Research

Dynamics of Youth

Development of perceptual and social-affective competences (e.g., face recognition, facial-expression recognition) have been central topics over the last few years, witness by now some tens of (recent) publications from Experimental Psychology. Furthermore, there is a clear thematical link with the “regulating behavior” theme of the YOUth cohort, see below.

Institutions

Several recent publications have emerged from the Institutions-based cooperation between Experimental Psychology and the Sociology department, focusing on the neuroscience of social interactions.

Applied Data Science

Experimental Psychology already has substantial cooperation here, including financial support (see below for further remarks).

In addition to the experimental-psychology perspective, and equally important, there is the perspective of Neuropsychology, which is embodied in continuous dedicated efforts (also in terms of faculty) with respect to patient-related research in strong and steady collaboration with the UMCU Neurology & Neurosurgery department. This perspective combines naturally with the two major topics, ranging from impairments in sensory systems to peri-personal space and affective touch. Furthermore, the standing cooperation with the UMC Brain Centre (including Neurology & Neurosurgery) supports a prestigious research master (Neuroscience & Cognition), which is of vital importance as both an outlet for Psychology (and AI, see below) bachelor students, and an incubator for young research talent with relevant expertise and skills. Cooperation with UMC Brain Centre also pertains to (child) Psychiatry, which has an important role in harboring and coordinating “Kinderkenniscentrum II”, in which the YOUth cohort is party embedded.

The three overarching research themes within the department have been described in the self-assessment in behalf of the national research evaluation 2018. Briefly, these three themes concern Perception, Social mechanisms, and Behavioral regulation. The first two have evident mappings on the major EP themes. The third one can be easily linked to EP’s commitment to YOUth Regulating behavior. More generally, EP research into perception and social-affective mechanisms in many cases involves the role of regulating processes in perception and social-affective behavior: attention, prior experience (learning, memory), impulse control, emotion regulation, etc.

This school harbors the KNAW-certified PhD training program Cognition & Behavior, with students from EP as well as Social (Health and Organizational) Psychology, and affiliated members form Clinical Psychology, VU Movement Sciences, and EU Neuroscience. The major research lines within Helmholtz are Perception, Social & Affective Neuroscience, Development, and Regulating Processes, which map perfectly on the EP themes. Especially with respect to the requirements of its Education and Supervision Agreement (as certified by the UU FSBS graduate school, including PhD courses, Seminars and Retreats, Helmholtz lectures), Helmholtz maintains a tight collaboration with EPOS, the graduate network for Experimental-Psychology PhD students from Amsterdam (VU, UvA) and Leiden. Further current reach-out activities concern TU Eindhoven and i3B (alliance of companies and academic partners in relation to measuring and regulating brain, body & behavior).

• Currently EP also harbors chairs with more particular topics, e.g., Higher Education, Psychopharmacology, Cognitive Neurobiology. The question of continuation of these topics may become urgent when current chair holders retire, and should be approached from the perspectives as outlined above.
• New perspectives have recently been translated into university focus areas, most notably in relation to Applied Data Science (ADS) and Artificial Intelligence (AI). These university-focus perspectives combine very well with central EP topics in relation to especially Perception, YOUth cohort (big data!), and Institutions. In addition, AI is already a prominent aspect within the total teaching assignment of EP. We expect that both research and teaching with respect to ADS and AI will be promoted based on department-external funding, regarding both personnel and facilities.
• In addition to the Neuropsychology perspective, EP also harbors unique methodology expertise and facilities in relation to (ultra-high field, UHF) MRI, EEG, Neurostimulation, eye-tracking and psychophysics, a standard which should be maintained by all means. In particular the UHF-MRI facility and expertise is almost unique on a world scale, and its applications in Perception research has yielded publications in Science and other high-impact journals. This expertise concerns a joint enterprise between EP and UMC Radiology. Furthermore, normal-field MRI, EEG, and eye-tracking are central methods within the YOUth cohort.