Research Units and Facilities

Specialist labs and facilities

Staff and students of the Psychology Department have access to a large number of well-equipped specialist labs. Equipment within labs is often portable, allowing users to combine methodologies when investigating psychological phenomena.

We have a number cognitive and social neuroscience labs. These labs consist of individual and group testing spaces and offer users the option to record (electro)-physiological responses (e.g., ECG, EEG), measure brain activity (e.g. fNIRS), stimulate neural responses (e.g., TMS, FUS), and employ eye-tracking technology.

In the Babylab, we study the development of infants. The lab is equipped with cutting-edge technology to help us understand how young children perceive and act on the world around them. We use an eye-tracking device to gather data about their visual preferences, and a baby-friendly EEG system to record the natural brain activity in response to different tasks.

Our Mind-Craft Psychology Lab is equipped with single and multiplayer game setups to learn about human behaviour using Minecraft. The setup supports teaching through its interactive and engaging content, and support supports research by academics and students through offering highly customizable worlds to study topics such as social interactions, creativity, and problem solving.

In the sleep lab (in Psychology) and the iSpace lab (shared with the School of Computer Science and Electronic Engineering) we can carry out sleep research or examine behaviour in a natural setting.

In the observation suite we have a testing room which is fitted with a one-way mirror and video recording facilities. Both of these can be accessed from the observation room.

The cognitive perception lab has a number of static eye-trackers, with video head tracking. The lab also has precision colour monitors (for precise colour stimulus presentation), which can be used for threshold measurement and calibration facilities for both screen presented and paper stimuli.

The visual perception lab is equipped with head mounted eye-trackers, a tele-spectroradiometer, an intuitive colorimeter, optometric trial lenses, a monochromator, photometers, and a range of clinical optometric test equipment.

The psychoacoustic hearing labs is equipped with four high spec double-walled soundproof booths which can be used for hearing experiments or the booths can serve as a controlled environment for other experiments.

Finally, we have a number of group testing suites. These consist of multiple neighbouring cubicles, whose computers can be interlinked to allow real-time group behavioural studies.