Facilities

Dedicated laboratories and practical work facilities

Psychology has a suite of purpose-built teaching and research laboratories. The suite is comprised of:

• One large laboratory with 25 computers, together with a scanner and laser printer.
• A large observation/test room with remote controlled digital cameras and microphones connected to a monitoring room. The room has soft chairs and coffee tables to promote a relaxing atmosphere. This room also serves as generic research space. There are a large number of data points and computers can be wheeled into the room for the testing of multiple participants (at least 6).
• A monitor room. This room can be used to monitor activity in the observation/test room but can also act as separate, generic research space. The monitor room has recording equipment and video editing facilities including a DVD burner for storing digital video recordings, or it can serve as space to test participants.
• Three other laboratories are located nearby in the Psychology space. Two of these laboratories have a nominated function, although each is also used as generic research space. One room houses psychophysiological monitoring equipment (Biopac MP100 Advanced system) and neuropsychological test apparatus (CANTAB Eclipse with touch screen tablet PC), and a second room has been designed as a vision/cognitive laboratory and houses our eye-tracker equipment (Eyelink II). All of the laboratories have good light attenuation and an in-use light indication system, and all contain at least two computers.
• New suite of six laboratories, four similar in size to the three laboratories described above, one larger and one smaller. All are equipped with networked Mac/PC hardware, tables and chairs; two have extra-large, wall-mounted monitors suitable for HD video presentation.
• A dedicated Psychology Store room houses the psychometric test bank (for loan; over 200 tests) and other movable equipment.
• The University is currently reviewing a bid from Psychology for dedicated space for postgraduate students.

The Psychology Laboratories are exclusively for the use of psychology students and staff and are staffed by a psychology technician.

Dedicated IT/computing facilities available to support practical work for psychology

All of the networked PCs/Macs run E-Prime, SuperLab and SPSS. There is also a PC and digital recording facility (three moveable digital cameras) available in the monitoring room, which adjoins the observation room. Eight dedicated laptop computers with Eprime and Superlab can be borrowed for fieldwork from the Faculty loans office to support practical work.

Software and statistical packages available

All psychology staff and students have access to various software packages including MS Office, SPSS, Internet Explorer, the University Intranet and Blackboard. SPSS is available for home use. We have a network licence for up to 24 simultaneous users of SuperLab and E-prime, experiment generators for computer-controlled laboratory work. We have access to Adobe Photoshop CS3 Extended for image processing (e.g., for face recognition studies). Cooledit and Presentations software are also available in the psychology labs, and we also provide funds for SurveyMonkey to web-host questionnaire survey materials. To facilitate the running of research projects we have recently begun subscribing to the web-based Sona Systems research participant management application.

Specialist psychology equipment which supports practical work

Including:

• Biopac MP100 Advanced system for the recording and analysis of psychophysiological data including the measurement of EEG, GSR, respiration, blood pressure and heart rate.
• Other portable psychophysiological monitors of blood pressure, GSR, and blood-alcohol concentration.
• A large number of video cameras, digital recording devices, microphones, and a dedicated video editing facility, including a DVD burner for storing digital video recordings.
• CANTAB Eclipse portable neuropsychological test battery, with touchscreen tablet PC, to measure a wide range of neuropsychological functions.
• Binocular head-mounted EyeLink II eyetracker system, with high-speed image processing PCI Board, display PC and host PC.
• An extensive range of psychometric test tools. The faculty provides a fund of £2000 per annum to maintain the currency of the psychometric tools.
• LCD data/video projectors, video presenters, digital camcorders and tripods, PA systems, microphones, minidisk recorders, generic laptops can all be hired for periods of half a day up to several months depending on the piece of equipment.