postgraduate conference 13th, 15th & 16th may 2013 ...€¦ ·
TRANSCRIPT
Postgraduate Conference
13th, 15th & 16th May 2013
Abstracts Booklet
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University of Sheffield
Department of Psychology
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Index of speakers
Speaker Page
Kendra Arkley... .................................................................................................................... 3
Fatma Azab... ....................................................................................................................... 3
Vasileios Barkoukis... ............................................................................................................ 4
Raul Berrios Espinoza... ........................................................................................................ 5
Christian Beyle Sandoval... ................................................................................................... 5
Emma Blakey… .................................................................................................................... 6
Samantha Brierley.. .............................................................................................................. 7
Carla Chivers... ..................................................................................................................... 7
Emily Collins... ...................................................................................................................... 8
Simone Croft... ...................................................................................................................... 8
Teuta Danuza... .................................................................................................................... 9
Marianne Day… .................................................................................................................... 9
Laura Di Bella.. ................................................................................................................... 10
Abigail Dickinson... .............................................................................................................. 11
Ben Dornan... ...................................................................................................................... 11
Stephanie Dunn... ............................................................................................................... 12
Rasha El Ghaba… .............................................................................................................. 13
Saima Eman.. ..................................................................................................................... 13
Gkolfo Ferra... ..................................................................................................................... 14
Lily Fitzgibbon... .................................................................................................................. 14
Zoe Gallant... ...................................................................................................................... 15
Jonathan Glancy... .............................................................................................................. 15
Sarah Gorst... ..................................................................................................................... 16
Katie Hanson... ................................................................................................................... 17
Daría Naieli Hernández Ibar... ............................................................................................. 17
Aimie Hope... ...................................................................................................................... 18
Thomas Hostler... ................................................................................................................ 19
Julia Hülsken....................................................................................................................... 19
Gareth Jones... ................................................................................................................... 20
Ciara Kelly... ....................................................................................................................... 21
Hamideh Kerdegari ............................................................................................................. 21
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Shiying Li ............................................................................................................................ 22
Jamie Lingwood... ............................................................................................................... 23
Christopher Maidment ......................................................................................................... 23
Michelle McGillion ............................................................................................................... 24
Keelan Meade ..................................................................................................................... 25
Hashim Osman... ................................................................................................................ 25
Maria Panagiotidi... ............................................................................................................. 26
Priya Patel .......................................................................................................................... 27
Jo-Ann Pereira... ................................................................................................................. 27
Patrycja Piotrowska... .......................................................................................................... 28
Giulia Poerio... .................................................................................................................... 29
Philip Powell........................................................................................................................ 29
Laura Robertson ................................................................................................................. 30
Maria Luisa Rosas Martinez ................................................................................................ 31
Samaneh Sadeghi .............................................................................................................. 31
Alexander Scott... ................................................................................................................ 32
Kira Shaw ........................................................................................................................... 33
Kayleigh Sheen... ................................................................................................................ 33
Rebecca Slack .................................................................................................................... 34
Gemma Stephens ............................................................................................................... 35
Gemma Taylor... ................................................................................................................. 35
Colin Whittle ........................................................................................................................ 36
James Williams... ................................................................................................................ 36
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Vibrissal active sensing during locomotion as a window into attentional processing in the rat.
Kendra Arkley: Year 3
Prof Tony Prescott, Dr Chris Martin
During exploration, rats make rhythmic back and forth sweeps of the macrovibrissae, or
whiskers, to sample the environment around their snout and head. This behaviour, known as
‗whisking‘, is important for object recognition, maze navigation, jumping, and many other
activities. Due to the rapid modulation of whisker movements in response to sensory input,
the whisker system is also a widely used model for understanding ‗active sensing‘ in
mammalian sensorimotor control. Here, we go further by advocating that whisker
movements may also be studied in order to understand attentional processing, such that, the
physical location that the macrovibrissae occupy at each instance signifies where the
animal‘s spatial attention lies.
Using high–speed videography, whisker tracking and Fourier analysis, we were able to
consecutively examine the whisking and locomotion behaviour of rats trained to run laps of
an arena for food reward. Rats locomoting on smooth floors ‗looked–ahead‘ into space with
their whiskers, such that, faster running speeds were correlated with greater head lift, and
whiskers protracted further in front of the snout. This look–ahead strategy reflects a change
in attentional state, with the animal opting to focus on the direction of travel, thus aiding
collision–avoidance. When locomoting on an uneven ‗holey‘ floor, rats were forced to scan
ahead and around the snout with their whiskers for safe foot placements, suggesting the
movement and position of the whiskers may actively guide the placement of the fore–paws.
Personality and fruit and vegetables consumption
Fatma Azab: Year 3
Prof Paul Norman
The present study has investigated the effect of the Big-Five personality traits on the
consumption of fruit and vegetables. Analyses have examined (i) whether the effects of the
personality factors on fruit and vegetable consumption are mediated by the TPB variables
and (ii) whether the personality factors moderate relations between the TPB variables and
fruit and vegetable consumption (especially intention-behaviour relations).
The time 1 questionnaire contained measures of personality, the theory of planned
behaviour and typical fruit and vegetables intake. The time 2 questionnaire only assessed
fruit and vegetables intake over the previous month.
Seven hundred and two participants responded to the time 1 questionnaire. The sample
included (391) females and (308) males. Participants were asked to provide their email
address so that they could be contacted one month later with a follow-up questionnaire.
244 completed the follow-up (time 2) questionnaire. The time 2 sample included (143)
females and (98) males.
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The effect of self affirmation manipulation on doping users’ decision making process
Vasileios Barkoukis1: Year 2 (part-time)
Peter Harris 2 and Dr Lambros Lazuras 3, 1South Eastern European Research Centre (SEERC), International Faculty, The
University of Sheffield 2University of Sussex, Department of Psychology,
3 South Eastern European Research Centre (SEERC), International Faculty, The
University of Sheffield
Abstract. Doping use hurts the image of sports and poses potentially irreversible health
consequences to users. However, athletes act as non-users and they are not willing to
participate in doping prevention campaigns. Thus, in order for anti-doping campaigns to be
effective, it is vital to persuade athletes to participate in anti-doping campaigns with
commitment and willingness. The application of self-affirmation manipulations that have
been proven effective in other unhealthy behaviours, might offer an insight on the structure
of future campaigns to combat doping and the way athletes should be approached in order
to increase acceptance of the campaigns‘ message. The aim of the present study was to
investigate the effect of self-affirmation manipulations on the decision-making process of
athletes using prohibited substances. The sample of the study consisted of 53 doping users
randomly assigned to a control (N = 26) and experimental group (N = 27). Participants in the
experimental condition received the self-affirmation manipulation (i.e., elaborate on their past
acts of kindness) while those in the control group were given a similar task (i.e., state
opinions on a range of unrelated issues). All athletes were provided with a message on the
moral concerns and the side effects of doping use and completed a questionnaire including
the theory of planned behavior‘s variables. The results of the analyses indicated that the self
affirmation manipulation increased message acceptance compared to the control condition.
These findings support the use of self affirmations in campaigns aiming to tackle doping use.
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Not everything is about being positive: On the relationship between mixed emotions and well-being
Raul Berrios Espinoza: Year 1
Prof Peter Totterdell and Dr Stephen Kellett
It is well known that positive emotions predict well-being, while negative emotions
relate to ill-being. However, is it possible that the co-occurrence of positive and negative
emotions (i.e., mixed emotions) leads to well-being? Recent evidence indicates that people
who experienced mixed emotions reported better general health functioning and more life
satisfaction over a 10 year period. The ability to maintain both positive and negative
emotions when facing life difficulties is mentioned as the main explanation for these results.
The present study sought to examine the relationship between mixed emotions and well-
being, with a special interest in well-being‘s facets related to a meaningful life. Four hundred
and twenty nine students completed voluntarily an online survey which measured: mixed
emotions, meaning in life, hedonic and eudaimonic motives of life, and life satisfaction.
Latent regression analysis using Structural Equation Modelling showed that mixed emotions
significantly predicted the levels of eudaimonic (i.e., meaningful life orientation) and hedonic
(i.e., pleasantness life orientation) well-being, but did not predict life satisfaction. It was
notable that mixed emotions correlated positively only with the dimension of meaning in life
related to searching for meaning, but not with the dimension of having a meaning in life. The
findings suggest that people who experience mixed emotions may get well-being by forging
life purpose, and not uniquely by feeling good. These results widen our current
understanding about the mechanisms that link mixed emotions to well-being.
Learning BY technology, or learning WITH technology? Conciliating the debate about learning mediated by technology.
Christian Beyle Sandoval: Year 1
Prof Rod Nicolson, Prof Peter Scott.
The development of Learning Instruction using digital technology has been fast and deep,
but not homogenous. Multiple approaches have been developed along these years including
different design techniques and research paradigms. In particular, two opposite postures
dominate the discussion. One posture has claimed that technology affects directly the
learning, just by using it. The second approach has suggested that technology does not
affect the learning output, being just a delivery media of the information. This investigation
attempts to present a synthesis of this debate, resuming the relevant research up to date.
Based on the above will be presented a brief summary of the past research on the
field and the current challenges highlighted by the experts in education, in public policies,
and the technological market. This summary will be used as introduction to present my
research project, its objectives and some preliminary data.
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Deconstructing Complex Cognition: How Does Cognitive Flexibility Develop?
Emma Blakey: Year 1
Dr Dan Carroll and Dr Jane Herbert
Cognitive flexibility (CF) allows us to adjust our behaviour in line with new goals or changes
in the environment. It has been studied extensively in the preschool years using the
Dimensional Change Card Sort task (DCCS; Zelazo et al., 2003). On the DCCS, while 4-
year-olds can switch sorting picture cards by colour to shape, 3-year-olds perseverate by
continuing to sort by the first rule. Perseveration can be explained either as a failure to inhibit
the previous rule, or a failure to maintain the current rule in working memory. In order to
understand CF development at an earlier age and move away from paradigms that only
allow perseverative errors, a new measure of CF has been devised: The SwIFT (Carroll et
al., submitted). On the SwIFT, children sort stimuli on a touchscreen computer by a rule (e.g.
colour) and then switch and sort by a new rule (e.g. shape). In the present study, sixty-one
2-year-olds, 3-year-olds and 4-year-olds completed two different versions of the SwIFT: a
Conflicting switch-task requiring children to resolve conflict between the current rule and the
previous rule when the rule changes (like the DCCS); and an Irrelevant switch-task requiring
children to resist interference from the non-relevant dimension. They also completed a
separate measure of working memory and inhibition. Children found the Irrelevant switch-
task easier than the Conflicting switch-task. However, resisting interference was particularly
problematic for 2-3-year-olds. In addition, working memory and inhibitory control
performance significantly predicted children‘s ability to resist interference after a rule-switch.
On the Conflicting switch-task, many 2-year-olds did not perseverate, but their accuracy was
no different to chance. This supports the view that perseveration is not the starting point of
CF development.
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Psychological interventions for young people with Type 1 diabetes.
Samantha Brierley: Year 3
Prof Christine Eiser, Prof Simon Heller
Background: During adolescence young people struggle to adhere to the demanding
treatment regimen associated with Type 1 Diabetes. This decline in adherence leads to
increased negative physical and psychological outcomes.
Objective: To determine the effectiveness of psychological interventions for adolescents
with Type 1 Diabetes in improving glycaemic control (HbA1c) and psychological outcomes.
Methods: : A systematic search of 6 databases was conducted to identify studies reporting
randomised controlled trials utilising psychological interventions for young people (8-21
years) with Type 1 Diabetes.
Results: 27 papers were identified and effect sizes calculated for 23 interventions. There
was a small to medium overall mean effect size on glycaemic control (ES=0.21, CI= 0.11 to
0.31), depression (ES=0.18, CI= 0.01-0.34), quality of life (ES=0.33, CI= 0.15-0.52) self
efficacy (ES=0.32, CI= 0.08-0.56) and conflict (ES=0.24, CI=0.18-0.55). Of the 10 studies
targeting both HbA1c and psychological outcomes, six showed improvements in both, four
showed improvements in HbA1c but not psychological outcomes.
Conclusions: Our findings suggest psychological interventions can contribute to improved
glycaemic control and psychological outcomes. We argue for the development of
interventions jointly targeting medical and psychological outcomes.
Social Psychological Biases Affecting Jury Decision Making
Carla Chivers: Year 1
Prof Richard Crisp & Dr Chantelle Wood
Recent research has demonstrated that encountering counter-stereotypic information not
only reduces stereotypical responding towards the target at hand but also reduces
stereotypical responding towards other unrelated targets on unrelated tasks. Initial research
indicates that counter-stereotypes may in fact elicit a heuristic switching mindset, producing
a temporary cognitive shift away from stereotypical thinking and towards the engagement in
more individuated thought. With continuing evidence that jurors do not always approach their
task in an impartial manner, we set out to investigate if counter-stereotypes could reduce
heuristic thinking within a jury decision making context. In the study participants were
exposed to either a counter-stereotypic target (female mechanic) or stereotypic target (male
mechanic) before reading a criminal case. Results revealed that counter-stereotypes can
elicit a heuristic switching mindset within a jury decision making task. Exposure to a counter-
stereotypic target increased systematic processing reducing the recall of dispositional
evidence and thus the tendency to make biased dispositional attributions. The study
suggests that the mindset in which jurors approach their task with can have great
implications for manner in which criminal cases are evaluated.
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I, Robot, and You: A New Conceptualisation of Attachment to Assistive Technology
Emily C. Collins: Year 1
Prof Tony J. Prescott, Dr Abigail Millings
How people use assistive technologies depends on how they relate to them. As technologies
such as assistive robots are developed—that have a physical presence, some autonomy,
and the ability to adapt and communicate—the relationships that people have with them will
become more complex and may take on some of the characteristics of the social
relationships that they have with each other. In this presentation, I compare the relationships
that people form with assistive devices to the bonds they develop with people, pets, and
objects. Building on conceptual frameworks provided by social psychology, particularly
―attachment theory‖, I aim to develop a taxonomy that can provide a consistent framework
with which to describe and analyse human-other relationships, facilitating the design of
assistive technologies. I intend that this taxonomy will support my future programme of
research, which aims to develop objective measures for describing human-robot interactions
and for estimating the nature and strength of human-robot affective bonds. I will give a brief
summary of the robotic platforms and technologies which will be used for measuring
affective relationships, with reference to the new Human-Robot Interaction Laboratory
currently being built for collaborative robotics researchers at the University of Sheffield.
Parental discipline and childhood antisocial behaviour: Bidirectional effects
Simone Croft: Year 1
Dr. Richard Rowe, Dr. Chris Stride
Historically research exploring parent-child relationships assumed parental dominance with
the child as passive recipient to environmental influences. More recently psychological
research has focused on the reciprocal and transactional nature of parent-child relationships
and have reported stronger child versus parent effects in the reciprocal relationship between
harsh discipline and child conduct. The current research will build on the existing literature
by exploring the bidirectional effects of physically and psychologically aggressive discipline
versus non-aggressive discipline on child conduct. The data for this study has been obtained
from the Millennium Cohort Study, a publically available dataset of over 19,000 children born
throughout the UK in 2000. Data has been collected in 4 waves, at 9 months, 3, 5 and 7
years. An exposition of the utility and challenges of using large cohorts of data will be
presented. Child behaviour measures are derived from the Strengths and Difficulties
Questionnaire (Goodman, 1997) and parental discipline measures from the Parent-Child
Conflict Tactics Scale (Straus, Hamby, Finkelhor & Runyan, 1998). Maternal mental health
and socio-economic markers will also be discussed. An overview of the quantitative methods
will demonstrate how reciprocal processes can be observed over time to identify age trends
in bidirectional effects and to allow individual predictions of change over time. The analysis
will combine autoregressive cross-lagged models with latent growth curve models in an
Autoregressive Latent Trajectory (ALT) model which will allow time specific measures and
associations between developmental trajectories to be disentangled.
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PTSD, Social Support and Religious Beliefs in the Veterans of the War in Kosovo
Teuta Danuza: Year 2 (Part-time)
Dr Andrew Thompson, Dr Suzie Savidoue
Post Traumatic Stress Disorder is evident in all the post war countries such as Kosovo. A
number of studies have been conducted in Kosovo to evident prevalence of PTSD in general
population (Carodozo et al., 2000; Lopes Cardozo at al., 2003; L.Ai, Peterson & Ubelhow,
2002; Eytan, Toscani, Loutan, & Bovier , 2006) but no studies have been conducted to
evident PTSD in the population of veterans of the war in Kosovo.
The objective of the studies is to identify and analyze the post war factors and personal
characteristics that do impact the development and maintenance of PTSD in the veterans of
war in Kosovo. Specifically, to examine the correlation of PTSD symptoms and social
support, the correlation of PTSD symptoms and religious beliefs including socio-
demographic characteristics amongst the veterans of the war, 11 years after the war.
Reducing treatment related distress in children treated for leukaemia: a psychoeducational intervention
Marianne Day: Year 2 (Part-time)
Dr Richard Rowe, Prof Chris Stride, Dr Sally-Ann Clarke
My talk will begin with a brief description of the symptoms, etiology and effects of leukaemia
on children. The prognosis for children has improved dramatically. Since the 60s and 70s
treatment for leukaemia has moved from being palliative to a situation where over 80% of
children survive into adulthood and is often now described as a chronic rather than life-
threatening condition. However, treatment takes years (2 for girls and 3 for boys) and can
lead to a number of short term side effects and long term late effects which cause distress to
the child and their family.
There have been a lot of interventions developed and tested with children in treatment for
cancer, some of which are well-established and others which have not been rigourously
tested. I will briefly summarise some of this work placing it in the context of the change in
focus onto psychosocial and survivorship issues. This will lead on to a description of my
intervention which teaches children with leukamia about the biology of the condition and its
treatment. The assumption made is that children who understand what is happening to their
bodies will be able to cope better with treatment and will be less likely to go on to develop
longer term psychological problems.
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Women’s Adaptation to STEM Domains Promotes Resilience, Flexibility, and Enhanced Performance on Tests of Quantitative Judgment
Laura Di Bella1: Year 2
Prof Richard J. Crisp2, Dr Georgina Randsley de Moura1 1University of Kent, 2University of Sheffield
Exposure to challenging diversity experiences (i.e. experiences that challenge stereotypes
and conventions) can elicit a process of cognitive adaptation which, in the intercultural
domain, has been associated with benefits on a range of judgment domains. As counter-
stereotypical individuals, women from STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths)
fields are chronically exposed to such experiences and consequently they display these
benefits. A set of three studies aimed to demonstrate that exposure to counter-stereotypical
experiences enhances judgment skills, however the effect was expected to be moderated by
actual counter-stereotypical experience: women from STEM fields were expected to show
enhanced levels of judgment skills, whereas participants from non-STEM fields were
expected to show depressed performances after being exposed to the experience. Results
show that following exposure to the counter-stereotypical experience women from STEM
fields exhibited enhanced judgment skills, whereas women from non-STEM fields exhibited
lower levels of judgment skills, and this difference was mediated by variations in resilience to
the negative impact of gender stereotyping. Implications for psychologists‘ and educators‘
understanding of the relationship between counter-stereotypical experiences and judgment
skills will be discussed.
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An investigation into the neural correlates of orientation discrimination in Autism.
Abigail Dickinson: Year 1
Dr Elizabeth Milne, Dr Myles Jones.
Along with impairments in social interaction and communication, individuals with autism
spectrum disorder (ASD) also exhibit a variety of perceptual symptoms. This extends to
superior performance on a variety of visual tasks, including the embedded figures task, the
block design task and visual search tasks. It has been suggested that this may be due to an
enhanced ability to discriminate between stimuli.
The evidence for superior discrimination in ASD is quite strong in some areas, such as
auditory pitch discrimination. However, the evidence is not as conclusive for visual
discrimination. For instance, whilst some orientation discrimination tasks have shown
individuals with ASD to demonstrate superior performance, others have not been able to
replicate these results.
We suggest this may be due to the variable nature of the orientation discrimination tasks
used in the literature. We have developed an orientation discrimination task which has
increased sensitivity and is therefore more likely to reveal any differences in orientation
discrimination thresholds that may be present in an ASD population. A recent study found
that gamma activity measured using Magnetoencephalography (MEG) was closely related to
orientation discrimination ability. Therefore if orientation discrimination thresholds are found
to be significantly altered in ASD, this could potentially extend to abnormal gamma activity.
We aim to investigate the relationship between orientation discrimination and gamma activity
measured using electroencephalography. Looking at this relationship in an ASD population
may give us greater insight into the neural basis of ASD, and its perceptual symptoms.
Frontal Theta and the Default Network: A Task-Based Investigation
Ben Dornan: Year 3
Dr Elizabeth Milne and Dr Ying Zheng
The default network (DN) is a functionally connected brain network more active during alert
rest than goal-directed behaviour (see Buckner, 2008). It shows anti-correlation to another
network presumed to support goal-directed behaviour (the anti-correlated network, AN) with
the balance between them suggested to impact task engagement (Sonuga-Barke, 2007).
Most DN research uses fMRI, (measuring blood oxygenation, indirectly related to neural
activity) inviting criticism that the DN could be an imaging artefact. DN investigation using
EEG potentially addresses these criticisms as EEG is a more direct measure of neural
activity.
Correlation between AN activity and EEG frontal theta (4-8Hz) has been observed at rest
(Scheeringa et. al. 2008) however task performance was not investigated here. This
extension would provide a behavioural link between EEG and DN literature and provide
insight into the DN contribution to attention.
Here, EEG was recorded from 20 healthy participants during SART performance and rest.
Frontal theta was compared between conditions to patterns predicted by DN research.
SART reaction time and trial-by-trial P300 amplitude (indicative of attentional allocation, see
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Johnson 1988) were taken to indicate task engagement and compared to pre-stimulus
frontal theta, to assess whether theta displays the relationship to task performance predicted
by DN literature.
Buckner, R. L., Andrews-Hanna, J. R., & Schacter, D. L. (2008). The brain‘s default network:
Anatomy, Function and Relevance to Disease. Annals of the New York Academy of
Sciences, 1124(1), 1–38.
Johnson, R., Jr. (1988). The amplitude of the P300 component of the event-related
potential: Review and synthesis. Advances in Psychophysiology, 3, 69–137.
Scheeringa, R., Bastiaansen, M., Petersson, K. M., Oostenveld, R., Norris, D. G., & Hagoort,
P. (2008). Frontal theta EEG activity correlates negatively with the default mode network in
resting state. International Journal of Psychophysiology, 67(3), 242–251.
Sonuga-Barke, E. J. S., & Castellanos, F. X. (2007). Spontaneous attentional fluctuations in
impaired states and pathological conditions: a neurobiological hypothesis. Neuroscience &
Biobehavioral Reviews, 31(7), 977–986.
Attention and Perception in the autism spectrum: behavioural and electrophysiological insights from the broader autism phenotype.
Stephanie Dunn : Year 2
Dr Elizabeth Milne, Dr Megan Freeth & Dr Tom Stafford
Individuals with autism and those with high levels of autistic traits (AT) demonstrate atypical
selective attention when compared to typically developing individuals / those with lower
levels of ATs. We investigated the neural basis of this by comparing ERP components
reflecting allocation of spatial attention (N2pc), target processing (NT) and distractor
suppression (PD) in individuals with high or low levels of AT.
Neurotypical students with either high or low levels of autistic traits as measured via the
Autism-Spectrum Quotient (Baron-Cohen et al., 2001) were recruited to participate in one of
two experiments. In experiment 1 (n = 33), the N2pc (spatial attention) ERP component was
elicited and compared between groups. Experiment 2 (n = 41) elicited the N2pc, the PD and
NT.
Participants with more autistic traits had significantly larger N2pc amplitude than participants
with fewer autistic traits in both experiments. In experiment 2 those high in autistic traits also
showed attenuated distracter positivity (PD).
These results suggest that the allocation of spatial attention, especially to distracter stimuli,
differs in those with more autistic traits compared to those with fewer autistic traits. These
data may therefore provide insight into the neural basis of atypical selective attention in
individuals with autism.
Ref: Baron-Cohen, S., Wheelwright, S., Skinner, R., Martin, J., & Clubley., E. (2001). The
Autism-Spectrum Quotient (AQ): Evidence from Asperger Syndrome/High-Functioning
Autism, Males and Females, Scientists and Mathematicians. Journal of Autism and
Developmental Disorders, 31(1), 5-17.
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Opioidergic control of striatal Nitrergic (LTS) interneurons
Rasha El Ghaba: Year 2
Dr Enrico Bracci, Prof Peter Redgrave
Low threshold spike interneurons (LTSIs) are one of the principle three subtypes of
GABAergic interneurons in the striatum. Although opioid peptides are found in the striatum,
their role in modulation of striatal function is poorly understood.
Using transgenic mice in which the NPY is marked with a green fluorescent protein (GFP),
we investigated the effect of [D-Ala(2),N-MePhe(4),Gly-ol]-enkephalin (DAMGO)(1µM), D-
Pen2,5-enkephalin (DPDPE) (1µM) and trans-(-)-3,4-Dichloro-N-methyl-N-[ 2-(1-
pyrrolidinyl)cyclohexyl] benzeneacetamide hydrochloride ( (-)-U-50488 hydrochloride)
(20µM) which are µ, δ and κ opioid agonists respectively on LTSIs activity. The three
agonists caused reversible inhibition of LTSIs which at some cases stopped their
spontaneous activity completely. The inhibitory effect was partially reversed either by
washing (45 minutes) or applying receptor subtype selective antagonists CTOP (1µM)
,(4bS,8R,8aS,14bR)-5,6,7,8,14,14b-Hexahydro-7-(2-methyl-2-propenyl)-4,8-
methanobenzofuro[2,3-]pyrido[4,3-b]carbazole-1,8a(9H)-diol hydrochloride (SDM25N
hydrochloride) (1µM) which are selective antagonists for µ and δ opioid receptors
respectively or using naloxone hydrochloride (10µM) (non selective antagonist). In presence
of tetrodotoxin (TTX) (1µM), the inhibitory effect DPDPE and (-)-U-50488 hydrochloride)
persisted. However DAMGO caused depolarization of the LTSIs.
We concluded that LTSIs have the three subtypes of opioid receptors (µ, δ and κ) on their
surface. The opioid peptides exert direct & indirect effects on LTSIs. This work is expected to
help us to understand more about opioidergic modulation of the striatum.
Neurobiology of callous and unemotional traits.
Saima Eman: Year 1
Dr Richard Rowe, Dr Elizabeth Milne
Across development, Antisocial behaviour (ASB) is heterogenous in nature involving
behaviours ranging from fighting and bullying to stealing and vandalism. A number of
approaches to categorisation have been suggested. A currently influential approach
distinguishes ―hot‖ ASB, involving impulsive and reactive aggression, from ―cold‖ ASB which
involves callous disregard for the feelings of others. In young people the cold form of ASB
may constitute an early form of psychopathic traits.
There is a growing literature on the cognitive and affective profile of youth showing callous
and unemotional (CU) ASB. Individuals with CU traits seem to be unable to process and
react to distress amongst others. Studies consistently demonstrate the presence of lack of
empathy amongst individuals with CU traits. Amygdala hypoactivity to fearful faces amongst
boys with conduct disorders and CU traits has also been observed.
This presentation will review the existing literature on this topic and consider the application
of EEG studies to develop understanding of the neural processes underlying CU traits.
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Police interviews with children in Greece
Gkolfo Ferra: Year 1
Dr Mark Blades
People have been quite sceptical towards the credibility and accuracy of children
testimonies. In the past, children testimonies‘ accuracy and reliability was doubted mainly in
the grounds that children were thought to be unable to distinguish between fantasy and
reality (McGough, 1993); something proved to have no scientific basis (Yuille, 1988). During
the 80‘s, cases of child abuse have been raised to the double and the issue of children
testimonies attracted a lot of attention (Pooole & Lamb, 1998; Ceci & Bruck, 1995). Due to
the increased public awareness and concern, as well as, the crucial role of children
testimonies in the legal prosecution, the focus of several social scientists was set to the
issue (Blandon-Gitlin & Pezdek, 2009; Ceci, Toglia & Ross, 1987). However, while, there
has been an extensive body of literature, researching the topic worldwide, there have been
limited studies focusing on children testimonies in Greece. The present research focuses on
the examination and evaluation of current procedures and practises followed by the Greek
police when interviewing child witnesses.
What drives set-size effects in cognitive flexibility? Investigating the roles of rule representation and trial-to-trial effects in the relationship between stimulus set-size
and switch costs.
Lily Fitzgibbon: Year 2
Dr Dan Carroll, Dr Danielle Matthews
When switching between two conflicting tasks (such as matching stimuli according to their
colour or their shape), adults and children are slower and less accurate on trials where the
task rule changes, than on trials where the rule stays the same. These switch costs are
reduced when the tasks have a larger set-size (i.e. when there are many exemplars of each
dimension), compared to when tasks have a smaller set-size. The set-size effect either
comes about because it establishes a particular mindset when the task rules are
represented, or because of trial-to-trial factors. In this study there were initial ‗pure‘ blocks
where the task rules were represented. These were followed by ‗mixed‘ blocks which had
multiple switches between tasks during which the switch costs occur. By varying the set-size
in the pure and mixed blocks independently it is possible to determine whether the set-size
effect is driven by the initial rule representation or trial-to-trial effects. 249 children between 5
and 11 years completed one of four versions of a switching task with a larger or smaller set-
size in the pure and mixed blocks. Consistent with previous findings, there were significant
switch costs when the set-size was smaller (p < 0.001), but not when the set-size was larger
(p > 0.05). Switch costs did not differ between children with smaller or larger set-sizes during
the pure blocks. However, children who had a larger set-size in the mixed blocks had
significantly smaller switch costs than those who had a smaller set-size (p < 0.05). These
findings suggest that switch costs do not arise as a result of the initial rule representation.
Instead, it is likely that set-size affects performance trial-to-trial.
15
Physical and Mental Coordination in the elderly: A causal role for the cerebellum?
Zoe Gallant: Year 2
Prof Rod Nicolson
Background: There remains considerable uncertainty as to the underlying causes of
cognitive decline in the elderly, with recent strong evidence of subcortical contributions to
cognitive function and cognitive coordination suggesting a potentially fruitful direction for
research. In recent research, I established a strong correlation between sensorimotor
coordination and age. The present study investigates further the link between subcortical
and cortical function in the elderly, by undertaking an intervention designed to provide
vestibular stimulation and also positive motivation.
Objectives:
(1) to establish predictive behavioural, cognitive or neural markers of impending cognitive
decline
(2) to design a suitable test battery for predicting cognitive decline
(3) to design suitable interventions to improve cognitive functioning
Method: 18 adults (mean age 68.5, sd 5.8) undertook a dual positive psychology / vestibular
stimulation intervention for three months. Performance was measured before and after the
intervention on a range of primitive skills, from sensorimotor coordination to speed of
processing to executive function. Changes in performance were compared with a group of
adults of equivalent age range but without any intervention.
Results: It was found that the intervention group improved significantly on balance and on
verbal fluency. Measures of affect indicated little change.
Conclusions: The results are consistent with a number of studies indicating the benefits of
exercise for the elderly, but to my knowledge this is the first study that has investigated a
range of attributes from affective to cognitive to sensorimotor skills. The results indicate
benefits of the intervention for balance and for affect, and highlight the opportunities for
larger studies.
A minimal model of the phase transition into thermoregulatory huddling
Jonathan Glancy: Year 1
Dr Roderich Gross, Dr Stuart P. Wilson & Dr James V. Stone
Many naturally occurring patterns are the result of self-organisation. From aggregate
behaviours of animals, to the ocular dominance stripes seen in the cortex of some
mammals, it is thought that the same mechanic is responsible for the emerging order.
Without requiring explicit blueprints, templates, recipes, or leadership to construct patterned
behaviour, self-organising systems emerge from individual responses to local environmental
cues. The thermoregulatory huddling behaviours of endotherms, such as rodents, has been
proposed as a model self-organising system through which to study the emergence of
complixity.
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Juvenile rodents huddle at low ambient temperatures. During early postnatal development,
the huddle allows individuals to efficiently regulate their body temperature and conserve
energy. Whilst huddling, individuals are able to consume less oxygen, operating at lower
metabolic rates. The efficiency of the huddle is mostly attributable to a reduction in the
exposed surface area of each pup, and the energy saved in the micro-climate of the huddle
can instead be focused towards development and growth.
Canals et al. (2011) studied the huddling behaviour of white mice whilst controlling the
ambient temperature of the environment. They found that huddling exhibits a second order
critical phase transition, driven by changes in the ambient temperature, such that huddling
behaviour is only active below a critical ambient temperature. Experiments using a minimal
agent-based model have shown this same phase transition and it is suggested that huddling
emerges when a drop in ambient temperature causes individuals to change from an 'orient-
from-contacts' to 'orient-to-contact' behaviour.
Exploring Patient Beliefs and Perceptions towards Uptake and Sustained Use of Telehealth
Sarah Gorst: Year 2
Dr Chris Armitage, Prof Mark Hawley and Prof Paul Norman
Introduction: Telehealth can provide considerable benefits to chronic heart failure (CHF)
and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) patients. However, large scale
deployment of telehealth is yet to be achieved. The growing evidence that patients are
refusing to accept telehealth or abandoning usage presents a crucial barrier to uptake.
Aim: To identify the barriers and facilitators patients face when deciding to adopt telehealth
and the factors that influence sustained use of telehealth.
Methods: Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 27 CHF and/or COPD patients,
who had previously been offered and accepted telehealth. Patients had been using
telehealth from five months up to three years. All interviews were transcribed verbatim and
analysed using interpretative phenomenological analysis.
Results: Patients were positive about telehealth and found it straightforward and simple.
Having somebody regularly checking their readings meant that the telehealth gave most
patients peace of mind over their health. Patients also reported that telehealth increased
their access to healthcare, and they reported fewer hospital admissions as a result of
healthcare professionals being able to review the results of self-testing immediately. Patients
also expressed improvements in their self-management, due to having a greater
responsibility for their own health. Despite these positive aspects of telehealth, patients
reported that telehealth could never completely replace face-to-face-visits from a healthcare
professional. Technical problems were the main frustrations expressed by patients.
Conclusions: Users of telehealth are unsurprisingly positive about it and communicating
peace of mind and increased healthcare to patients who are unsure whether to take it up
might be useful. Similarly, ensuring swift technical support is likely to facilitate sustained use.
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Examining the five areas approach as an unguided self-help intervention for
depression
Katie Hanson: Year 3
Dr Thomas L. Webb, Prof Paschal Sheeran, and Prof Graham Turpin
Introduction : Williams (2008) little CBT workbooks have been found to significantly reduce
depression, however research has not examined the efficacy of these workbooks in an
unguided context.
Method : 148 students/university staff received either (1) self-help (8 workbooks/planning
sheets), (2) self-help augmented with implementation intention or (3) waitlist. Adherence was
measured (e.g. percentage of books read).
Results : Depression significantly reduced from baseline to 8 week follow-up for all
conditions. A mixed between-within ANOVA showed that there was a significant main effect
for time, but not for condition, indicating that depression reduced for all groups regardless of
treatment received. Adherence ranged from 29-100% but there were no significant
differences between the self-help (92%) and augmented self-help (84%) conditions. Again,
there was a significant main effect for time, but not for adherence.
Discussion : Findings indicate that all three conditions improved from baseline to follow-up.
The waitlist condition perhaps experienced a decline in depression due to the expectancy of
help to come (participants were told they would receive a self-help intervention after an 8
week waitlist) which lead to less negative feelings. Adherence did not impact upon efficacy
and augmentation with implementation intentions did not lead to higher adherence.
Adherence was relatively high, perhaps leaving little room for implementation intentions to
confer additional benefit.
Conclusion : Research is needed to explore the efficacy of the intervention, in an unguided
context, in comparison to no-treatment. Research should also explore whether
implementation intentions can be used to enhance adherence for those who are prone to
low-adherence.
Priming the use of interpersonal emotion regulation strategies via the Scrambled Sentence Task
Daria Naieli Hernandez Ibar: Year 1
Dr Thomas Webb, Prof Peter Totterdell
The present research is concerned with Automatic Interpersonal Emotion Regulation (AIER)
or the way in which people influence the emotions of someone else without awareness of
doing so. Although there is now a considerable amount of research on AER, most of it has
focused on intrapersonal processes, rather than on interpersonal ones. The present
research aims at expanding our knowledge on AIER.
This first study explored whether it was possible to instigate AIER via the use of the
Scrambled Sentence Task (SST). N = 52 participants took part. The experimental group was
asked to solve the SST, which primed people to negatively up-regulate the emotions of
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someone else (e.g. mock someone). The control group was presented with neutral
scrambled sentences. Subsequently participants were required to write an imaginary script
between two characters from which they had to play the part of one. They were also asked
to choose whether to make the other character feel better or worse.
The findings show that participants in the experimental condition exhibited a stronger use of
up-regulating negative affect behaviours in comparison with participants in the control group.
Also, the number of participants that chose the make feel worse goal was bigger in
comparison to the control group. These results suggest that it is possible to instigate AIER
via the use of the SST.
Understanding Rebound Effects: The role of Compensatory Green Beliefs
Aimie Hope: Year 1
Dr Christopher Jones, Dr Thomas Webb & Dr Matthew Watson
Despite ambitious UK carbon reduction targets, energy consumption in the domestic sector
continues to rise. It is anticipated that schemes like the Green Deal will encourage the public
to make the transition to more sustainable lifestyles by improving household efficiency.
However, there are concerns that these efficiencies (and associated carbon savings) will be
undermined, or negated, by ―rebound‖ and ―backfire‖ effects. For example, money saved on
home insulation may be spent on long-haul flights that might otherwise not have been taken;
or the installation of more affordable heating systems might lead people maintain their
homes at temperatures exceeding recommended levels. A novel approach to understanding
this issue is through the application of the ―compensatory beliefs‖ concept developed in
Health Psychology (i.e. the belief that the negative effects of one behaviour like smoking,
can be compensated for by engaging in a positive behaviour like exercise) to
environmentally significant behaviours (e.g. electricity use, recycling, etc.). This
interdisciplinary PhD project brings together the Departments of Psychology and Geography
to further understand rebound effects by applying the concept of compensation to energy
use and misuse. Preliminary findings on personal energy use from interviews,
questionnaires and a Think-Aloud study will be presented.
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Improving the Volitional Help Sheet (VHS)
Tom Hostler: Year 1
Dr Chantelle Wood & Dr Chris Armitage
The Volitional Help Sheet (VHS) is a questionnaire-based intervention that uses
implementation intentions to help promote behaviour change. These are ‗if-then‘ plans that
help translate intentions into actions, and overcome the ‗intention-behaviour gap‘. The VHS
aids the user in forming implementation intentions by providing them with lists of situations
(‗ifs‘) and behavioural responses (‗thens‘) that they can choose from and then link together to
form a plan of action. The VHS has been shown to successfully help reduce alcohol
consumption, reduce smoking, and increase physical activity amongst other things, however
research is still in its early stages on how to best utilise the VHS. The present research
involves an in-progress experiment to determine if certain situations (cues) work better than
others to reduce alcohol consumption using the VHS. In addition to this manipulation, the
entire VHS is presented in the format of an online questionnaire for the first time, which has
obvious advantages. If certain situations are found to work better than others then the VHS
could be minimized to increase its ease of use. In addition, details are presented of an in-
progress meta-analysis to determine an overall effect size for the efficacy of implementation
intentions as an intervention to reduce alcohol consumption.
Children’s understanding of the basics of police interviews
Julia Hülsken: Year 2
Dr Mark Blades
Literature on children‘s witness testimony has largely focused on describing children‘s
capabilities when questioned by police rather than investigating the reasons for their
capabilities or the lack of them respectively. The current study explored the hypothesis that
children‘s suboptimal performance results from a lack of understanding the dynamics of
police interviews. More specifically, it was hypothesized that with decreasing age, children
will be less able to explain fundamental elements of police interviews. To test this
hypothesis, a questionnaire was designed based on a brief video sequence that has been
successfully used in previous studies. Through open-ended questions, this questionnaire
assessed participants‘ understanding of a wide range of elements that are typically present
in police interviews. 20 children could be recruited for each of the 3 age groups, namely 6
years, 8 years and 10 years; furthermore, 11 adults have been included as a control group.
Preliminary analyses support the hypothesis that especially younger children do not
understand fundamental elements of police interviews; furthermore, children are often
unaware of their lack of understanding and will thus provide sensible, but wrong
explanations for the elements assessed in the current study. Thus, the current study
supports previous literature that describes child witnesses‘ limited capacities, but extends
these findings by exploring the underlying reasons for these limitations.
20
Exercise After Leaving University: A Theory of Planned Behaviour Approach
Gareth Jones: Year 1
Prof Paul Norman, Dr Jilly Martin
The aim of Study 1 is to explore exercise beliefs and behaviour after university, determining
whether exercise levels increase, sustain, or decrease after university, and gathering
information to explain the reasons for changes in exercise behaviour. The Theory of Planned
Behaviour (TPB) will be used as the overarching theoretical framework. Participants will
complete an online TPB questionnaire (based on an elicitation study) in May 2013, with a 6-
month follow-up questionnaire to assess exercise after leaving university.
The TPB incorporates three sets of beliefs: behavioural beliefs (about the consequences or
advantages/disadvantages of the behaviour), normative beliefs (about the perceived views
of important others), and control beliefs (about the factors that may facilitate or hinder
performance of the behaviour). These beliefs determine attitude, subjective norm and
perceived behavioural control, respectively, which in turn determine intention, the proximal
antecedent of behaviour.
A belief elicitation study was conducted with final year undergraduate students (n = 11) to
identify the modal salient beliefs about exercise after leaving university. Participants
completed an online belief elicitation questionnaire. Results informed the TPB exercise
behaviour questionnaire that will be used in Study 1. Participants generated 29 beliefs.
Based on scree plots, 15 beliefs will be assessed in the Study 1 TPB questionnaire which
will also assess habit strength, action planning and self-identity as additional predictors of
exercise behaviour after leaving university.
The results of Study 1will be used to inform the development of a brief online intervention to
help improve post-university exercise beliefs and behaviour.
21
Communicative and Social-Cognitive Development in Deaf Infants and Children.
Ciara Kelly: Year 2
Dr. Danielle Matthews, Prof. Gary Morgan (City University London), Dr. Megan Freeth.
Compared to deaf children with deaf parents and typically developing children who
experience early exposure to signed or spoken language respectively, deaf children of
hearing parents exhibit delays in language acquisition and social-cognition. In particular,
deaf of hearing children are delayed in their ability to attribute false beliefs, an important
aspect of mental state reasoning, on both explicit (Schick et al., 2007) and implicit (Meristo et
al., 2012) false belief tasks. Study 1 investigated the consequences of delayed social-
cognitive development for pragmatic understanding in deaf children by investigating their
ability to distinguish between lies and mistakes. Pragmatic development depends on the
ability to gauge others‘ belief and knowledge states and to interpret their utterances with
respect to this knowledge. To infer a false statement is a mistake, as opposed to a lie, we
need to know the speaker is not aware that the statement is false. Findings reveal that deaf
of hearing children have difficulty inferring communicative intentions based on reasoning
about the mental states that underpin speech acts. This supports existing research
suggesting that the limited early access to conversational interactions typically experienced
by deaf of hearing children is at the root of these delays. Study 2 is therefore an in-depth
investigation into the early communicative experience of deaf infants. The main aim is to
clearly characterise what it is that differs for deaf of hearing infants that could lead to these
delays. Study 3 is an early intervention for deaf infants of hearing parents, based on
methods used by deaf parents, to determine if parents will adapt their communicative
behaviour in dyadic interaction with their infant.
Wearable computing for environmental sensing and navigation in low visibility environments
Hamideh Kerdegari: Year 1
Prof Tony Prescott, Dr Sean Anderson
Search and Rescue workers operate in extremely hazardous environments where in addition
to high physical risk, they often need to cope with high-levels of noise and atmospheric
pollution that make tasks such as navigation and communication very difficult. It is essential
that rescue workers in these situations are given robust and reliable information particular
with regard to operation priorities, navigable paths and escape routes. The main idea of this
project is to develop novel wearable computing device based around a modified fire-fighter‘s
helmet that allow rescue workers to carry distributed sensor systems into disaster areas
using these systems both for local navigation and to relay information back to the command
and control post. A key technology is the use of non-visual distance sensors such as
ultrasound that can support local navigation and novel vibrotactile displays (vibrating
elements placed against the skin) that can be used to transfer distance information about the
local environment to the fire-fighters where auditory or visual communications modalities are
compromised. This project will also examine the possibility of augmenting the rescue
workers existing senses with a form of ―remote touch‖ generated by using ultrasound
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sensors, to stimulate tactile stimulators placed against the surface of the head. The specific
goal is to optimise and improve the helmet which has been developed over the past year to
a lightweight and compact design with more capability for navigation and environmental
sensing.
Children’s ability to recognize web advertisements
Shiying Li: Year 3
Dr Mark Blades
Mass media is one of the most important factors that influences children's development as
sophisticated consumers. Although television occupies an important place within mass
media, internet use has become more and more popular. A great deal of research effort has
gone into children‘s understanding of TV advertising and how effectively they process its
messages. Children can identify a TV advertisement from 4 or 5 years of age and
comprehend its persuasive intent from 7 or 8 years. However, there is little research about
how children recognize web advertisements.
Three studies were conducted to investigate children‘s ability to recognise advertisements
on web pages. In the first study, 7- 9- and 11-year-olds from China were recruited and
shown animated and non-animated web advertisements.
In the second study children aged 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 9 and 11 were recruited and were shown TV
advertisement and programme segments, and food and non-food web advertisements.
In the third study children aged 6, 8 and 10 were recruited and shown web advertisements
with and without product images.
Results showed that animation did not improve children‘s ability to recognise ads and
children did not perform better at identifying food advertisements compared to non-food
advertisements. Children were better at identifying web advertisements with a product
image.
Children aged 6 years are able to identify TV advertisements and understand the intent of
advertising, but have difficulty in identifying web advertisements. The study indicated that
Chinese children from about 9 years of age have the ability to recognise web
advertisements.
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Young children’s wayfinding abilities: The importance of landmarks when learning a route in a virtual environment.
Jamie Lingwood: Year 2
Dr Mark Blades, Dr Danielle Matthews
Wayfinding is the ability to learn and remember a route. Theories of wayfinding have
emphasized the importance of landmarks when learning a route. However it has never been
possible to test these theories in the real world because every route is full of potential
landmarks (buildings, signs, trees, traffic lights) and so it is impossible to know whether
children learnt landmarks, turns or both. Experiment 1 used a virtual environment (VE) that
allowed us to create the same route with and without landmarks. In condition 1 40 6-year-
olds, 40 8-year-olds, 40 10-year olds and 40 adults were shown a route through a 6 junction
maze in a VE. At each junction there was a unique object (a landmark). Participants
‗walked‘ the route once and then retraced the route from the start. Condition 2 was the same
as condition 1, but all landmarks were removed. In condition 1 some 6-year-olds and nearly
all 8-year-olds learnt the route but in condition 2 almost all the 6- and 8-year olds failed to
learn the route, showing that the presence of landmarks was crucial for these age groups. All
adults and many 10-year olds learnt the routes in both conditions. In Experiment 2 20 6-, and
20 8-year-olds followed the procedure in condition 1, but when initially walking the route,
each landmark was explicitly named. This led to improved performance compared to
condition 1 of Experiment 1. These experiments are the first to show that children up to 8
years cannot learn a route without landmarks.
The impact of household energy efficiency measures on health and wellbeing
Chris Maidment: Year 2
Dr Christopher Jones, Dr Thomas Webb & Dr Abigail Hathway
Energy efficiency measures, such as insulation or double glazing, aim to reduce carbon
emissions and make it more affordable to keeps homes warm. Reductions in stress and
cold-related illnesses have been attributed to these measures, supporting their use in
strategies to tackle fuel poverty and health inequalities. However, recent changes to the
government funding available have shifted the emphasis of domestic energy efficiency away
from social benefits, towards environmental and economic goals. Given that sealing homes
might also result in poorer air quality and, therefore, negative health effects, there is a need
for more robust evidence on the impacts of energy efficiency interventions in order to assess
their potential and appropriate uses.
A meta-analysis of 32 studies looking at household energy efficiency measures and health
was carried out. While only a small positive link was found, larger significant effects were
identified with particular circumstances and participants. A pilot study followed to assess the
health and wellbeing of recipients of free insulation in Greater Manchester, and is now being
applied to larger scale schemes in the Manchester and Yorkshire / Humber regions. This is
complemented by air quality monitoring in a small sample of homes and interviews with the
providers of these schemes. The key findings of the meta-analysis will be discussed, along
with the initial data and experiences from the pilot and the plans for the remaining research.
24
The effect of caregiver-infant interaction on communicative development
Michelle McGillion: Year 3
Dr Danielle Matthews & Dr Jane Herbert
The transition to conventional language in the second year of life forms a cornerstone of
development that social interactions and future academic achievements can build on.
Understandably, therefore, researchers have attempted to establish which factors can
predict the substantial and persistent individual differences that are observed in early
vocabulary development. However, different strands of developmental research have tended
to focus on one type of factor or another in isolation, despite calls for a more integrated
approach to the study of early word learning. The first two studies presented here addressed
this criticism, by considering the interaction of infant, caregiver and environmental factors on
a single longitudinal cohort. In study one, we considered simultaneously two key infant
predictors of word learning: infant phonological (babble) and socio cognitive (pointing)
abilities alongside maternal education (an index of environmental influences or socio
economic status). Both infant pointing and babble individually predicted substantial variance
in different measures of vocabulary development. Maternal education was also a significant
predictor. To explore this later finding and to understand the role of the parent more fully, in
study 2, we analysed multiple dimensions of infant directed speech (including quantity and
quality) in dyadic interaction and found that contingent speech (speech in response to an
infant vocalisation and related to their current focus of attention) was especially important
for later language development. Finally we will discuss an ongoing longitudinal training
study to promote parents' contingent talk with their infants to determine if this relationship is
causal.
25
Understanding the Cumulative Landscape and Visual Impact of Wind Turbines
Keelan Meade: Year 1
Dr Christopher Jones, Prof Eckart Lange
The UK has international (Kyoto Protocol, 1997) and domestic (Climate Change Act, 2008)
targets to reduce green house gas (GHG) emissions. Jones et al. (2011) note that electricity
generation is the largest single source of GHG emissions in the UK and so decarbonising
this sector is particularly important. In 2009, the government targeted the installation of
28GW of wind power by 2020, 14 GW of which should be onshore (Department of Energy
and Climate Change, 2009). By the end of 2012, the UK had a capacity of approximately
5.8GW (RenewableUK, 2013). In order to meet the targets laid down, there will need to be
significant further development of onshore wind farms. Jones et al (2011) note that there is a
lack of understanding of the relationship between people‘s attitudes to wind turbines and the
number of turbines that they will accept or tolerate within certain landscapes. As wind
turbines become an increasingly common part of the UK landscape, the reaction of people to
the cumulative effects of these wind turbines becomes increasingly important.
My initial study aims:
1) To examine whether and, if participants have a physiological reaction when viewing wind
turbines, and in particular multiple turbines/wind farms in a single viewshed. This is
measured by analysing heart rate and galvanic skin response.
2) To analyse participants‘ visual focus, while looking at a landscape that includes several
wind farms, using eye-tracking equipment.
3) To examine the relationship between participants‘ physiological responses to viewing
wind farms and self-report measures of attitudes using questionnaires.
What has affordability got to do with it? Implicit attitudes in Compulsive Buying
Hashim Osman: Year 3
Prof Paschal Sheeran, Dr Thomas Webb
We conducted two experiments to examine the underlying cognitive buying processes in
compulsive buying (CB). Experiment 1 studied the conflicts between desirability and
affordability in CB. The study design is a 4 (product type: high desirable-high affordable
versus desirable-low affordable versus low desirable-high affordable and low-desirable-low
affordable) x 2 (target: desirable versus affordable). Sixty products were selected in a pilot
study. The sample was first year female psychology undergraduates (N = 60). Participants
indicated whether products are desirable or affordable. Findings confirmed that CB was not
related to affordability judgments i.e. compulsive buyers want what they cannot afford.
Experiment 2 studied whether mood states influence CB decisions by manipulating self-
discrepancy. The sample was first year female psychology undergraduates (N = 56). In the
self-discrepancy condition (EC), participants focused on a series of positive characteristics
from a self-evaluative perspective by rating their actual and ideal-selves. In the control
condition (CC), a non self-evaluative perspective was made salient. For the affective priming
task, we adopted the innovative variant of using images as primes and non-verbal affective
symbols as targets ( or ). Participants indicated whether the emoticon at the end of each
26
product was positive or negative. Findings validated the results in Experiment 1 that
compulsive buyers evaluated desirable products differently that non-compulsive buyers,
irrespective of affordability. There was a moderate main effect for ‗positivity index‘ but main
effects comparing the 2 conditions were not significant suggesting that the self-discrepancy
manipulation on implicit attitudes was not as sensitive as we had predicted.
ADHD traits and distractibility
Maria Panagiotidi: Year 3
Dr Tom Stafford, Prof Paul Overton
Distractibility is often described as the main symptom of ADHD. Although reports from
teachers and parents suggest that children with ADHD have difficulties paying attention to
one task without getting distracted by external events, the nature of this distractability has
not been fully characterised by laboratory tests of attention, nor has a neural basis for this
distractability been confirmed. Recent evidence from animal studies suggests that the
superior colliculus (SC), a midbrain structure that belongs to a distributed network of areas
mediating saccadic eye movements and shifts of attention, might be abnormally sensitive in
individuals with ADHD (Overton, 2008). Developmental disorders such as ADHD exist on a
continuum, thus allowing us to use sub-clinical populations to study the clinical condition.
This approach has been very common in the case of Autism Spectrum Disorder (Baron-
Cohen et al., 2001).
The main aim of this study was to examine the performance of a sub-clinical subject sample
on a new distractibility paradigm and correlate it with the level of ADHD symptoms.
We tested a 34 healthy adults with low, mild, and high ADHD traits assessed on the Adult
ADHD Self-Report Scale (ASRS, Kessler et al., 2005) on two modified versions of the
Sustained Attention to Response Task (SART, Robertson et al., 1997) with and without
external distractors sensitive to the SC. Reaction times, accuracy, and the effect of the
distractors on performance were correlated with ADHD symptoms.
Different patterns in behavioural and eye tracking data were found in participants with high
hyperactivity and inattention scores.
Possible implications of our findings for the collicular hypersensitivity theory of ADHD will be
discussed.
27
Evoked and ongoing neurovascular responses in rodent motor cortex.
Priya Patel: Year 1
Dr Myles Jones, Dr Jason Berwick
Non-invasive functional neuroimaging techniques such blood oxygen level dependent
(BOLD) functional magnetic imaging (fMRI) is frequently used to map the functional anatomy
of the brain and assess functional connectivity between brain regions. The BOLD fMRI
technique does not measure neural activity but rather relies on the changes in blood flow,
volume and oxygenation to infer underlying neural activation. fMRI utilises the changes in
the blood flow but infers neural changes, it is important to use techniques that would allow us
to be able to track the neural activity taking place in relation to the hemodynamic changes
taking place at one time. Our research group uses optical imaging spectroscopy (OIS) to be
able to characterise cerebral haemodynamic responses and multi-electrode recording
techniques to measure evoked and on-going cortical neural activity in the somatosensory
cortex (S1) of anaesthetised rodents. My project will use these well-established techniques
to also measure hemodynamic and neural activity in the motor cortex (M1). This will allow
‗neurovascular coupling‘ to be explored in an additional cortical region and also allow further
investigation the anatomical and functional connections between the somatosensory and
motor cortex pathways. This will also involve looking at communication between these
connected brain regions based on similarity between on-going signals. This should allow us
to be able to understand the nature of spontaneous brain activity and to be able to better
understand aspects such as anatomical relations between various brain regions, help to
understand breakdown in brain development within disease.
Examining Characteristics of Effective Therapists
Jo-Ann Pereira: Year 2
Prof Michael Barkham, Dr Stephen Kellett
Research question: Do practitioners demonstrate meaningful and systematic variability in
effectiveness and can this variability be explained by specific practitioner characteristics?
Background: There is a growing body of research that is identifying meaningful and
systematic variability in the contributions of practitioners towards client change. Meta-
analyses based on the current literature reveal that the variability in practitioners‘
contributions account for between 5 and 8% of the total outcome variance amongst client
change. This translates to up to a quarter of what researchers can account for in
psychotherapy that is attributable to practitioners.
Practitioner characteristics have been examined over the past 2 decades primarily in
absolute terms and separate from client characteristics. The inconsistent and poor yield from
this research effort calls for a different approach looking at characteristics which assist
practitioners to establish better ‗fitness‘ with client qualities. The current project proposes
the examination of characteristics of resilience, intuition, empathy, mindfulness, and
interpersonal personality traits while additionally comparing these between quantitatively
identifiable effective and less effective practitioners.
28
Method: The project aims to analyse a large routinely collected NHS dataset of Sheffield
IAPT client outcome scores, the corresponding Sheffield IAPT practitioners, and their
supervisors. Practitioners will be firstly assessed on the above-mentioned characteristics.
Quantitative and qualitative procedures will be carried out with the researcher blinded to the
actual outcomes of the clients. Secondly, these practitioners‘ client outcome scores over a 2-
year duration will be analysed using multilevel modelling (MLM). It is hypothesized that
effective therapists will demonstrate significantly higher levels of client-fitness-related
characteristics.
Living in the World of Inequalities: Income gradients across child and adolescent
antisocial behaviours
Patrycja J. Piotrowska: Year 2
Dr Richard Rowe, Dr Christopher B. Stride
Background: Research evidence demonstrates a social gradient in behavioural problems,
with children from low-socioeconomic background experiencing more behavioural difficulties
than children from high-socioeconomic families. Antisocial behaviour is a heterogeneous
concept - including diverse behaviours incorporated in the psychiatric symptom area of
oppositional-defiant disorder (ODD) and conduct disorder (CD). It remains unclear whether
income inequalities are similar across different forms of antisocial behaviour in terms of their
gradient.
Aims: This study aimed to investigate whether heterogeneous forms of antisocial behaviour
show differing income gradients.
Methodology: Data were drawn from the Mental Health of Children and Young People in
Great Britain - 2004 dataset. Measures included a wide range of socioeconomic and
psychopathological assessments. Income quintiles as well as diagnoses of CD and ODD,
subscales of symptom counts measuring irritability, headstrongness, hurtfulness,
aggressiveness, rule-breaking and callous-unemotional traits were used.
Findings: Clear income gradients were demonstrated across the range of antisocial
behaviours. Children from low income families had significantly higher odds of ODD or CD
diagnoses than those in the top 40% of the sample. The prevalence of these disorders
gradually decreased across income quintiles. Further findings concerning income gradients
in heterogeneous forms of antisocial behaviour will be presented and their implications
discussed.
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Imagining Others: Social daydreaming in daily life
Giulia Poerio: Year 1
Prof Peter Totterdell, Dr Eleanor Miles & Dr Lisa-Marie Berry
Daydreaming is often social in nature. We think about (real or imagined) others and our
relationships with them. We re-live or pre-live social interactions and consider our past,
present, and future lives with other people. Indeed, recent research indicates that almost
three quarters of individuals report ‗frequently‘ or ‗always‘ daydreaming of social peers,
whilst less than 1% report never doing so (Mar et al., 2012). Given that daydreams are
typically centered on an individual‘s desires, needs and goals (Singer, 1975), it is perhaps
unsurprising that they tend to involve the people in our lives. The need to form and maintain
lasting social bonds is a fundamental human motivation, and social relationships are
reported as one of the most valued aspects of individuals‘ lives. Although it may seem
obvious that our daydreams commonly involve others, there is a lack of systematic research
on the subject. Research has tended to focus on the underlying cognitive processes and
temporal nature (e.g. past or future) of daydreaming rather than its social content. In this
talk, I explain what social daydreaming is (and what it is not), and describe a forthcoming
experience sampling study which will investigate the frequency, characteristics and
perceived functions of social daydreaming as it occurs in daily life.
Mar, R. A., Mason, M. F., & Litvack, A. (2012). How daydreaming relates to life satisfaction,
loneliness, and social support: The importance of gender and daydream content.
Consciousness and Cognition, 21(1), 401-407.
Singer, J. L. (1975). The inner world of daydreaming: Harper & Row New York.
“I feel gross”: Self-disgust as an emerging clinical research agenda
Philip Powell1 : Year 3
Prof Paul Overton1, Dr Jane Simpson2 1Sheffield University; 2Lancaster University
Over two decades of research has served to implicate dysfunctional disgust responding in a
range of mental health problems. Recently, attention has shifted to explore the
psychological impact of maladaptive self-directed disgust reactions. In recapping data
collected during the initial two years of my PhD, I will first review briefly the case for ―self-
disgust‖ as a unique and dysfunctional emotion schema, which appears to be associated
with certain presentations of depression and a number of other psychological disorders.
Forming the principal content of the current talk, I will next present the results of some
experimental research carried out in the past year. In a series of preliminary experiments,
we attempted to attenuate state levels of reported disgust (and other negative emotions)
towards aspects of the self using self-affirmation manipulations. Whilst data collection and
analysis is ongoing, initial findings look promising, indicating significantly lower levels of
reported negative emotion towards appearance (but not behaviour) following a kindness
manipulation. To close, the implications of my doctoral research and some potential future
directions will be reviewed.
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Manipulating gesture production in 3-year-olds to increase recall
Laura Robertson: Year 2
Dr Jane Herbert, Dr Danielle Matthews
Preschool children provide only limited information when asked to verbally recall an event.
Gestures have been shown to provide information that complements speech and conveys
unique additional information. It has previously been proposed that gestures may be part of
communication, reflect cognition, or support the speaker‘s cognition. The aim of this study
was to increase 3-year-old‘s gesture production during recall, and identify whether these
gestures provide additional information which supplements their verbal and behavioural
recall. Children (N=42) individually watched a video of a unique event and were immediately
asked to verbally and behaviorally recall what they had seen. In three conditions we
compared whether encouraging and modeling gestures (Encourage) and having the
experimenter leave the room during the video and then providing a photo cue to support
recall after the initial free recall session (Absent+Photo), would increase gesture production
and recall above spontaneous gesture rates (Natural). The amount recalled in words and
gestures in the Absent + Photo condition was significantly higher than the Encourage and
Natural conditions. Unique information about spatial locations were conveyed only in
gesture in this condition indicating that a visual cue is an effective method of increasing
recall in 3-year-olds, and that gestures can be used as an additional measure for
determining recall. Although interpersonal communication demands did have some effect
on gesturing in this task, 3-year-old‘s gesture production appears to be primarily a reflection
of overall memory for the event.
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Studying developmental change in brain activity
Maria Luisa Rosas-Martinez: Year 3
Dr Elizabeth Milne, Dr Ying Zheng
A recent focus of interest in autism research has been the characterization of low-level
perceptual information processing as a possible marker for behavioral deficits. Although
EEG studies generally report altered functional segregation of early visual channels and
atypical capacity to integrate information in participants with autism, the results are strikingly
controversial. Age range of investigated subjects and differences between methods could
lead to the contradictory conclusions. Thus, the purpose of the present study is to investigate
the extent to which a trait of functional connectivity among early visual processing areas
might characterize and distinguish developmental change in brain activity.
We performed multidimensional analysis of EEG data obtained from healthy adults, healthy
children and children with autism. Visual stimuli consisted of simple achromatic grating
stimuli that are typically used to investigate the functional integrity of visual channels and,
chromatic gratings to evaluate the capacity of early visual integration. The rate of stimulus
presentation elicited a transient VEP, followed by steady-state responses.
Our results of temporal analysis of the transient response showed morphological, latency,
and amplitude changes dependent on the stimuli and participant group. Spectral analysis of
the SSVEP responses provided insights into the functional dynamics of different EEG bands
in visual processing. These results enable us to shed light on developmental features such
as the basic components of neuronal networks processing specific stimulus attributes.
Future work will be carried out to evaluate the utility of these basic components to define the
neurodevelopmental dysfunction in autism.
Co-morbidity between Antisocial Behaviour and Depression
Samaneh Sadeghi: Year 1
Dr Richard Rowe & Dr Mark Blades
Comorbidity between antisocial behaviour and depression is evident well above chance level
(Pliszka, Sherman, Barrow, & Irick, 2000). Various mechanisms might underlie this
association including the possibility that antisocial behaviour leads to depression or that
depression leads to antisocial behaviour or that both disorders have similar risk factors.
Rowe, Maughan and Eley (2006) modelled different subtypes of antisocial behaviour
including physical aggression; delinquency and oppositionality as precursors of depression.
In addition, further variables including depressogenic attributional styles and dependent life
events were examined as mediators of these relationships. Significant associations between
oppositionality and delinquency with depressed mood were found for males and females
while physical aggression showed no significant relationship. Negative life events were
implicated as a mediator of the relationship between delinquency and depressed mood.
Depressogenic attributional style performed a role in the relationship between oppositionality
and depressed mood. This study relied upon one wave of data (wave 2) as later waves were
not available at the time of analysis. The proposed study will build on the work by Rowe et
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al. (2006) by covering similar issues regarding the co-morbidity between antisocial behaviour
and depressed mood. However, this study will be using longitudinal data from three waves
(wave 2, 3, 4 & 5). By adopting the longitudinal design, it will be possible to assess whether
antisocial behaviour precedes depression or vice versa. In addition, mediating factors
including depressogenic attributional styles and dependent life events will be included in this
study. Further analyses may capitalise on the genetically informative design of G1219 to
disaggregate the role of genes and environment in the longitudinal associations identified.
Sleep Disturbances and Paranoia
Alex Scott: Year 2
Dr Thomas Webb, Dr Georgina Rowse
Recently a link has been proposed between insomnia and the formation of paranoid
thoughts and persecutory ideation. However, research to date has used self-report
measures of sleep and employed a limited range of paranoia measures. The current study
aimed to further investigate the link between sleep disturbances and paranoia by using
objective measures of sleep (Zeo home sleep monitors) and a further psychometric measure
of paranoia (the Persecution and Deservedness Scale, PaDS). Participants (N = 339) first
completed a range of online psychometric measures to assess their levels of sleep
disturbance, paranoia, depression and anxiety. Preliminary correlational analysis revealed
significant associations between self-report measures of total sleep disturbance and three
measures of paranoia; the Paranoid Thoughts Scales (GPTS-B) (r = .42, p < .01), the PaDS
(r = .49, p < .01) and the PaDS deservedness subscale (r = .41, p < .01). Following this, 47
participants volunteered to use a home sleep monitor for 7 nights to record sleep
architecture. Associations between paranoia and aspects of sleep as measured by the Zeo
monitors, while smaller, seemed to show the opposite effects. The measures of paranoia
tended to be associated with more time asleep (-0.01 < rs < 0.18), reduced sleep latency (-
0.19 < rs < -0.13), less time awake (-0.15 < rs < -0.10), less time in REM sleep (-0.19 < rs < -
0.08) and higher levels of sleep efficiency (0.24 < rs < 0.31). However, paranoia was also
associated with more time in light sleep (0.18 < rs < 0.26) and less time in deep sleep (-0.19
< rs < 0.07). More data is being collected.
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Neurovascular coupling in health and disease
Kira Shaw: Year 1
Dr Jason Berwick, Dr Myles Jones
Neurovascular coupling describes the link between neural activity and blood flow in the
brain. An in-depth understanding of neurovascular coupling is essential as modern fMRI
techniques are based on the assumption that changes in blood oxygenation reflect
underlying neural changes. The rodent somatosensory cortex has been selected as an ideal
model for measuring the neurovascular response as each whisker topographically responds
to one-to-one cell groupings in the cortex (referred to as barrels). Following whisker
stimulation the hemodynamic and neural responses can be studied in detail in the barrels
using alternative methods to investigate the neurophysiological underpinnings of fMRI. Such
methods include optical imaging spectroscopy (2D-OIS) and laser Doppler flowmetry (LDF)
for measuring the hemodynamic response; and the insertion of a multi-channel electrode for
measuring the neural response. It is especially important to unravel this relationship between
neural activity and blood flow in the brain as evidence indicates that there is a neurovascular
―uncoupling‖ in neurodegenerative diseases. Previous work in Sheffield has been conducted
in the rat, which does not easily allow for disease models (e.g. transgenic) as the mouse.
However, due to the smaller size of the mouse it is more technically challenging to perform
these invasive techniques. Therefore preliminary investigations I have conducted so far have
aimed to measure the neural and hemodynamic response in the healthy mouse model.
Key Words: neurovascular coupling, fMRI, whisker-barrel, optical imaging, mouse model
Midwives’ experiences of traumatic perinatal events: Results from a large survey
Kayleigh Sheen: Year 3
Prof Pauline Slade, Dr Helen Spiby
Introduction: There is potential for midwives to encounter traumatic events whilst caring for
women throughout labour and birth. However, little is understood about the impact that this
could have. This talk will present findings from a large mixed-methods investigation into
midwives‘ experiences of traumatic perinatal events, with a focus on the quantitative findings
for symptomatic structure and prevalence.
Method: Over four hundred midwives completed a postal questionnaire on the frequency
and nature of their exposure to traumatic events occurring within the perinatal period. The
questionnaire also included several standardised scales measuring posttraumatic stress
symptomatology, worldview beliefs and burnout.
Findings: Symptoms of posttraumatic stress were reported by a subsample of midwives at
levels indicative of clinical relevance. Symptoms of posttraumatic stress were also
associated with more severe symptoms of burnout and more negative worldview beliefs.
Regression analyses identified several personal and professional experience variables as
significantly predictive of posttraumatic stress, however the amount of variance accounted
for was small.
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Conclusion: Findings provide a conservative estimation into the potential impact of
traumatic perinatal event exposure on midwives, and identify implications for midwives‘
personal wellbeing, their capacity to provide quality care and for the overall organisational
culture. Further research is required in order to effectively identify, prepare and support
midwives in relation to this potentially difficult aspect of practice.
What are Thalamocortical Spindles?
Rebecca Slack: Year 1
Dr Jason Berwick, Dr Luke Boorman & Dr Myles Jones
The thalamocortical spindle consists of a neural oscillation around 7-14Hz (Steriade et al.,
1987). The neural marker of the thalamocortical spindle has been well characterised over
the past 70 years using invasive electrode models in animals such as mice, rats and cats,
and EEG in humans. This has revealed fascinating insights into the role of the spindle as a
possible marker for Alzheimer‘s disease, Schizophrenia and even in healthy aging. Current
studies have shown reduced numbers of spindles during NREM sleep as being present in all
these cases. Investigation of the haemodynamic correlate of the thalamocortical spindle may
allow for its improved detection using non-invasive fMRI techniques, which could be used to
enhance understanding of its function in health and disease. However, a weakness of fMRI
is that it depends upon blood changes as a marker for the neural response. Neural
oscillations are formed by a combination of both excitatory and inhibitory neural activity,
which means that the translation of blood changes to neural activity is more difficult to
decipher. Animal models, such as the one currently in use here at Sheffield, allow the
concurrent recording of haemodynamic changes and underlying neural activity. Our
investigation, using this model, of both stimulus evoked and spontaneous spindles in the rat
barrel cortex, suggests that there exists a defined biphasic haemodynamic response to the
thalamocortical spindle.
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The Communicative Infant from 0-18 months: The social-cognitive foundations of pragmatic development
Gemma Stephens: Year 2 (part-time)
Dr Danielle Matthews, Dr Dan Carroll
This talk will summarise the main findings of a review chapter entitled ‗the communicative
infant from 0-18 months: the social-cognitive foundations of pragmatic development‘
(Stephens & Matthews, in press), and will outline the early ontogeny of typical pragmatic
ability. Very young infants, whilst being essentially pre-linguistic are still relatively competent
communicators and they manage this by reaching a series of pragmatic developmental
milestones before they have even uttered their first words. The trajectory from very early
dyadic communicative skill (including turn taking, emotional attunement, imitation,
responsiveness to eye contact, speech and temporal contingency), to more complex triadic
communicative skill (reading intentions, initiating and responding to joint attention, and
appealing to common ground), will be explored in the context of the current theoretical
debate surrounding the exact nature of early communication.
Next, a plan for a longitudinal study into individual differences in pragmatic ability will be
presented which aims to discover how early variation in pragmatic skill begins, whether such
variation may be linked to factors influencing the infant‘s language environment (i.e.
socioeconomic status), and whether pragmatic ability at 11 months is predictive of ability at
18 months and at 24 months.
Is visual attention during an imitation demonstration related to learning outcome? Eye tracking infants and adults
Gemma Taylor: Year 3
Dr Jane Herbert, Prof Pauline Slade.
Research using the deferred imitation paradigm has shown that memory retrieval becomes
progressively more flexible across the infancy period (for review see Jones & Herbert, 2006).
The aim of the present experiment was to determine whether changes in the focus of
attention during learning might account for the developmental changes to memory retrieval
during infancy. Using an eye-tracker, visual fixations made by 6-, 9- and 12-month-old
infants, and adults, were recorded as they watched an imitation demonstration presented on
the computer. Learning outcome was assessed behaviourally with an imitation recall test
(infants only). During the demonstration, infants spent the greatest proportion of time
attending to the object and person. In contrast, adults primarily attended to the object. There
were also significant differences between infants who showed evidence of recall in the
imitation test and infants who did not: imitators spent significantly more time attending to the
person, and less time attending to the background, than non-imitators. Thus, differences in
the focus of attention across infancy and adulthood might be related to the way in which
infants understand or interpret events during learning. Changes in attention may, therefore,
contribute towards developmental changes to memory retrieval in infancy.
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Reducing Citizen Energy Use: A City Stakeholder Perspective
Colin G. Whittle: Year 1
Dr Christopher R. Jones, Dr Aidan H. While
Visions for future cities, such as sustainable or smart cities, are increasingly permeating UK
and global development initiatives. Many of the future city concepts involve the utilisation of
more efficient technologies as well as technologies which should enable citizens to make
more efficient (less wasteful) choices. The focus of the research is on the interface between
efficient technology within cities and the user citizens. It is investigating how future,
sustainable and smart city developments consider citizens and what expectations are being
placed on these future citizens. The presentation will give an introduction to the research
area and present findings from a current study, which is investigating city stakeholders‘
views on current city developments; the inclusion of the citizens, the expectations on future
citizens and some of the assumptions being made within future city concepts about citizens‘
acceptance and abilities. It is argued that failing to take into account citizens‘ abilities and
beliefs will lead to many future city developments falling short of their potential to make the
city a more sustainable and liveable, urban environment.
Thoughts on solar thermal panels, opinions from Sheffield and Thessalonki.
James PR Williams: Year 3
Dr Chris Jones (Psychology), Prof Stephen Beck (Mechanical Engineering).
This presentation will show the combined results from studies completed in the two
European cities of Sheffield and Thessaloniki in Greece.
The talk will describe the reasons for choosing these two comparable cities (in size) but
vastly different in their motivations for adopting this novel technology. This description will
include the methods used in the studies and the results obtained.
The discussion of the results will also include the applicability of the Technology Acceptance
Model to describe consumer adoption of solar thermal panels in these differing cities.
How useful is this model in predicting consumer behaviour when applied to a novel
technology such as solar thermal panels?