Applications now open for a funded PhD with Dr Chris McCusker.

Measuring individual change – allowing the person to take centre stage by Emma Hurley and Dr Raegan Murphy

Traditionally, psychology has tended to find a voice as a science by providing findings from large-scale studies. Psychology as a therapeutic discipline, instead, has tended to find its voice by informing us of the lived experiences of individuals. A PhD study in the School of Applied Psychology has merged the need for robust data to underpin the measured changes experienced by individuals (one person) over time. How do we stand over measures of an individual in the same way that we would measure many individuals on aggregate? Normally, statistical techniques are used to assist in inferring findings from large-scale sample studies to the larger population from which they originate. In addition, statistical techniques provide measures which account for chance factors in research design. How can N=1 samples provide us with robust data in the same way that N=1000 samples can? Emma Hurley has investigated this very question in her PhD research under the supervision of Dr Raegan Murphy. Her PhD is embedded within the broader area of dynamic assessment

Dr Jason Chan and Dr Annalisa Setti talk about their research on Multisensory Perception in older adults.

Involving children with congenital heart disease, epilepsy, brain injury and cancer, our work has elucidated behavioural and neurodevelopmental phenotypes associated with such diseases. It has highlighted an often greater role for family functioning in determining outcomes for children than disease factors and severity.

We live in a multisensory world.  Every day, we are constantly combining information from our different sensory organs to form a coherent experience

The aim of this project is to define and measure the characteristics of our outdoor lived environment which can support cognitive healthy ageing.

We are investigating how perceptual temporal efficiency can be improved in older adults using multisensory integration.

The Jury of the 2019-2020 BMP Grant had the task of judging the projects submitted. This task was made difficult by the overall high quality of the proposals, which all focused on the interests of patients. Three projects promised the most benefits for individual patients and were, in the view of our experienced jury members, the most patient-driven, patient-centered and scientifically robust projects. Vasilis S. Vasiliou, a post-doctoral researcher at the School of Applied Psychology, UCC won one of the three grants, awarded in collaboration with Chronic Pain Ireland (CPI).