Psychology

Fellows:
Dr Nick Yeung

Special Supernumerary Fellows:
Dr Jacinta O’Shea
Dr Elizabeth Tunbridge

Student Profile:
Nikita Potemkin, 2nd year

Dr Nick Yeung teaches courses in cognitive neuroscience, including the first-year introduction to cognitive psychology and the second-year course on memory, attention and information processing. His research is broadly concerned with the question of how coherent thought and action emerge from processing in the brain, and addresses specific questions such as: How do we focus our attention on a specific task at any given moment? How do we know when we’ve made an error? How do we learn from feedback? To investigate these issues, Dr Yeung’s research combines experimental studies of human behaviour and brain activity with the development of computer models of cognitive processes. His research has been published in the Journal of Neuroscience, Psychological Review, Nature Neuroscience, and the Journal of Experimental Psychology. For more information about Dr Yeung’s research and teaching interests, please visit his lab website.

Professor Nick Rawlins (Watts Professor of Psychology and Emeritus Fellow of Univ) is a physiological psychologist, with research interests in the neural basis of memory, brain degeneration, and pain.

Dr Elizabeth Tunbridge, a Special Supernumerary Fellow, is a neuroscientist with research interests in the biochemical mechanisms underlying severe psychiatric disorders. Her research is conducted in the Department of Psychiatry, and has been published in the Journal of Neuroscience, Psychopharmacology, and Neuropsychopharmacology. In July 2007 she was awarded the Wyeth Award for Preclinical Psychopharmacology from the British Association of Psychopharmacology. For more information about Dr Tunbridge’s research, please visit her website.

About the Course
Experimental Psychology at Oxford covers topics ranging from cellular and molecular neuroscience to the study of complex human social interactions. As such the scope of the subject is quite wide, addressing questions as varied as: How do we perceive colours? How do children learn a language? How does our society and culture affect our behaviour? What happens to the brain during learning? What causes schizophrenia? Do our genes determine our behaviour? In answering such questions, the emphasis of the Psychology course is very clearly focused on the evaluation of scientific theories on the basis of quantitative, experimental research.

Psychology can be studied alone—in the Experimental Psychology (EP) degree—or in combination with Philosophy. In either case students choose from the same list of topics and attend the same lectures and tutorials. In the first year there is a two-term introductory “prelims” course. All EP and Psychology & Philosophy students take the same courses in psychology and statistics, which they combine with a third course in either philosophy or neurophysiology.

After prelims, there is a three-term series of core topics in psychology, with courses in Biological Foundations of Behaviour, Human Experimental Psychology, Social, Developmental and Individual Differences, and Research Methods. Psychology & Philosophy students select a subset of the offered courses. This part of the course provides a thorough grounding in contemporary research in psychology.

In the final part of the course, students select from a number of advanced topics that cover the range of research in psychology. Examples of recent courses include: Multisensory Perception, Neuroscience of Decision and Action, Language Acquisition, Conscious Awareness, Emotion, and Education and Psychology. The topics offered reflect the specific research interests of the members of the Experimental Psychology department. As such, these advanced courses provide an excellent opportunity for students to pursue their developing interests and learn about cutting edge research in psychology. Complementing these advanced topics, students may choose to carry out their own research project and library dissertation.

For more information about studying psychology at Oxford, please visit the relevant pages of the Experimental Psychology department website.

Teaching
Students are taught through a mixture of tutorials, lectures, and practical classes. Although tutorial teaching is organised by the college and lectures by the university, there is close coordination of the material covered: lectures typically provide an overview of the topic, introducing key theoretical ideas and experimental techniques, while tutorials provide a forum for discussing particular issues in greater detail. Practical classes provide hands-on experience of experimental and statistical methods in psychology.

The tutorial system remains central to Psychology teaching at Oxford. Before each tutorial, students will usually write a critical essay on a set of recommended readings. These essays then form the basis for discussion in hour-long tutorials comprising groups of one, two or three students. In tutorials students receive individual attention, advice and suggestions from a tutor. Tutorials also provide a forum for students to ask questions and to receive constructive feedback on their own ideas.

Each week EP students generally attend one or two tutorials, six lectures, and one practical class. This workload in psychology is halved for Psychology & Philosophy students, since they have corresponding amounts of set work in Philosophy.

More information about Psychology teaching at Oxford can be found at the Experimental Psychology department website.

Psychology & Philosophy at Univ
As mentioned above, Psychology can be studied alone — in the Experimental Psychology degree — or in combination with Philosophy.

If you are interested in the Psychology & Philosophy degree, you should also visit our college webpage for Philosophy.

Admissions
Psychology has long been one of Univ’s specialities and, as a consequence, we have always had a significant number of Psychology undergraduates. From 2007 the annual intake will be four. Since we are also strong in Philosophy, and in particular in the areas relevant to Psychology & Philosophy, undergraduates reading this course are well catered for, as also are those reading Experimental Psychology (EP). Since the first-year requirements for Psychology & Philosophy and EP are virtually identical, we make no distinction within Psychology between applicants for the two schools at admissions; candidates who are uncertain about which they wish to read can perfectly well decide after their arrival (although an initial choice of course must be indicated on your UCAS form).

Although a background in science, particularly in Biology, is generally very useful in studying Psychology at Oxford, it is by no means an essential prerequisite for candidates applying to Univ. However, students with less than an A at GCSE Maths should consider doing AS level Maths in addition to their other A levels: Psychology is taught as a quantitative science at Oxford, and numerical competence is therefore vital. More generally, an interest in thinking within the framework of classical scientific methods, and an ability to draw inferences from experimental data, are an essential part of the course.

In recent years, undergraduate admissions in Psychology have been coordinated through the Experimental Psychology department to ensure that the strongest candidates are admitted, regardless of the college to which they apply. Candidates invited to interview at Univ will also be interviewed at a second college. They may be offered a place at either of these colleges or, less commonly, at another college entirely. Candidates planning to apply for the Psychology courses are encouraged to visit the relevant page of the Experimental Psychology department website, which provides more information about Psychology admissions, including details about the pre-interview test, selection criteria, and interview procedures.

Further Information
For more information, please consult the website of the Department of Experimental Psychology.

See also the website of the Faculty of Philosophy.

See also: Biomedical Sciences, Philosophy