Category: Early Career Researcher News

The previous two winners of the EPS/British Science Association Undergraduate Project Prize, Lottie Shipp (2023) and Caitlin Naylor (2022), have written blog posts for the BSA to celebrate their work, alongside the talks given at previous EPS meetings.

You can read their blogs here.

We are pleased to announce the winner of the President’s Poster Commendation Prize for the EPS Swansea meeting is Rebecca Norman (University College London, supervised by Jo Taylor and Jenni Rodd)!

Rebecca’s Research Study Poster is entitled ‘Contextual diversity, lexical processing, and word learning: A scoping review’.

Congratulations Rebecca!

We are pleased to announce the winner of the President’s Poster Commendation Prize for the EPS Plymouth 2023 meeting is Anita Twele (Brock University, Canada), supervised by Professor Catherine Mondloch.

Anita’s Research Study Poster is entitled ‘What happens to competence? The second dimension underlying first impressions of older adult faces changes with use of naturalistic vs. controlled images’.

Congratulations Anita!

We are pleased to announce the winner of the President’s Poster Commendation Prize for the 2023 EPS London meeting is David Goldenhaus-Manning (University of Essex), co-supervised by Dr Vanessa Loaiza and Dr Nicholas Cooper.

David’s Research Study Poster is entitled ‘Updating single features in visual working memory’.

Congratulations David!

Lottie Shipp (University of Oxford, supervised by Polly Waite and Emma Černis) has been selected as the winner of the 2023 Experimental Psychology Society / British Science Association Undergraduate Project Prize for best undergraduate research project in experimental psychology!

There were many outstanding submissions brought to the attention of BSA and EPS, congratulations to all nominated projects. Further details of Lottie’s presentation to the EPS will be provided in the near future. 

We are pleased to announce the winner of the President’s Poster Commendation Prize for the EPS Stirling meeting is Isaac Duncan-Cross (University of Manchester)!

Isaac’s Research Study Poster is entitled ‘Investigating the processing of real and prosthetic hands: What can mental rotation tell us?’.

Congratulations Isaac!

We are pleased to announce the winner of the President’s Poster Commendation Prize for the EPS Keele meeting is Ionela Bara (Bangor University, supervised by Richard Ramsey)!

Ionela’s Research Study Poster is entitled ‘How does art knowledge training impact judgments of artworks?’.

Congratulations Ionela!

We are pleased to announce the winner of the President’s Poster Commendation Prize for the EPS Online (January 2022) meeting is Rebecca Crowley (Royal Holloway, University of London, supervised by Jakke Tamminen)!

Rebecca’s Research Study Poster is entitled ‘Forgetting of newly learned words: Fragmented or holistic depending on retrieval practice’.

Congratulations Rebecca!

We are pleased to announce the winner of the President’s Poster Commendation Prize for the EPS Online (July 2021) meeting is Hellen Jing Yuan (Cardiff University, supervised by Christoph Teufel and Krishna Singh)!

Hellen’s Research Study Poster is entitled ‘Early sensory processing of a feature is modulated by the feature’s relevance to high-level object perception’.

Congratulations Hellen!

As a PhD candidate under the supervision of Prof. Antonia Hamilton at UCL, Paul Forbes successfully applied for an EPS Study Visit in April 2017.

This award allowed Paul to visit the Max Planck Institute of Psychiatry in Munich, Germany for three months under the supervision of Dr Leonhard Schilbach, investigating the validation of a non-invasive motion tracking system for use in autism diagnostic interviews.

Paul has told us that he enjoyed his stay in Munich and ‘learned a lot during the placement. It also cemented my decision to go abroad for my postdoc.’

The experience has also led to the publication (on August 12th 2020) of a paper entitled ‘Unobtrusive tracking of interpersonal orienting and distance predicts the subjective quality of social interactions‘, in collaboration with Juha Lahnakoski (a colleague Paul met whilst in Munich), Cade McCall and Leonhard Schilbach.

https://doi.org/10.1098/rsos.191815

Paul is now a postdoctoral researcher in the Social, Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience Unit of the University of Vienna.

We are pleased to announce that we have decided to award two President’s Poster Commendation Prizes presented at the EPS Online meeting!

Ivan Ezquerra-Romano for his Research Plan Poster (University College London, supervised by Patrick Haggard) ‘”Filling out” and “Emptying in” of skin sensations’, and Veronika Hadjipanayi (University of Bristol, supervised by Chris Kent and Casimir Ludwig) for her Research Study Poster, ‘Eye movements during unequal attention splitting in a multiple object tracking task’.

Congratulations to Ivan and Veronika!

Bryony Payne won the EPS Student Poster Prize at the January 2020 EPS Meeting in London. She is currently undertaking her PhD in the VoCoLab at UCL under the supervision of Carolyn McGettigan, exploring whether we can integrate a new voice into our self-concept. She is enjoying all of the new opportunities that come with the PhD: she’s just submitted her first journal paper, is teaching on a Neurolinguistics module, and is looking forward to running her first fMRI study soon.

Why did you become an experimental psychologist?

I actually started in linguistics and have always been interested in how what we say with language, and how we say it through our voice, is connected to our self-identity. I realised I couldn’t fully explore the connections between voice, language, and the self with theory alone, and wanted to use a more scientific and empirical approach. This led me to the field of experimental psychology and an MSc in neuroscience and linguistics. Learning about some of the neurological underpinnings of these concepts was essential before I could ask further questions about how they are all connected. There are so many questions to explore about how the self is expressed through our voice and, conversely, about how our ability to use our voice makes us who we are. I hope to continue investigating these topics as I am with my current PhD, using both behavioural and neurobiological methods.

What advice would you give to people presenting their first poster at an EPS meeting?

Although presenting your research for the first time can feel daunting, EPS provides a really friendly, supportive, and welcoming space. It’s a chance meet likeminded people who are all doing exciting research, and who are really willing and ready to engage in yours. Try to enjoy it; there’s so much to get from it!

How does your poster project fit into your current work or plans for the future?

My poster summarises the three behavioural experiments that I’ve my completed in the first year of my PhD. These studies show that we can come to associate a new voice with our ‘self’ and perceptually prioritise that voice after only very brief exposure. Overall, I am hoping to provide a behavioural and neurobiological investigation of how a new vocal identity can be integrated into the self. So, looking forward, I plan to support the current behavioural data with an fMRI study to show the neural correlates of the self-prioritisation effect we found in voices.

As an early career researcher, what did you get out of the EPS meeting you attended (apart from the prize!)?

The main thing that I got out of the meeting was confidence; a realisation that I can talk to people about my research and really enjoy doing it. It was great to meet lots of new people and put faces to the names of other researchers in my field. Our conversations sparked so many new ideas, interesting questions, and potential future collaborations. It’s really helpful to see how others respond to your research and it exposes you to ways of thinking about the wider topic that you might not previously have thought about.

How do you think the EPS could support you with your career plans or plans for projects in the future?

The EPS provides such a friendly and supportive space to share research and disseminate findings; I hope to attend many more meetings in the future. The travel grants are also a great resource for any early career researcher; they make it far more possible to connect with other researchers further afield and stay up to date with current developments.

Clare Lally won the EPS Student Poster Prize at the July 2019 EPS Meeting in Bournemouth. Clare is currently in her third year and will complete her PhD in December 2020. Alongside this, Clare is working on some analyses and manuscripts from previous projects that she worked on as a research assistant. She has also just accepted a three-month fellowship at the Parliamentary Office of Science and Technology, which will take place in 2020. Good luck Clare!

Why did you become an experimental psychologist?

I’ve always liked problem solving and trying to answer questions in the best way. I originally studied Linguistics & Phonetics at the University of Leeds, and found that my favourite modules were in Psycholinguistics and Language Processing. I had a brilliant lecturer (Dr Cat Davies) who gave me the opportunity to gain experience as a research assistant and encouraged me to apply for a psychology research assistant post with Professor Kathy Rastle. I learnt a lot from Kathy and the lab whilst working as an RA, which set me up well for my PhD. It is from these opportunities and having great people to learn from that I’ve realised that I can have a career in experimental psychology.

What advice would you give to people designing their first poster for an EPS meeting?

Keep it simple! I divided into sections (Background, Method, Results, Conclusions). After I had included all the information, I removed as much as I could so that only the necessary text was left. Try to replace text with figures wherever possible. I prioritise time on visualising the data in the best possible way, as I’ve found that people tend to look at the graphs first. Figures will also be helpful for other talks and manuscripts so it is time well spent.

How does your poster project fit into your current work or plans for the future?

The work featured in my poster was my first experience of pre-registration. I found that pre-registering the work clarified my objective and made presenting the work easy as I had thought carefully about the design and implications of multiple outcomes prior to collecting data. The results of these experiments prompted further questions, so we have opted to extend the series and pre-register follow up experiments. 

As an early career researcher, what did you get out of the EPS meeting you attended (apart from the prize!)?

My favourite thing about EPS meetings is how friendly the community is, and I gained a lot from discussing my work with other researchers in the field. It has been great to hear about the work that other labs are doing and makes me excited for opportunities after I have completed my PhD. The EPS Bournemouth meeting had a fantastic range of talks in my area of research (reading), and Professor Dorothy Bishop’s Bartlett lecture and accompanying symposium on improving research gave me lots to think about.

How do you think the EPS could support you with your career plans or plans for projects in the future?

I think that EPS is fantastic at supporting early career researchers. I have been lucky to attend many meetings, as registration is free. Applying for Grindley Grants has also made travelling much more affordable, which I am really grateful for. The findings that I presented at EPS have led to more interesting questions, so I would also consider applying for a small grant to do some follow-up work at the end of my PhD.

Abbie Millett won the EPS Student Poster Prize at the April 2019 EPS Meeting in Manchester. Abbie sat her VIVA on in July and passed with minor corrections at the University of Essex. Not having quite finished her corrections yet, Abbie has until the 8th November to finish them and is currently on the last few / proof reading. We wish you luck Abbie! As well as this, Abbie is working as a lecturer in Psychology at the University of Suffolk.

Why did you become an experimental psychologist?

Throughout my time in higher education I was exposed to a number of inspirational experimental psychologists. These figures demonstrated to me what is it like to be a researcher, both in terms of the good aspects of the role, as well as the bad. I was also fortunate to be supervised by two of these figures within my BSc dissertation and my MSc dissertation. As a result, I decided that continuing my own research, especially as I still had, and still have, a number of unanswered questions, was the next step for me. Consequently, I went on to complete my PhD, and am now a lecturer and am very much looking forward to continuing to answer the questions that I have yet to experiment on.

What advice would you give to people presenting their first poster at an EPS meeting?

I would say to not be afraid to ask questions to anyone at the meeting, to mix as much as possible, and speak to others in your field as well as those that only loosely relate to your work. One of the greatest things about the EPS meetings is that there are a number of different experimental psychologists in one room. As a result, you are to able discuss your work with someone who is focused on something completely different to you, and will therefore have a completely different angle of interpretation. They may even offer a new idea or fresh concept for that interesting finding that you would not have been able to think of whilst embedded in the literature of your field.

How does your poster project fit into your current work or plans for the future?

The poster I presented at the Manchester meeting in April 2019 was the preliminary findings for my PhD thesis, which criticised the spontaneous perspective taking theory. I have since developed an alternative account of this theory, within the narrative of my PhD thesis. The next step in this line of research is for my alternative account to be assessed in terms of the different methodological paradigms and theoretical disputes of perspective taking.

As an early career researcher, what did you get out of the EPS meeting you attended (apart from the prize!)?

Attending the EPS meeting was invaluable in terms of developing my confidence as a researcher and giving me the chance to present my work. It was also a great opportunity to discuss my work with others in different research areas, as well as instigating new ideas whilst listening to others presenting at the meeting.

How do you think the EPS could support you with your career plans or plans for projects in the future?

The EPS could support me by allowing me to present my next set of experiments at a future meeting, once I have finished data collection. I will also be applying for an EPS Small Grant to continue the research project mentioned above. This grant will aid in the payment of participants as well as to obtain the necessary software to continue to run the experiments within my new post in my new institution.

Kerri Bailey won the EPS Student Poster Prize at the January 2019 EPS Meeting in London. Kerri is currently writing her thesis and plans to submit around Christmas 2019, with a view of a viva early in 2020. As of 1st October 2019, Kerri has taken up a temporary Research Associate position at the University of East Anglia until the end of December 2019. We wish you the best of luck for the both of these endeavours!

Why did you become an experimental psychologist?
When I completed my undergraduate degree, I realised that I wanted to continue in academia because I was very passionate about conducting research and I really enjoyed learning about the function of the human brain. I realised that this was not possible without continuing down the route of Masters and PhD, because nearly all other options for me involved going in to industry, which I did not want to do.

What did you enjoy about presenting your poster?
I enjoyed the interactions I had with the people who attended my poster for a number of reasons. First, I had read a very relevant paper surrounding my topic only about one week prior to attending this conference, and I was very pleased to find out that the first author of this paper came to my poster. We had a very interesting discussion about my work and the networking side of this poster session was particularly beneficial for me. Second, I included a part of my analysis that I was stuck with on my poster. I explained the problem to people who came up to my poster and I had one person offer some very useful ideas for how I could overcome this problem. Therefore, I enjoyed the session both for the contacts I gained and for the advice I was given regarding how to overcome an analysis problem which I had not previously thought of.

How does your poster project fit into your current work or plans for the future?
The work I was presenting on my poster was part of my PhD project. I am extremely passionate about the area I study and I wish to continue in a similar area in a post-doctoral position once I have submitted my PhD. Therefore, it is very relevant for my future plans.

As an early career researcher, what did you get out of the EPS meeting you attended (apart from the prize!)?
Networking was the main benefit for me at this meeting, which happened during the poster session. I met some extremely relevant people in my field of study and gained contacts through this. Also, by attending this meeting, I was happy to realise that EPS could offer me additional funding for an external conference. Therefore, I was able to attend another conference and present a follow up to the work I presented at EPS, which I would not have been able to do had EPS not had this grant scheme in place.

How do you think the EPS could support you with your career plans or plans for projects in the future?
I think any grants which the EPS can offer would help me profusely, as I am in the final stages of my PhD and am about to start applying for post-doctoral positions. Depending on where I end up next, the Small Grants offered by EPS may be beneficial for me if I have a research idea which needs funding. I also plan to attend more EPS conferences in the future, therefore receiving a Grindley Grant would help me with my attendance to this. I am also very interested in the Study Visit Grants that EPS offer, as this could be very helpful for me to develop my skill set at another research institution and gain contacts who I could potentially work with after the study visit.