Aims and Mission
Research in this group examines the mechanisms that allow behaviour
and thoughts to adapt to the environment, and investigates the role
of learning and memory processes in generating such flexible and
adaptive behaviours. These adaptive behaviours allow efficient learning
and processing of information in a wide variety of contexts, across
the age range, and even across species. Although adaptiveness and
flexibility promote psychological well-being, it is sometimes the
case also that there are negative effects that are unfortunate consequences
of otherwise adaptive behaviours, and these psychopathological states
are also a main focus of the groups work.
Background and Membership
The Group, which was established in Swansea in 2003, is led and
co-ordinated by Professor Phil Reed,
Chair in Psychology, and Dr. Louise
McHugh. It comprises a core group of six academic staff, along
with their Research Assistants and Postgraduate Students. The group
serves as a focus to generate new collaborations across the spectrum
of psychological theory concerned with learned behaviour, and has
led to numerous joint publications and grant applications. The group
also provides a critical mass of expertise for the joint supervision
and training of students, and also meets regularly for research
seminars both from internal and external speakers.
In addition to conducting their own research, the individual members
of the group also form a number of coherent interest groups stemming
collaborations based on common interests, and the group serves to
generate often novel approaches to tackle problems in psychology.
These groups focus on: autistic spectrum disorders, basic learning
and memory processes, emotion-based learning, psychopathology, and
relational frame theory.
Over the last academic year, the Group has been successful in securing
research grants on topics covering animal learning, autism, gambling,
language, memory, schizophrenia, and school inclusion, worth £450,000
from organisations including: the Department for Education, the
Economic
and Social Research Council (ESRC), The
British Academy, The
Leverhulme Trust, The
Baily Thomas Charitable Fund, BIAL,
Welsh Office of
Research & Develpment (WORD) and The
Disabilities Trust. Additionally, jointly supervised Ph.D. students
in the Group have been awarded ESRC open-competition studentships,
as well as Overseas Research Studentships. The Group also has established
a postgraduate M.Sc.
in Behaviour Analysis, which is one of the first courses of
its kind to be offered in the U.K., and outside the U.S.A. |
