Archived News

Bangor Psychology listed in CHE European Excellence Ranking

Bangor Psychology, along with only one other of the 22 UK Psychology schools listed achieved six stars (the highest number awarded). These stars are awarded to departments who do particularly well in those areas and the fact that Bangor achieved joint top place in terms of stars awarded is another clear demonstration of the departments overall quality.

"I'm delighted that our School of Psychology has been included in this league table. It reflects the international reputation of the research conducted at our School of Psychology," commented Bangor University Vice-Chancellor, Professor Merfyn Jones.

The CHE -- Centre for Higher Education Development is an independent institution that is committed to reform of higher education. The CHE Excellence Ranking is intended to help inform students who wish to study beyond undergraduate degree level about the quality of a departments postgraduate teaching and research, as well as academics and non-academic staff interested in finding out the European standing of a particular department. The ranking includes evaluations by students and information about study programmes and teaching, computer and laboratory equipment, research performance and aspects on internationality.

Bangor Psychology also has one of the largest student cohorts in the UK and offers UK and International students alike a combination of quality and quantity, in a fantastic natural environment and lively student focused city, simply not available elsewhere. Please visit the School of Psychology website for more details on the Psychology degrees and the departments research output.

Staying Positive - A Key Component to Business Success

Could using some simple psychological techniques help your business through the recession? According to academics at Bangor University's leading School of Psychology, the answer is a resounding "yes!"

Logo As Dr John Parkinson, Senior Lecturer at the School of Psychology explains; "Using positive aspects of psychology could assist businesses to develop the strengths that their employees have, to harness their motivation or to help their employees adapt to change. Psychological techniques could also be used to create better relationships within the company, and with customers and suppliers. Whatever the technique, if it helps your business beat the recession then surely you should consider it?"

The School of Psychology is offering local businesses an exclusive workshop: Using Positive Psychology To Optimise Your Business. The free workshop will be led by Dr John Parkinson on Wednesday October 21st, 1pm-4pm at Bangor University, College Road, Brigantia Building, Room 342.

The workshop focuses on several aspects of positive psychology, and applies them to real-life workplace scenarios. It is intended for organisations within any sector. For those interested in attending, please contact d.menichino@bangor.ac.uk no later than Wednesday October 14th to find out more details and book this popular session. There is a 40 seat capacity.

8 October 2009

26.3.09 Experts at Bangor University contribute to UK 'real-virtuality' simulator network

Experts in virtual reality at Bangor University are all set to contribute to an exciting large-scale project to develop what they term a 'real-virtuality' simulator. Showcased recently at a UK 'Pioneers 09' event at London's Olympia Conference Centre, the 'real-virtuality' simulator project network has identified experts within the UK who could turn the simulator concept into a reality.

They aim to develop a 'virtual cocoon' that will not only recreate sights and sounds but also smell, feel and even taste, to create a fully immersive perceptual experience. As well as the obvious entertainment value of such an experience, the developers also see potential for use in education and other applications such as business and virtual tourism. Such applications could help protect the environment by reducing the need to travel.

Vision scientist Simon Watt at the School of Psychology will work on the visual element of the display technology. He studies how the human visual system works and will be ensuring that the display system is designed to best suit how our brain re-creates the sense of three dimensional objects from the signals sent by our visual system.

Currently in early 'proof of concept' phase, the research network, funded by the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council, has established that the know-how to make the prototype a reality exists within the UK. The next phase would see the network gaining major funding from one of the UK government funded research councils to develop the project over a number of years.

1.3.09 Bangor scientists show that language shapes perception

Advances in cognitive neuroscience (the science of how the brain works when we think) have shown that what our eyes see and what our brain interprets are two different things.

Professor Guillaume Thierry, Dr Panos Athanasopoulos and colleagues report in the prestigious journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences USA that our language causes our brains to perceive colours differently. Dr Athanasopoulos explains: “Our language forces us to cut up the world in different ways. Greek speakers systematically use two different terms to refer to blue: the sky is ghalazio (light blue), never ble (dark blue), and a blue pen is ble but can never be ghalazio. English speakers would have no problem calling both the sky and a pen blue in an instant.”

To see whether language shapes our biological and physiological processes of colour perception, the researchers used a technique called event related brain potentials (ERPs). This technique tracks activity in the brain millisecond by millisecond. Professor Thierry explains: “We know that the visual system in our brain begins processing stimuli like colour a few tens of milliseconds after light has hit the retina of the eye. We also know that language consciously invades our thinking about 200 milliseconds later. Using ERPs, we are able to look at very early stages of visual analysis, well before conscious language information is accessed.”

The researchers found differences in visual processing of light and dark blues between Greek and English speakers as early as 100 milliseconds, suggesting that indeed, speakers of different languages literally have differently structured minds.

13/02/09 New discoveries about happy faces to assist people with rare genetic condition

New discoveries about how the brain processes facial expressions could lead to improved ways of educating and training for people with a rare genetic neurodevelopmental condition called Williams Syndrome. Reporting in the Journal of Neuroscience (28.2.09), Dr Debra Mills, a Reader at Bangor University's School of Psychology, reports that, as a result of their research, the team have learnt more about exactly when and where the brain processes positive and negative emotional expressions. Her research using a combined electrophysiological and brain imaging (fMRI) approach was conducted jointly with colleagues at Stanford University and the Salk Institute in the US. They discovered that a part of the brain that responds to fearful expressions in most people, is actually more active as a result of happy faces in people with this disorder.

1/2/09 Audience Response System

The Audience Response System (ARS) is an electronic voting system similar to that used on the television programme “Who Wants to be a Millionaire” when the contestant wants to “ask the audience”. In the television show, the contestant asks the audience a question, and the members of the audience then enter a response on a personal handset. A computer collates the answers and displays them for the audience to see in an easy to understand format. The ARS is used in the same manner during a lecture. A lecturer can pose a question to the students, and they then enter their responses on a personal handset, with the answers collated and displayed to the class on screen as a graph.

The system is used in conjunction with Powerpoint, with the questions displayed on one slide, and then the answers displayed on the next slide. The responses are almost instantaneous. The system is going to be used with some of the largest lectures at the University to foster interaction between a single lecturer and up to 400 students.

9/1/09 Teasing is good for you!

The use of insults at a young age improves social skills and helps children develop a sense of humour according to research by Dr Erin Heerey of the School of Psychology. Her research also found that "play fighting" gives pupils the chance to tell the difference between real and pretend violence and she insists that teasing and nicknames were an "essential part of life" and should not automatically be confused with bullying. Teasing helps children to discover how to use their bodies, voices and faces to communicate nuances of meaning, she added.

Dr Heerey said: "I think it takes a while for kids to gain proficiency. You can watch teenagers queuing up to buy a movie ticket and they banter with one another. They say really horrible things to one but they are all laughing and it's all fun."

Dr Heerey carried out recent research into the role that teasing plays in US college fraternities. It found older students mocked newcomers with crude nicknames about drunkenness and other failings in a way that encouraged them to change their behaviour and helped group bonding. The study - with Dacher Keltner of California University - found that these "playful humiliations" led to people becoming better friends. When the researchers revisited the group two years later, students who had been the butt of jokes were in leadership positions and playing the same role of passing on social norms.

Dr Heerey, originally from Wisconsin, said British people seemed more serious with their teasing than Americans. She said: "People will say something outlandish with a totally straight face. But people in Britain poke fun at themselves a little bit more than Americans. "As an American, you're expecting to see these non-verbal cues that say 'I'm joking' but you don't see them - but they are there and you just have to look a little closer."

9/4/08 From training the brain to understanding a smile– 37th Annual Welsh BPS Student Conference Report

Wales' psychology students got together at Bangor University on Friday 4th April to discuss their research at the 37th BPS Welsh Branch Annual Student Conference. Twenty-nine research papers were presented by students from all the Welsh universities teaching psychology, with a particularly strong representation (22) from among Bangor.

The third year undergraduate and Masters' degree students presented their research findings to a mix of students from all levels within the department.The research include assessing different learning and teaching methods, assessing whether improved information improves a patient's satisfaction with healthcare services, assessing how we read faces and social cues and questions such as why people who hear voices do not develop schizophrenia.

"We're delighted both to be hosting the event and that so many of our own students have taken advantage of the opportunity to present their own unique research findings. Presenting their research will be a great learning experience for them. Having their research papers published in the Conference proceedings will also be an excellent addition to their career CVs," said Professor Oliver Turnbull, Head of the School of Psychology at Bangor University.

2/1/08 £1.2m Dementia Study

Professor Bob Woods of Bangor University's School of Psychology is to lead a major new research project investigating the clinical and cost-effectiveness of ‘reminiscence groups’ for helping people with dementia and their carers. The groups, run by professionals and volunteers, use photographs, recordings and other objects to trigger personal memories for people with dementia, and it is thought that this may help to maintain their autobiographical memory and improve their relationships with their carers, but there is little evidence about their effectiveness. The £1.2 million trial is commissioned by the National Institute for Health Research’s Health Technology Assessment (NIHR HTA) programme. In the project, researchers will investigate the effectiveness and added value of reminiscence group therapy compared with the usual care that people with dementia are offered.

“The growing number of people with dementia, and the increasing cost of caring for them, provides a major incentive to develop and test methods of supporting them in the community for longer,” says Professor Woods. “Drug treatment has received most attention, but there is increasing evidence that psychological and social interventions may be equally effective, even preferable where medication has negative side-effects. We hope that the results of our study will provide the NHS with important evidence to help inform the care of people with dementia.” View full details about the project.