Course summary

The discipline of experimental psychology involves application of rigorous scientific experimental methods to the study of psychology and its underlying neural processes. In the same way that a physicist might develop theories and test hypotheses about physical systems, experimental psychologists develop and test theories about the processes of human psychology. Experimental Psychology has a long tradition at the University of Manchester. Prof. Samuel Alexander, the late 19 th and early 20 th century philosopher, kick-started the study of psychology in Manchester after visiting experimental psychologists in Germany. This eventually led to the appointment of the first lecturer in experimental psychology in Manchester in 1909 and the establishment of a dedicated psychology department - a rare phenomenon for Britain and, indeed, anywhere outside of London at the time. We primarily use behavioural experimental methods in order to study psychological processes, measuring key metrics such as perceptual biases and thresholds, reaction times, pupil responses and eye-movements. We use these measures to inform, and further develop, models of cognition. Our major research themes include:

• Sensation and perception

• Vision and action

• Memory

• Judgement and Decision making

• Language processing

• Emotion

• Time perception