Psychology
Centre for Situated Action and Communication
The Centre has at its core a commitment to studying psychological phenomena in relation to the contexts and situations in which they emerge. Its work covers a multitude of areas – such as developmental psychology, animal behaviour, understanding of object functions, autism and psycholinguistics. It also covers a multitude of methods – such as naturalistic observations, experiments, conversation analysis, cross-cultural studies, longitudinal studies and so on.
Our focus on situation and context takes the body and the social and material world in which we live as fundamental to all Psychology. Many of our studies focus on the processes through which animate beings are not only influenced by, but actually shape their immediate worlds. In this vein, ‘things’ in the world – often seen as physical objects – are often deeply social as well.
International Network: TESIS- Towards an Embodied Science of Intersubjectivity (2011-2015)
The centre is part of a Marie-Curie ITN (Initial Training Network) involving Centres at the Universities of Copenhagen, Heidelberg, Munich, Parma, San Sebastian, Hertfordshire, Chieti, and the partnership of LEGO, Interactive-Academie and Springer (www.tesis-itn.eu)
Research Themes
The Transparency of Mind in Action. (Psychology, Sports Science, Robotics, Philosophy)
Members: Professor A. Costall, Professor V. Reddy, Dr. P. Morris (Psych); Dr. E. Kadar (Psych., Robotics), Dr. M. Dicks (DSES), Dr. C. Becchio (Psych, Ext), Professor Corrado Sinigaglia (Philos, Ext)
Programmes: Fake Injuries in Football (Morris), Gaze and Steering (Kadar), Sniffing robots (Kadar), The kinematics of Giving (Reddy, Morris, Becchio, Sinigaglia, Ferrara), Gaze, non-verbal cues and expectancies in football (Dicks), Perceiving deceptive intentions (Costall); Perceiving intentions in infancy and in Autism (Lopez, Ambriosini, Reddy, Sinigaglia, Costantini); Philosophy of mind (Costall). Click here to see a research example.
Nonverbal Intersubjective Engagements. (Psychology, Atypical Development, Animal Behaviour)
Members: Professor Vasu Reddy, Dr. Beatriz Lopez, Dr. Juliane Kaminski, Ms. C. Costantini, Ms. V. Fantasia, Mr. N. Kargas (Psych); Dr. J. Delafield-Butt (Psych, Ext), Dr. H. de Jaegher (Cognitive Science, Ext)
Programmes: Attentional and intentional engagements in infants (Reddy, Costantini, Fantasia, Delafield-Butt) and in Adults (Reddy, de Jaegher) and in Dogs (Kaminski); Sensory and Interactive skills in Autism (Lopez, Kargas); Attentional awareness in Dogs (Kaminski). Click here to see a research example.
Culture and Communication (Psychology, Psycholinguistics, Architecture, Geography, Health, Anthropology)
Members: Dr. J. Zinken (Psych, Psycholinguistics) with Dr. M. Saraceni (SLAS), Dr. A. Fasulo (Psych) with Teeling (Architecture), Inkpen and Woodyear (Geography) and Drahota (SSHSW); Dr. J. Kaminski, Prof. V. Reddy (Psychology) with Dr. K. Liebal (External, Evolutionary Anthropology).
Programmes: Community resilience across the UK (Fasulo, Inkpen, Teeling); Isolation and support in old age (Fasulo, Drahota, Teeling); Cross-cultural developmental studies in social cognition (Kaminski, Reddy, Liebal); Household conflict (Zinken). Click here to see a research example.
Materiality and Mind (Psychology, Education, Informatics, Socio-economics, Health, Language Studies)
Members: Professor A. Costall, Dr. M. Haydon-Laurelot, Dr. S. Sonnenberg, Ms. N. Rossmanith (Psych) Dr. J. Udell, Dr. A. Drahota (SSHSW), Professor C. Rodriguez (Education, Ext), Dr. E. de Paolo (Cognitive Science, Ext); Dr. M. Chase (Psych, Ext), Dr. R. Piazza (Language Studies, Ext)
Programmes: Motor learning and cybernetics (Costall, Kadar), Community mental health (Costall, Chase); Sensory environments, the Elderly (Drahota, Udell, Costall); The intentionality of objects (Costall, Rodriguez, Rossmanith), Discourse and Identity (Fasulo, Piazza). Click here to see a research example.
Assessing mutable objects: multimodal analysis
Fasulo, Alessandra and Monzoni, C. (2009) Assessing mutable objects: multimodal analysis. Research on Language & Social Interaction, 42 (4). pp. 362-376. ISSN 0835-1813 10.1080/08351810903296481
