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Department of Psychology

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This list is intended to include all talks and seminars taking place in the Department of Psychology and certain related institutions.
Updated: 28 min 41 sec ago

Tue 22 Oct 16:00: The effects of Sure Start on a variety of health and education outcomes. In-person: Ground Floor Seminar Room, Old Cavendish Building, Free School Lane / Teams Meeting ID: 328 490 483 929, Passcode: CfLg6w

Thu, 03/10/2024 - 12:04
The effects of Sure Start on a variety of health and education outcomes.

Abstract to follow

In-person: Ground Floor Seminar Room, Old Cavendish Building, Free School Lane / Teams Meeting ID: 328 490 483 929, Passcode: CfLg6w

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Tue 06 May 16:00: Title to be confirmed In-person: Ground Floor Seminar Room, Old Cavendish Building, Free School Lane / Teams Meeting ID: 336 446 191 696, Passcode: QHt4pm

Thu, 03/10/2024 - 12:00
Title to be confirmed

Abstract to follow

In-person: Ground Floor Seminar Room, Old Cavendish Building, Free School Lane / Teams Meeting ID: 336 446 191 696, Passcode: QHt4pm

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Tue 22 Oct 16:00: The effects of Sure Start on a variety of health and education outcomes. In-person: Ground Floor Seminar Room, Old Cavendish Building, Free School Lane / Teams Meeting ID: 328 490 483 929, Passcode: CfLg6w

Wed, 02/10/2024 - 14:15
The effects of Sure Start on a variety of health and education outcomes.

Abstract to follow

In-person: Ground Floor Seminar Room, Old Cavendish Building, Free School Lane / Teams Meeting ID: 328 490 483 929, Passcode: CfLg6w

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Tue 17 Jun 16:00: Title to be confirmed In-person: Ground Floor Seminar Room, Old Cavendish Building, Free School Lane / Teams Meeting ID: 392 526 165 43, Passcode: vJzH5k

Wed, 02/10/2024 - 14:14
Title to be confirmed

Abstract to follow

In-person: Ground Floor Seminar Room, Old Cavendish Building, Free School Lane / Teams Meeting ID: 392 526 165 43, Passcode: vJzH5k

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Fri 06 Dec 16:30: Cognitive deficits after COVID-19 – insights from large scale online studies The host for this talk is Tristan Bekinschtein

Mon, 30/09/2024 - 14:14
Cognitive deficits after COVID-19 – insights from large scale online studies

Abstract not available

The host for this talk is Tristan Bekinschtein

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Fri 22 Nov 16:30: Deconstruction of the social brain The host for this talk is Richard Bethlehem

Mon, 30/09/2024 - 14:12
Deconstruction of the social brain

Abstract not available

The host for this talk is Richard Bethlehem

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Fri 01 Nov 16:30: The Atomic Human The host for this talk is Nicky Clayton

Mon, 30/09/2024 - 14:03
The Atomic Human

A vital perspective is missing from the discussions we’re having about Artificial Intelligence: what does it mean for our identity?

Our fascination with AI stems from the perceived uniqueness of human intelligence. We believe it’s what differentiates us. Fears of AI not only concern how it invades our digital lives, but also the implied threat of an intelligence that displaces us from our position at the centre of the world.

Atomism, proposed by Democritus, suggested it was impossible to continue dividing matter down into ever smaller components: eventually we reach a point where a cut cannot be made (the Greek for uncuttable is ‘atom’). In the same way, by slicing away at the facets of human intelligence that can be replaced by machines, AI uncovers what is left: an indivisible core that is the essence of humanity.

By contrasting our own (evolved, locked-in, embodied) intelligence with the capabilities of machine intelligence through history, The Atomic Human reveals the technical origins, capabilities and limitations of AI systems, and how they should be wielded. Not just by the experts, but ordinary people. Either AI is a tool for us, or we become a tool of AI. Understanding this will enable us to choose the future we want.

The talk is based on Neil’s book, The Atomic Human, published by Allen Lane.

The host for this talk is Nicky Clayton

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Fri 11 Oct 16:30: Visual Perspective Biases Autobiographical Remembering The host for this talk is Deborah Talmi

Mon, 30/09/2024 - 14:00
Visual Perspective Biases Autobiographical Remembering

Autobiographical memories are not veridical records of the personal past but instead can be retrieved in novel ways from how the past occurred, such as when people adopt alternative visual perspectives. People report that they can retrieve events from one of two perspectives: 1) an own eyes perspective, from the same viewpoint where the event was initially experienced, and 2) an observer-like perspective, where one might “see” themselves in the remembered event. In this talk, I will discuss how the flexible ability to shift perspective in autobiographical memories biases how people remember. First, I will describe evidence about how that visual perspective alters subjective and objective characteristics of autobiographical memories and contributes to inconsistencies in narratives of the personal past. Then, I will present fMRI evidence demonstrating the contribution of posterior parietal cortices in remembering autobiographical memories from alternative perspectives. Finally, I will end with a discussion of whether all individuals are able to adopt multiple viewpoints, and the potential implications on how shifts in visual perspective influence memory. Together these findings reveal how our subjective point-of-view biases the way that we remember the personal past.

The host for this talk is Deborah Talmi

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Fri 25 Oct 16:30: Tales of Traumatic Stress in High-Risk Populations in the Global South: From Epidemiological to Genomic and Epigenomic Insights The host for this talk is Larysa Zasiekina

Mon, 30/09/2024 - 13:59
Tales of Traumatic Stress in High-Risk Populations in the Global South: From Epidemiological to Genomic and Epigenomic Insights

Posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is the quintessential disorder following high-violence exposure in low-resource contexts where timely diagnosis and equitable access to evidence-based treatments are often lacking. While its genesis is multifactorial, its presentation complex, and often layered by concurrent mental and physical health conditions, much progress has been made in identifying many of the underlying bio-behavioural and environmental mechanisms, and the influence of cultural factors, in conferring relative risk or resilience, and in developing and

maintaining PTSD . However, the vast majority of molecular and bio-mechanistic studies in PTSD have been undertaken in high-income countries, as well as outside the African continent, thus the current knowledge-base is far from being reflective of the global burden of the disorder. This presentation, with a focus on South Africa, will elucidate the epidemiology of trauma and the impact of childhood trauma in particular, in various high-risk samples, and the array of biological markers that have been identified and implicated in aberrant stress response processes in PTSD including genotypic, epigenetic, transcriptomic, endocrinological and immune markers, as well as sex-based contributors. I will argue that studies from diverse low-and middle-income country populations can contribute important epidemiological and biological insights.

The host for this talk is Larysa Zasiekina

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Fri 18 Oct 16:30: Large-scale integration of perceptual and predictive information is encoded by non-oscillatory neural dynamics. The host for this talk is Jeff Dalley

Mon, 30/09/2024 - 13:56
Large-scale integration of perceptual and predictive information is encoded by non-oscillatory neural dynamics.

The brain is characterized by extensive recurrent connectivity within and between areas. This recurrent connectivity enables various patterns of arrhythmic (non-oscillatory) and rhythmic (oscillatory) neural activity that are temporally coordinated between regions. What role do these distinct dynamics play in the large-scale integration of perceptual and predictive information? In this talk, I will discuss how information theory combined with EEG , ECoG, and computational modelling can help us uncover large-scale neural patterns of non-oscillatory activity during perception and prediction. In the first series of studies, I will show how non-oscillatory rather than oscillatory dynamics encode perceptual and predictive information across sensory modalities in different species. In the second part, I will discuss how non-oscillatory dynamics encode synergistic (complementary) rather than redundant (common) information between brain areas during visual and auditory predictive processing. These empirical and theoretical observations will provide new insights into the functional role of non-oscillatory dynamics during the large-scale integration of perceptual and predictive information.

The host for this talk is Jeff Dalley

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Thu 07 Nov 14:00: Talk title tbc

Tue, 24/09/2024 - 09:04
Talk title tbc

Abstract not available

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