THE COMPUTATIONAL COGNITIVE NEUROSCIENCE OF SCENE RECOGNITION (PENNYW_U23PSY)

Why is it you remember some places you’ve been but not others? Why do some aspects of these memories persist longer than others? e.g. identities of people/objects in a scene rather than their relative locations. How are these processes affected as we age or dement? This PhD project will take a Computational Cognitive Neuroscience [1] perspective on these questions. Our research team (Penny – Computational Modelling, Malcolm – Scene Processing, Renoult – Recognition Memory) are building a computational model of recognition memory for visual scenes (based on [2] and [3]). You will use it to identify the computational processes underlying people’s memories, using behavioural data from [4]. We will then map brain activity, using high-resolution fMRI data from [4],  onto these computational processes. Follow-up behavioural and brain imaging experiments will be designed by yourself in collaboration with the research team. 

When applying for this project, please select that you are applying with your own research proposal, selecting Psychology as the subject area and including the project title within the 'Research Title and Summary' section of the application. If you have any questions about the application process, please email us.