School of Psychology

Welcome to the School of Psychology

Psychology allows us to explore some of the big questions about what it means to be human, examining the science behind how people think, behave, and react to others. Our Psychology programmes tap into the diverse and multidisciplinary nature of Psychology, offering modules based in staff knowledge and expertise. Current research questions being explored by our staff and students include understanding the impact of Covid-19 on mental health; the effect of human activity on habitat selection in the Barbary macaque; and investigating online dating behaviours using the science of facial attractiveness.

Within our programmes we embed the opportunity to gain practical experience and to apply theory to the real world, with options to take work experience electives.  

We are a vibrant multi-cultural community of staff and students, with consistently excellent ratings from students and a strong research profile. We are proud to hold the Athena SWAN Silver Award, recognising our commitment to the advancement of gender equality in academia. We embrace diversity, champion equality, and are proactive in making our School an inclusive environment for all.  

Student engagement is at the heart of our approach to teaching and learning, and we focus on creating a community of psychologists. We offer a range of undergraduate and postgraduate taught programmes, with opportunities for students to enhance their experience and employability both within and outside of the curriculum. Our programmes aim to prepare our students for a range of career opportunities across the fields of psychology, education, healthcare, social services, data analytics, and the media.

We foster strong links with public, private, and charitable sector organisations, and embed public engagement throughout our practice. A thriving number of postgraduate research students enhances our community, and there are opportunities for full-time and part-time funded studentships.   

We hope you enjoy finding out about what we do and what we offer - we look forward to meeting you.

Dr Kirsty MillerHead of the School of Psychology

Eyetracking Lab

The research in the eye-tracking laboratory is focused on inferential process in vision, social attention and cognition, which investigates how visual cognition is shaped and influenced by our environment, experience and knowledge. We are currently examining how we move the eyes to select and look at salient visual cues around us to understand our surroundings, how these cues are processed in the brain and further used to guide our behaviour in the tasks such as face recognition, emotion recognition, body perception, and scene understanding.

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EEG Lab

Electroencephalogram studies are well used in psychology to ascertain activation patterns in the brain in response to stimuli to see when and where parts of the brain are responding. Studies in the past and currently have centred around visual discomfort, noise, investigating spatial frequency perception, migraines, visual response to visual illusions and natural images, as well as perception of motion and body language. EEG allows electrodes to be placed onto the scalp using a conductive gel and a cap to position the electrodes with. The School has recently acquired a new ActiveTwo BioSemi system and also houses a second BioSemi system. There are EEG sets available for younger children as well for studies involving younger participants.

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Phlebotomy / CANTAB

Works in conjunction with the Molecular lab but this lab has a full size phlebotomy chair for the drawing of blood for analyses, as well as housing the CANTAB laptop which houses a gold standard test battery for executive function tests such as those involving memory. This lab also has a BioPac MP150 and an EDA (Electro Dermal Activity/GSR(Galvanic Skin Response)/PPG(photoplethysmogram) module for looking at physiological markers during executive function tasks for monitoring participant's physical and emotional arousal state.

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Molecular Lab

The Molecular lab is currently carrying out and has carried out in the past studies revolving around cortisol that was measured alongside other behavioural and demographic measures and works in conjunction with the Phlebotomy/CANTAB lab to test executive function alongside biological markers such as cortisol. Part of new PhD student research is looking at blood analysis in diabetic patients as well as having worked on DNA analysis in previous studies. The Molecular lab houses a contained wet lab for chemical and biological analyses on site and stores samples from participants before, during and after processing and analyses.

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Motor Lab

This lab looks at biomechanical motion and perceptions of motion. It houses two MIRAGE systems which allow visual manipulation of participants limb's (such as displacing or stretching hands) to see the effect on motion and performance. There are also feedback tools to guide the participant as well as investigating limb embodiment and phantom limbs - the lab has a number of prosthetic hands for use in research investigating this. The lab also has glasses which can cover a single eye during movement tasks.

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Lincoln Infant and Child Development Lab

The Lincoln Infant and Child Development Lab opened in 2000 and research has been concentrating on different areas of categorisation and conceptual development as well as speech perception and language acquisition, especially word learning and early grammar. Other research focuses on injury prevention - especially on the prevention of dog bite injuries. Here, we assessed the Blue Dog bite prevention programme, www.thebluedog.org and we have carried out further research projects on children's misinterpretation of dogs' facial expressions, on why children get bitten in the face, head and neck area more often. We have also undertaken eye-tracking studies of children looking at dog faces and past and ongoing research also investigates children's and adults' perception of dog signalling and an assessment of the effectiveness of bite prevention in the home with a familiar dog.

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Psychophysics Lab

This lab looks at studies of motion, colour and colour constancy perception as well as reactions to visual stimuli. The lab houses a set of high refresh rate monitors and participants will look at a range of videos and image stimuli while making responses about their own perception in relation to the stimuli. Studies looking at specific visual illusions, especially around colour have also been of interest.

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Driving Simulator

This lab houses a driving simulator set up with a widescreen monitor and a fully integrated simulated driving seat with adjustable and movable parameters. There are a range of driving simulators used in software but are adaptable to necessary tasks. Current studies involve looking at a range of participants including those who are rated higher on the autistic spectrum, and analysing eyetracking, physiological and behavioural data such as driving performance on standardised tasks as well as head tracking and object recognition.

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Group of male and female students

Discover New Worlds with Global Opportunities

The University of Lincoln has a growing number of agreements with universities and partner institutions from Europe and around the world offering Erasmus+ and Study Abroad programmes.

Connect with Us‌

School of Psychology, University of Lincoln, Brayford Pool, Lincoln, LN6 7TS, UK

Telephone: +44 (0)1522 882000  |  Email: enquiries@lincoln.ac.uk