performance measure linked to executive functions. In brain stimulation work cognitive tests were increased after transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) to the right prefrontal cortex. Cognitive reflection is also found to be linked to forms of schizotypy and may be the basis of expert decision-making (e.g., in financial expertise).
Elena Gomis Vicent - Disordered Gambling
Gambling disorder (GD) is a behavioural addiction characterised by compulsive and maladaptive gambling behaviour. GD has been associated with dysfunctional cognitive functions linked to a dysregulation of the prefrontal cortex (PFC), and the manifestation of high impulsivity and excessive risk-taking behaviour. This PhD project investigates the effects of transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) in GD. The clinical phase of the research consists of studying the effects of tDCS in combination with cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) in patients that attend the UK National Problem Gambling Clinic. The main objective of the project is to study whether tDCS on the PFC can modulate cognitive processing, helping to decrease impulsivity and risk-taking behaviour, and therefore offer improved opportunities for the treatment of disordered gamblers.
Dr Mary-Jane Budd - Dyslexia, Language
Mary-Jane Budd is looking for enthusiastic and scientifically minded people to work in her lab investigating the neural correlates of object and word identification in dyslexics using EEG. Mary-Jane would be happy to hear from anyone interested in working with her on this topic by emailing m.budd@uel.ac.uk.
Dr Matteo Martini - Pain Research
Temporal summation of second pain during 'affective touch'
Some evidence hints at an analgesic effect of 'affective touch' during acute pain states but whether this decrease pain level during temporal summation of second pain is not known. Matteo Martini's work on pain and 'affective touch' investigates the role of this specific type of touch on a paradigm which mimics the physiological underpinnings of some forms of chronic pain. Behavioural and neurophysiological (EEG) responses will be collected.
Dr Mark Harwood - Clinical Aspects of Eye-tracking Research
Mark Harwood's work on motor control and learning (with particular emphasis on eye movements and active vision) studies the interplay between decision-making, learning, motor control and visual attention systems. Current projects involve healthy adults and children, as well as conditions such as Parkinson's disease, schizophrenia, dyslexia and amblyopia. These involve collaborations in the USA and France primarily.
Professor Cynthia Fu - Neural Correlates of Mental Health
Cynthia Fu is looking at how brain regions change with talking therapy as well as with pharmacological therapy, what the potential is to develop biomarkers to help us to identify depression and to predict response, and whether the novel brain stimulation technique tDCS could be a potential community-based treatment for depression.
Dr Jeremy E. Lemoine - Economic and Cross-Cultural Cognition
Jérémy E. Lemoine's research interests include social, organisational, economic and cross-cultural psychology. More specifically, his research is in the areas of leadership, well-being in the workplace, burnout, risk-taking, gambling and social representation. His current research aims to develop and apply the social identity model of leadership across situations and cultures. He seeks to investigate how identity leadership can improve both well-being and productivity in organisations.
Dr Antonio Fidalgo - Work and Mental Wellbeing
Wellbeing
Antonio Fidalgo's research focuses on aspects associated with positive mental health and wellbeing. Previously conducted research on the impact of zero-hour contracts on care-workers wellbeing, and; currently, he is investigating the impact of the lockdown in the UK has on sleep, pain management, and mental wellbeing.
Decision-making: his initial research here focused on the impact of briefly presented visual stimuli on multisensory integration and identification. Since then he has conducted research on the cognitive strategies that people use to identify incorrect information. In a similar manner, he has conducted research on the impact of social media in creative thinking.
Dr Melanie Vitkovitch - Cognition and Language
Retrieval of object names
While most of her research is with healthy adults, object/picture naming is a key neuropsychological test, because people with brain damage can quite often have difficulties retrieving picture names. She is interested in semantic interference effects during picture naming. There has been a good deal of research which suggests that when you name an object from a semantic category, such as animals, or furniture, the representations of other objects from that category become activated, and can slow you down.
Dr Anna Stone - Paranormal Belief
Belief in the paranormal
Anna Stone investigates the factors contributing to belief in the paranormal, including thinking styles and narrative conventions. She has recently published a new wide-ranging questionnaire measure of paranormal belief.
Perceptions of people with facial disfigurement: Anna investigates the reactions of members of the general public to individuals with facial disfigurement, looking at their emotional reactions and their evaluations of personal traits and abilities. Recent projects have included eye-tracking research looking at the relationship between attentional focus and emotional reactions and the effectiveness of a short intervention to reduce automatic bias.