DEPARTMENT OF PSYCHOLOGY:
UPCOMING INTERNAL AND
EXTERNAL SEMINARS
External Seminar: The neurocognitive consequences of sportsrelated concussion in sports people who have returned to play.
Thursday 23 October 2014, 4.00pm to 5.00pm
Speaker: Dr Helen Ryland, University of Exeter
Abstract: It is uncertain whether sports-related concussions (SRC) resolve fully or
whether they leave residual cognitive deficits.
In British Horseracing Authority (BHA)
jockeys, practice effects, the effects of one SRC, the impact of severity, and multiple
SRCs were explored.
investigated.
predicted.
Finally, severity and frequency of SRC in rugby players was
Practice effects were found in four of the paper and pencil tasks, as
However, such effects were also found in one computerised task.
Jockeys
with one SRC were impaired in performance in a task measuring executive function (EF),
when compared with closely matched controls. No differences were found between the
two groups with and without loss of consciousness. Unexpectedly, the participants with
two SRCs performed significantly better than the controls in five tasks. However, premorbid performance differences were found between controls and those with repeat
SRC. The SRCs in rugby players were associated with poorer performance in a memory
and learning task.
These results suggest that cognitive deficits persist following SRC,
although these are subtle, and restricted to EF and learning and memory.
Future
research could investigate whether these deficits merely reflect a delay in recovery or
whether they are markers for negative sequelae in the longer term.
Location: PG16
External Seminar: Constructing the face of a criminal
Thursday 30 October 2014, 4.00pm to 5.00pm
Speaker: Dr Charlie Frowd, University of Winchester
Abstract: Many crimes are committed where the only record the event is in the memory
of a witness or victim.
Producing an identifiable picture of an offender’s face then
becomes crucial for solving the crime.
Traditionally, these eyewitnesses describe the
offender’s face and select individual facial features—eyes, hair, nose, etc.—to build a
composite of the face. The resulting picture is then published in the media with the aim
that someone will recognise it and phone the police with a name, helping a criminal case.
Unfortunately, this old-fashioned ‘feature’ method rarely produces faces that other
people can identify, limiting the effectiveness of police investigations. I have been
developing a new software system called EvoFIT.
The basic idea is that eyewitnesses
repeatedly select from arrays of complete faces, with cycles of ‘breeding’, to allow a
composite to be ‘evolved’. The approach, while making intuitive sense, took 12 years of
intense research to develop an appropriate interface to human memory. Now, images
produced under simulated-witness procedures are correctly named at around 75%; in
police field-trials, EvoFIT images lead to the arrest of a suspect in about 60% of cases.
The unique feature of EvoFIT is therefore its effectiveness at detecting criminals. In my
talk, I will outline evidence to show how ineffective is the standard ‘feature’ method to
construct a face, and describe the EvoFIT system I have been working on. Part of the
success of this system is the interview that is administered by police practitioners prior
to face construction as well as techniques to facilitate naming (e.g. by members of the
public) when the police use composites to make a public appeal for information. Morerecent research has applied these techniques to traditional feature- and sketch-based
systems, with considerable success.
Location: K103
Internal Seminar: Am I in Anonymous? The Social Psychology of
Cybersecurity
Thursday 13 November 2014, 4.00pm to 5.00pm
Speaker: Dr John McAlaney, Bournemouth University
Abstract: From credit card numbers to sensitive images of celebrities there have been
several high profile cases recently where data has been stolen from online systems.
However it has been claimed that in many instances these breaches of security are not
the result of the system being hacked but are instead a result of social engineering and
manipulation of the people involved – or in other words they are primarily psychological
attacks, not technological ones. In this talk Dr John McAlaney will evaluate the
contribution that social psychology could make to the field of cybersecurity. He will
discuss the role of social engineering as well as the less studied topics of group dynamics
of cyber adversaries and hacktivist collectives, and how psychology might be used to
better understand the processes by which such groups select targets. Finally he will
suggest some ways in which social psychology based techniques could be used to
mitigate and prevent cybersecurity threats.
Location: K103
External Seminar: Personalized feedback to address public health
concerns: Reducing use of alcohol, tobacco, and other drugs
Thursday 20 November 2014, 4.00pm to 5.00pm
Speaker: Dr Bridgette Bewick, University of Leeds
Abstract: Bridgette will present findings from her programme of work that has explored
the drinking behaviour of university students and the ability to use electronic
personalised feedback combined with the principles of the social norms approach to
intervene effectively with alcohol and other drug use. Bridgette's work has led to
significant advances in the field of addiction, particularly in terms of understanding how
we might use e-health tools to intervene early with alcohol use. This lecture will take the
audience on a journey that explores the development and evaluation of an e-health
intervention tool (www.Unitcheck.co.uk); considers what impact the results from this
early work might have on the development of subsequent interventions; and how the
results led Bridgette and her team to explore how people process the information
provided by electronic screening and brief intervention tools. Bridgette will also provide a
glimpse into how the social norms approach might provide lessons on how to increase
young people's engagement with effective e-health tools.
Location: K103