Local schools and colleges experience cutting-edge research at the University of Central Lancashire.
Postgraduate students from the Perception, Cognition and Neuroscience group in Psychology (PCN), led by Rohanna Sells and Petar Atanasov, recently engaged with the Nuffield Foundation Research Placement Scheme and the In2Science Scheme to host students from local schools and sixth form colleges to give them an opportunity to gain experimental psychology experience in university laboratories.
Under Rohanna’s and Petar’s oversight, the graduate students set up a two-week activity schedule in the experimental laboratories for the visitors. The activities were high quality and scientifically meaningful. During the activities, the visitors were very vocal about how interesting they had been and how much they had enjoyed the experience.
"I learnt so many new skills, ranging from giving presentations, to learning about statistical programmes, to even getting a chance to use some hi-tech eye tracking equipment. By the end of the placement, I was upset that such an amazing time had ended. "
— Arhama Farhan
Attending student Khadija David noted: “I was warmly welcomed from the first day by hosts Petar and Rohanna who explained in detail who they were and what we expected to get done in the coming two weeks. I am very grateful to have taken part in cutting-edge research conducted by Christene Green and Sarah Holtshousen who were extremely helpful when providing guidance for writing the required academic report on the topic of their experiments. I would also like to thank Prof. Simon Liversedge for his guidance in presentation (of our academic posters) and Ying Fu for allowing us to witness her presentation on Chinese reading. All in all I would like to thank all our hosts at the University for looking after us so well.”
Arhama Farhan added: “From the very beginning until the very end, the PCN’s group hospitality was immaculate, and they were extremely kind. They introduced us to various other PhD students and their research projects, whilst also getting a chance to get involved within them! Before I had started the placement, I had a few doubts about it as previous experiences I have had were just of myself passively observing and not learning anything new by the end of the placements.
"We were delighted to be able to offer our visiting sixth form and college students the opportunity to spend time working in the experimental laboratories here in PCN at the University. "
— Professor Simon Liversedge
Arhama continued: "However, with the help of the University of Central Lancashire, I was pleasantly surprised. I learnt so many new skills, ranging from giving presentations, to learning about statistical programmes, to getting a chance to use some hi-tech eye tracking equipment. By the end of the placement, I was upset that such an amazing time had ended, but I'd do it all over again if I had the chance. This placement further reinforced my desire to do psychology during university, yet also opened my eyes to the different parts of psychology. For example, I have always fixated on specialising in clinical psychology, but after this placement, I have started considering doing research in psychology instead.”
Professor Simon Liversedge who oversaw the project commented: “We were delighted to be able to offer our visiting sixth form and college students the opportunity to spend time working in the experimental laboratories here in PCN at the University. I’m pretty sure that they enjoyed themselves and they learnt a lot about what is involved in research in Psychology. We hope that we will be able to offer similar opportunities for those interested in the future.”