BSc Projects - Potential Supervisors 2023-24

1. Forgetting - although forgetting is often thought of as a unitary process, the way we forget might instead depend on the type of information we are required to remember. This project will measure forgetting to reveal how forgetting differs across stimulus types.

2. Integration - we are often able to intergrate related information, but the mechanisms that support this process are not well understood. This project will reveal the boundary conditions for integration - when and why it occurs.

I have a working relationship with a local Doggy Daycare where a small group of students can go to collect data for their projects. This will be a group project and students will need to be confident around dogs of all breeds and sizes. Places for this project are limited so please get in touch with me in advance to discuss your interest. 
I am also happy to discuss your own ideas and develop a study that addresses a mutual interest. I can be flexible in supervising a blend of group and individual projects. If you have an idea you wish to explore, come and chat with me about it! 

Please get in touch if you are interested in this type of project

alex.benjamin@york.ac.uk

I’m not officially starting at York until the 16th of May, and am away from the 27th of April to the 9th of May. I will hold two zoom drop-in sessions, or you’re welcome to contact me by email (alex.pike@york.ac.uk), but you might have to be a little patient whilst waiting for me to reply.  

Zoom drop-in sessions - 

Thursday 21st of April 12:00-14:00

https://york-ac-uk.zoom.us/j/94386934025?pwd=YUxmYUVIUFFlMHd6M2JBaS85aHQ4QT09

Monday 25th of April 10:00-12:00

https://york-ac-uk.zoom.us/j/91072850766?pwd=cWcyMjF5VkwxYVA3UCtBb2I4ZXhDZz09

I am interested in various forms of memory consolidation that result from sleep. This includes lexical integration, memory transformation, false memory creation and emotional memory consolidation.

More recently I have become interested in developing educational interventions that reduce the impact and influence of ‘fake news’.

I am happy to supervise behavioural experiments that disentangle the influences of sleep and time on memory consolidation. This could broadly relate to a number of areas within this remit, such as emotional or lexical memory consolidation, or a related project of your own devising (the literature is vast and varied!). Unlike other sleep researchers in this list our experiments would likely take place over one or two days outside the sleep lab (i.e. will be home-based rather than lab-based), and would not involve EEG. 

I am also interested in developing educational interventions to help people distinguish from ‘real’ and ‘fake’ news. This is a new and prescient interest I would like to explore further with a student.

alex.reid@york.ac.uk

Our ability to use language is what makes us uniquely human, but we still don't fully understand how human language is learned or processed.  For example, children seem to acquire their first language with ease, and yet as adults we find learning a new language much more difficult.

One way to explore the question of how language is learnt and processed, is to teach people made up words (e.g., mof = dog, mofeem = dogs; larch = table; larcheem = tables), and see how well they learn them. By doing this we can explore what types of cognitive mechanisms underpin the learning. For instance, how much of language learning relies on implicit learning or explicit learning? Is this the same across different contexts? Is one type of learning better than the other and could we then exploit this when we learn a language? We can also test whether different training methods have an impact on initial learning, as well as long-term maintenance of the acquired knowledge.  

I am also happy to talk about project ideas related to reading and the psychology of education. 

My main research interests are: bilingualism, language switching, language production, executive control, cognitive ageing.

I am interested in supervising projects on topics related to bilingualism (for example, how do bilinguals switch languages and choose which language to use?) or cognitive ageing (for example, how do older and younger adults differ in the way they use language?).

Some possible project ideas are:

1. Do bilinguals adjust their own language choice to the person they are talking with? For example, if someone strongly prefers Language B over Language A, will a bilingual start using Language B more? And if that is the case, is this the consequence of a more automatic mechanism (for example, priming) or do we change our behaviour more strategically to help the other person or to be viewed more positively by them?

2. When there are multiple word options (for example, sofa or couch), speakers will more often use the word that the person they are talking with just used (e.g., sofa). Does this lexical alignment differ between younger and older adults?

3. Bilinguals might switch languages for a variety of reasons. One reason could be to cue the listener (or reader) about the type of information that is coming up, for example an unexpected word. Does language switching influence how bilinguals predict upcoming words?

These behavioural studies can be run online or in the lab and can be completed individually or in groups. I would also be very happy to discuss project ideas from students.

angela.debruin@york.ac.uk

I study the origins of human social behavior, with a focus on how prosocial behavior is shaped by our psychology for acquiring culture and following social norms.

I am interested in supervising projects (particularly group projects) that explore how social norms, culture and psychology interact. Some examples of possible questions:
- Do social norms influence people's prosocial behaviour (i.e. generosity in charitable donations)?
- Do cultural beliefs (e.g. individualism/collectivism) influence how willing people are to conform in classic psychological measures (e.g. Asch's measure of conformity)?
- Does individualism/collectivism influence how willing people are to conform to social norms (e.g. for pro-environmental behaviour, for charitable donations)?

bailey.house@york.ac.uk

I am interested in supervising topics that use technology (e.g., video games, virtual reality) to study emotion and/or social interaction. 

cade.mccall@york.ac.uk

1. The relationship between depersonalisation, derealisation and intrusive thoughts in individuals prone to hallucination-like experiences
2. The impact of psychotic-like self-disturbances on paranoid thinking in nonclinical individuals
3. The extent to which psychological resilience may protect nonclinical individuals against psychotic-like experiences

Please note that I am more than happy to take a flexible approach and accommodate students' own interests. Please email me directly if you wish to discuss further.

The ultimate goal of my research is to help children learn. I am interested in questions such as: How does learning and memory change across development? How do these processes support language acquisition, and in turn contribute to the literacy skills that enable us to succeed in education? What are the consequences of learning difficulties on later wellbeing?

I would be happy to consider projects within these topic areas. This year, I am particularly keen to supervise projects that address the following questions:

• Does sleep support vocabulary acquisition from reading? This project would test a psychological theory of word learning in a naturalistic learning context. We could ask these questions of school-aged children or adults.
• How does memory formation change across adolescence? This project would test whether an adult memory paradigm is sensitive to changes in memory development that occur between childhood and adulthood.

These projects would suit students looking to develop research skills in developmental and/or cognitive psychology, as well as those interested in the educational application of psychological research.

We have been using smartphone games to collect data remotely from a large number of participants of different ages. The games (York Memory Games, YORMEGA:
https://www.york.ac.uk/psychology/staff/academicstaff/fm841/yormega/ )
are designed to address several hypotheses relating to working memory and distraction. Project students will be able to use these data and also collect more data (remotely) using the games if they wish. 

Adult psycholinguistics, speech perception, word recognition, the mental lexicon, sleep and memory consolidation.

Although I’m happy to supervise projects in all the areas listed, this year I would be particularly keen to conduct group projects looking at:

1) Does sleep help us consolidate our social relations?
2) How do we track who said what? Linking conversations to identities of unfamiliar faces
3) When predictions go wrong. Linking memory performance to language comprehension.

gareth.gaskell@york.ac.uk

I am more than happy to offer a project that relates to issues broadly relevant to mental health. Titles of recent projects I've supervised include: 

• #Bodypositive: ‘Body positivity promoting’ imagery on Instagram and its effects on young women

• The Influence of Gender and Obsessive-compulsive Thoughts upon the Development of Exercise Fixations 

• Personality Traits and their Influence on Exercise Addiction and Appearance Management

• Internal vs. External Jogging: Comparing Exercise and Humour for Improving Affect

• Eating behaviour and Somatic Awareness: Is Self-Compassion a factor in both men and women?

• The effects of Familiarity and Information on Attitudes towards Mental and Physical Disorders.

• Generalisation of Attentional Focus on Food Intake to Related Activities
• An Investigation Into The Effects Of Cognitive Challenge On Snack Food Preference.
• Getting the timing right: effects of the scent of lavender on psychological state
• Weight consciousness as a function of personality
• Think Positive: Is Attributional Style a Predictor of Psychological Well-Being
• The effect of music mood and tempo on stress
• Why do we Donate? Examining the Influence of Personality and Marketing on Charitable Giving.

• Personality and Eating Attitudes: How Does Conscientiousness and Controlling Behaviour Link with Damaging Eating Behaviours?

• The effects of Familiarity and Information on Attitudes towards Mental and Physical Disorders.

• An Investigation into the Relationship Between Personality Traits, Exercise Addiction and Appearance Concern

gavin.phillips@york.ac.uk

I am interested in several areas related to:

1) wellbeing including wellbeing and religion; student general wellbeing; help-seeking behaviour in undergraduates; and wellbeing across genders

2) public opinions of forensic psychology issues spanning all aspects of the Criminal Justice System, and the various individuals that play a role in this system (e.g. offenders, victims, police and prison officers)

Wellbeing and religion: In this area, I am particularly intrigued by how conceptualisations of God influence wellbeing. These can include the complexity of how one views God; the images used to represent God; and the degrees of attachment to God. However, I will also be interested in exploring how being religious or having some form of religious commitment influences wellbeing.

Student general wellbeing: In this area, I have a particular focus on the thinking patterns that students utilize that help them to adapt to the university experience and/or develop higher levels of resilience. Other predictors of wellbeing outside of thinking patterns are also welcomed.

Help-seeking behaviour in undergraduates: In this area, I would be interested in exploring how students seek help, comparing the impact on wellbeing of, for instance, formal help-seeking to other forms of help-seeking (such as social support). Please feel free to consider non-traditional conceptualizations of help-seeking such as prayer.

Wellbeing across genders: In this area, I am eager to explore how wellbeing differs not only between males and females but also across different orientations and genders.

Public opinions concerning forensic psychology issues: In this area, I am happy to supervise projects exploring the role of gender and race on judgements of offender guilt; levels of agreement for changes in the current laws; and evaluations of the efficacy of current rehabilitative programmes. However, there are a range of other issues that can be explored, so please get in touch to discuss your particular interests. 

karisha.k.george@york.ac.uk 

karla.evans@york.ac.uk

I would be happy to supervise projects related to my general interests. Some project ideas:

1. People who successfully integrate their multiple social identities within their self-image have better mental health outcomes. Identity integration also buffers the negative impact of perceived discrimination on mental health. In this project, students would develop an intervention to increase social identity integration.
2. Some evidence suggests that people show more hostility towards outgroups on morality-related dimensions of social categorization (e.g., politics, religion) than non-morality-related dimensions (e.g., age, education). Students would conduct online behavioural experiments to test whether morality-based outgroups elicit more aggression than non-morality-based outgroups and whether this response depends on the level of perceived threat from the outgroup.
3. Some social categories are more informative of the person’s beliefs (e.g., religion), while others are more informative of the person’s competence and status (e.g., job). Belief-indicative groups elicit stronger ingroup bias and status-indicative groups elicit stronger preference for higher status. Students could propose either original studies or secondary data analysis projects to further explore this distinction.

Students who want to propose their own project idea are very welcome.

I am happy to supervise projects across various forms of communication/discourse analysis, using qualitative or mixed methods. My principal interests are political debates (including Prime Minister's Questions), broadcast interviews, and political speeches. I can also supervise projects focused on nonverbal communication.

Please get in touch to discuss specific research proposals, or I can advise on study options once I know your areas of interest. Projects might have a topical focus, for example, the COVID-19 pandemic or Brexit.

Recent projects include: An analysis of the Downing Street daily briefings; A gender-based study of political interviewer toughness; Speaker-audience interaction in the speeches of Greta Thunberg; Equivocation by Premier League football managers; An analysis of prejudice within Black Lives Matter discourse; Detecting deception in appeals for a missing person.

Projects this year include (but are not limited to) addressing the following questions:

1. What is the most important social information we derive from observing other peoples' actions? We will use 'Motion Capture' information to animate computer avatars to use as stimuli during experiments that can be conducted either in the Laboratory or via Online platforms.
2. How do Autistic traits impact social perception? We will determine how people with high and low degrees of autistic traits perceive human actions, and examine how autistic traits can enhance perceptual judgements. This research can be performed in the Laboratory or Online.

I am interested in two general areas, the psychology of learning in Higher Education and also in the psychology of religious belief.

Psychology of learning in Higher Education: I am interested in the application of concepts from Education Psychology to learning in higher education. This includes looking at the ways in which motivational and emotional states influence learning at university. I will consider most projects in this general area but topics I am current interested in are

1) What factors lead to students have difficulties with academic writing

2) What predicts academic self-handicapping

Psychology of Religion: I am also interested is various aspects of the psychology of religion. In the past I have supervised projects on the impact of religion on quality of life and the way in which people process religious information. I will consider most projects in this general area

paul.bishop@york.ac.uk

philip.quinlan@york.ac.uk

I am interested in projects that look at

1. How people judge the trustworthiness of faces and whether this is  associated with more general feelings of suspicion and mistrust of others.
2. Whether people higher in visual imagery, or who tend to report feeling spaced out or dissociated are more likely to report seeing or hearing things than others. 

Anthropogenic risk. Many of the most pressing problems facing humanity are human in origin. I am interested in aspects of decision making and behaviour that expose humanity to these risks, especially extinction risks posed by nuclear weapons, synthetic biology, and misaligned AI.

Mind perception. Ethical consideration of others (humans, robots, rocks) often depends on whether or not we view them as conscious. My research examines cues that inform attribution of consciousness to others in everyday life.

I am happy to supervise projects in these areas. I also encourage to students to develop their own project ideas.

I'm broadly interested in two areas:

1. Interaction between social psychology and technology
2. Teaching and learning in Higher Education

This year, I'm particularly interested in any projects on

1. Dark Triad and relationship dissolution online
2. Dark Triad and parasocial relationships with heroes and villains in films
3. Emophilia (tendency to fall in love fast and often) and online dating
4. Academic and social costs (e.g. belonging, social identity as a student, self-esteem) to students who need to work while studying

Alternatively, if you have any of your own ideas that fit within my areas of interest, please feel free to email me and we can have a chat about them.

sally.quinn@york.ac.uk

I'm happy to supervise projects in two broad areas: 

1) The role of sleep in learning and memory. 
2) Brain mechanisms linking sleep to mental health.

I'm particularly interested in understanding how memories are processed in the sleeping brain. I'm also keen to better understand how sleep supports our ability to regulate emotions and control unwanted thoughts. I'm open to group projects that could undertake larger bodies of work (e.g. collecting sleep EEG data in the sleep lab) or individual projects that use online data collection methods. 

In this project we will use data from an exiting longitudinal study on children’s mathematical development one the first few years of primary school.  The proposed project is on children’s performance on the so-called number line estimation task. In this task children are asked to put numbers (e.g. 23, 67..) on a number line going from left to right with 0 on the left and 100 on the right. In the project we will investigate the developmental change over time on this task and how it relates to mathematical development and other domain-general skills (e.g. language skills, executive functions, motivation and math anxiety).

I offer projects investigating the perception and memory of actions and movies and their relation to language. I am also interested in the relationship between speaking fluency and other cognitive functions.

Some example questions are:

1. How does language use affect event perception and memory?
2.  Does speech fluency relate to non-verbal inhibition skills?

These studies use learning and memory tests that can be internet-based.

silvia.gennari@york.ac.uk

Possible topics this year:

• Effects of distraction (any kind!) on speech comprehension.
• Individual differences in understanding speech in noise. How come some of us are good at it while others struggle?
• Speech perception is noise is known to be more difficult for non-native speakers. Why?
• Voice and identity recognition.

sven.mattys@york.ac.uk

I have an interest in a variety of projects related to human-animal relations, prejudice, ideologies, and group relations. All my work is quantitative (i.e. experiments or surveys). I am open to discuss any projects from below.

Current topics:

• Ideologies: ideological thinking and cognitive biases i.e. how ideologies change how we think
• Human-animal relations: Such as the psychology of eating meat
• When good people do bad things: consumption of morally troublesome products (i.e. sweatshop clothing, mobile phones etc.)
• Intragroup prejudice: such as women having negative attitudes of other women
• Sexual objectification: seeing or treating people as sex-objects

thomas.davies@york.ac.uk 

I am developing new approaches to testing spatial memory as a way to diagnose and monitor early Alzheimer's Disease. This combines psychophysics and VR/3D "games" programming.

More generally, I am interested in the way different kinds of information are represented and processed in the brain, and especially in spatial cognition (e.g., how we find our way, how we know where we are, why do we get lost?), memory and the hippocampus. I use neuroimaging techniques together with experimental psychology and computational modelling to investigate these issues.

Your project might involve investigations of scene processing (i.e., how we recognize places based on vision) or aspects of memory. If you have programming experience it may be possible to do a project involving aspects of computational modelling or novel VR/3D-based tasks.