We live in a world where proven facts and verifiable data are freely and widely available. Why, then, are so many self-confident ignoramuses believed? Why are thoughtful experts so often dismissed? And why do seemingly irrelevant details such as a person’s height, relative wealth, or Facebook photo influence whether or not we trust what they are saying? In this talk I will discuss why people so often attend to characteristics of the messenger, rather than the content of the message, when deciding whom to listen to. In particular, I will show how the perceived status of a messenger, and the level of connectedness others feel towards them, influence how persuasive their messages will be.

Joseph Marks, MSc., is an experimental psychologist and co-author of the book Messengers: Who We Listen To, Who We Don’t, And Why (with Stephen Martin). He is currently a doctoral researcher at University College London, a visiting researcher at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and an Associate Consultant for INFLUENCE AT WORK (UK). His work has featured in The New York Times, Guardian, and the Harvard Business Review. Joseph holds an undergraduate degree in psychology from the University of Birmingham and a Master’s degree in Social Cognition from University College London. His research with INFLUENCE AT WORK has been applied across a variety of business and public policy settings, including financial regulation, healthcare, and public transport.

• Speaker: Joseph Marks
• Wednesday 27 November 2019, 15:00-16:00
• Venue: Nick Mackintosch Room, Department of Psychology, Downing Site.
• Series: Social Psychology Seminar Series (SPSS); organiser: Melisa B.

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Differences between the brains of women and men are often taken as evidence that human brains belong to two types (“female” and “male” brains) or aligned along a male-female continuum (e.g., the extreme male brain theory of autism). Yet, animal studies reveal that sex effects on the brain are exerted by genetic, hormonal and environmental factors that act via multiple independent mechanisms, and are modulated by internal and external conditions. These observations led to the hypothesis that sex effects do not add-up consistently, but rather ‘mix-up’ within each brain to create unique ‘mosaics’ of female-typical and male-typical features. Analysis of magnetic resonance images of human brains and of post-mortem measures of human hypothalamus supported the mosaic hypothesis. A recent analysis of the structure of over 2,100 brains revealed that the brain “types” typical of women are also typical of men, and vice versa, and that large sex/gender differences are found only in the frequency of some rare brain types. This new multi-dimensional description of human brains has implications for scientific efforts to study sex and the brain as well as for social debates on long-standing issues such as the desirability of single-sex education and the meaning of sex/gender as a social category.

Short bio: Daphna Joel is a professor of psychology and neuroscience at Tel-Aviv University. For many years she had studied the involvement of basal ganglia-thalamocortical circuits in normal and abnormal behavior. More recently, Prof. Joel has combined her expertise as a neuroscientist with her interest in gender studies and expanded her work to research questions related to brain, sex and gender. In her research, she uses a wide range of methods to analyze diverse datasets, from large collections of brain scans to information obtained with self-report questionnaires.

• Speaker: Professor Daphna Joel, School of Psychological Sciences and Sagol School of Neuroscience, Tel Aviv University, Israel
• Friday 11 October 2019, 00:00-00:00
• Venue: Ground Floor Lecture Theatre, Department of Psychology.
• Series: Zangwill Club; organiser: Louise White.

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• Speaker: Professor Daphna Joel, School of Psychological Sciences and Sagol School of Neuroscience, Tel Aviv University, Israel
• Friday 11 October 2019, 00:00-00:00
• Venue: Ground Floor Lecture Theatre, Department of Psychology.
• Series: Zangwill Club; organiser: Louise White.

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• Speaker: Speaker to be confirmed
• Friday 06 December 2019, 00:00-00:00
• Venue: Ground Floor Lecture Theatre, Department of Psychology.
• Series: Zangwill Club; organiser: Louise White.

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• Speaker: Speaker to be confirmed
• Friday 29 November 2019, 00:00-00:00
• Venue: Ground Floor Lecture Theatre, Department of Psychology.
• Series: Zangwill Club; organiser: Louise White.

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• Speaker: Speaker to be confirmed
• Friday 22 November 2019, 00:00-00:00
• Venue: Ground Floor Lecture Theatre, Department of Psychology.
• Series: Zangwill Club; organiser: Louise White.

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• Speaker: Speaker to be confirmed
• Friday 15 November 2019, 00:00-00:00
• Venue: Ground Floor Lecture Theatre, Department of Psychology.
• Series: Zangwill Club; organiser: Louise White.

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• Speaker: Speaker to be confirmed
• Friday 08 November 2019, 00:00-00:00
• Venue: Ground Floor Lecture Theatre, Department of Psychology.
• Series: Zangwill Club; organiser: Louise White.

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• Speaker: Speaker to be confirmed
• Friday 01 November 2019, 00:00-00:00
• Venue: Ground Floor Lecture Theatre, Department of Psychology.
• Series: Zangwill Club; organiser: Louise White.

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• Speaker: Speaker to be confirmed
• Friday 25 October 2019, 00:00-00:00
• Venue: Ground Floor Lecture Theatre, Department of Psychology.
• Series: Zangwill Club; organiser: Louise White.

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• Speaker: Speaker to be confirmed
• Friday 18 October 2019, 00:00-00:00
• Venue: Ground Floor Lecture Theatre, Department of Psychology.
• Series: Zangwill Club; organiser: Louise White.

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Publishing in the best journals has never been easy, but many scholars – especially young scholars – feel that expectations for what constitutes good research are shifting and unclear, and that barriers to publication have never been higher. Drawing on my experience as editor of several different journals, including JPSP , I will share my perspective on factors that characterize successful submissions to top journals, and what you can do in the current climate to improve your chances of success. The continued dominance of North American authors in many of our top journals will also be considered, along with why this needs to change and how we might go about changing it.

Lynne Cooper is Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Personality & Social Psychology: Personality Processes & Individual Differences, Curators’ Distinguished Professor at the University of Missouri, and former President of SPSP (Society for Personality & Social Psychology, 2017-2019). With more than 20+ years of editorial experience, she will share her insights about publishing in top journals.

• Speaker: Dr Lynne Cooper
• Monday 15 July 2019, 15:00-13:00
• Venue: Nick Mackintosch Room, Department of Psychology, Downing Site.
• Series: Social Psychology Seminar Series (SPSS); organiser: Melisa B.

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Publishing in the best journals has never been easy, but many scholars – especially young scholars – feel that expectations for what constitutes good research are shifting and unclear, and that barriers to publication have never been higher. Drawing on my experience as editor of several different journals, including JPSP , I will share my perspective on factors that characterize successful submissions to top journals, and what you can do in the current climate to improve your chances of success. The continued dominance of North American authors in many of our top journals will also be considered, along with why this needs to change and how we might go about changing it.

Lynne Cooper is Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Personality & Social Psychology: Personality Processes & Individual Differences, Curators’ Distinguished Professor at the University of Missouri, and former President of SPSP (Society for Personality & Social Psychology, 2017-2019). With more than 20+ years of editorial experience, she will share her insights about publishing in top journals.

• Speaker: Lynne Cooper
• Monday 15 July 2019, 15:00-16:00
• Venue: Nick Mackintosch Room, Department of Psychology, Downing Site.
• Series: Social Psychology Seminar Series (SPSS); organiser: Elisa Militaru.

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My research vision is to enable expert and non-experts to successfully make sense of complex world problems. As a Human-Computer Interaction researcher, I iteratively focus on studying how sensemaking is performed to identify challenges in collaborative data analytics, design tools using computational techniques that overcome these challenges and evaluate my designs using human participants to inform subsequent designs. Solving crimes correctly is one such critical and life-altering problem. National Registry at the University of Michigan points out that almost 175 wrongfully incriminated folks were exonerated after having spent a non-trivial amount of their life in prison for crimes they did not commit in 2016 alone. This is 4X the number 10 years ago and continues an upward trend. During my work, I have discovered that sharing information socially, succumbing to cognitive biases, and lack of support afforded by changing interaction paradigms as key challenges in collaborative data analytics. Subsequently, I have iteratively developed multiple tools, including SAVANT REFLECTIVA , CROWDS4ANALYTICS, TEMPORA , and RAMPARTS to overcome these challenges. My approach establishes a research framework for creating rich collaborative data analytic systems by: (1) utilizing human generated analytic artifacts to inform and design the interactions (2) leveraging “off-the-shelf” natural language processing, sensors and crowds creatively to design intelligent data analytic tools, and (3) evaluating the effect of these designs in controlled settings to identify the cost vs. benefit of each design decision.

Tesh (Nitesh) Goyal is a researcher at Google, where his collaborative sensemaking research has been used in Google Maps and Web experiences. Tesh’s research develops design approaches to build novel data analytics tools that enhance information sharing, reduce biases using visualizations, minimize distractions using physiological data, and support collaborative problem-solving with crowds. His research has also contributed to the theory of Sensemaking by inventing Sensemaking Translucence as a design metaphor for a mirror that enables self-reflection. He received his MSc in Computer Science from University of California, Berkeley and RWTH Aachen under Prof. John Canny’s advice, prior to receiving his PhD from Cornell University in Information Science where he was advised by Prof. Susan R. Fussell. His research has been supported by German Govt. Fellowship, National Science Foundation, and MacArthur Genius Grant. Frequently collaborating with industry (Google Research, Yahoo Labs, HP Labs, Bloomberg Labs), he has published 10 first-author papers in top-tier HCI conferences and journals (CHI, CSCW , JASIST, ICTD , ICIC and Ubicomp/IMWUT) and has received two best paper honorable nomination awards.

• Speaker: Dr Tesh Goyal
• Thursday 11 July 2019, 12:00-13:00
• Venue: Nick Mackintosch Room, Department of Psychology, Downing Site.
• Series: Social Psychology Seminar Series (SPSS); organiser: Melisa B.

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My research vision is to enable expert and non-experts to successfully make sense of complex world problems. As a Human-Computer Interaction researcher, I iteratively focus on studying how sensemaking is performed to identify challenges in collaborative data analytics, design tools using computational techniques that overcome these challenges and evaluate my designs using human participants to inform subsequent designs. Solving crimes correctly is one such critical and life-altering problem. National Registry at the University of Michigan points out that almost 175 wrongfully incriminated folks were exonerated after having spent a non-trivial amount of their life in prison for crimes they did not commit in 2016 alone. This is 4X the number 10 years ago and continues an upward trend. During my work, I have discovered that sharing information socially, succumbing to cognitive biases, and lack of support afforded by changing interaction paradigms as key challenges in collaborative data analytics. Subsequently, I have iteratively developed multiple tools, including SAVANT REFLECTIVA , CROWDS4ANALYTICS, TEMPORA , and RAMPARTS to overcome these challenges. My approach establishes a research framework for creating rich collaborative data analytic systems by: (1) utilizing human generated analytic artifacts to inform and design the interactions (2) leveraging “off-the-shelf” natural language processing, sensors and crowds creatively to design intelligent data analytic tools, and (3) evaluating the effect of these designs in controlled settings to identify the cost vs. benefit of each design decision.

Tesh (Nitesh) Goyal is a researcher at Google, where his collaborative sensemaking research has been used in Google Maps and Web experiences. Tesh’s research develops design approaches to build novel data analytics tools that enhance information sharing, reduce biases using visualizations, minimize distractions using physiological data, and support collaborative problem-solving with crowds. His research has also contributed to the theory of Sensemaking by inventing Sensemaking Translucence as a design metaphor for a mirror that enables self-reflection. He received his MSc in Computer Science from University of California, Berkeley and RWTH Aachen under Prof. John Canny’s advice, prior to receiving his PhD from Cornell University in Information Science where he was advised by Prof. Susan R. Fussell. His research has been supported by German Govt. Fellowship, National Science Foundation, and MacArthur Genius Grant. Frequently collaborating with industry (Google Research, Yahoo Labs, HP Labs, Bloomberg Labs), he has published 10 first-author papers in top-tier HCI conferences and journals (CHI, CSCW , JASIST, ICTD , ICIC and Ubicomp/IMWUT) and has received two best paper honorable nomination awards.

• Speaker: Speaker to be confirmed
• Thursday 11 July 2019, 12:00-13:00
• Venue: Nick Mackintosch Room, Department of Psychology, Downing Site.
• Series: Social Psychology Seminar Series (SPSS); organiser: Melisa B.

Add to your calendar or Include in your list

My research vision is to enable expert and non-experts to successfully make sense of complex world problems. As a Human-Computer Interaction researcher, I iteratively focus on studying how sensemaking is performed to identify challenges in collaborative data analytics, design tools using computational techniques that overcome these challenges and evaluate my designs using human participants to inform subsequent designs. Solving crimes correctly is one such critical and life-altering problem. National Registry at the University of Michigan points out that almost 175 wrongfully incriminated folks were exonerated after having spent a non-trivial amount of their life in prison for crimes they did not commit in 2016 alone. This is 4X the number 10 years ago and continues an upward trend. During my work, I have discovered that sharing information socially, succumbing to cognitive biases, and lack of support afforded by changing interaction paradigms as key challenges in collaborative data analytics. Subsequently, I have iteratively developed multiple tools, including SAVANT REFLECTIVA , CROWDS4ANALYTICS, TEMPORA , and RAMPARTS to overcome these challenges. My approach establishes a research framework for creating rich collaborative data analytic systems by: (1) utilizing human generated analytic artifacts to inform and design the interactions (2) leveraging “off-the-shelf” natural language processing, sensors and crowds creatively to design intelligent data analytic tools, and (3) evaluating the effect of these designs in controlled settings to identify the cost vs. benefit of each design decision.

Tesh (Nitesh) Goyal is a researcher at Google, where his collaborative sensemaking research has been used in Google Maps and Web experiences. Tesh’s research develops design approaches to build novel data analytics tools that enhance information sharing, reduce biases using visualizations, minimize distractions using physiological data, and support collaborative problem-solving with crowds. His research has also contributed to the theory of Sensemaking by inventing Sensemaking Translucence as a design metaphor for a mirror that enables self-reflection. He received his MSc in Computer Science from University of California, Berkeley and RWTH Aachen under Prof. John Canny’s advice, prior to receiving his PhD from Cornell University in Information Science where he was advised by Prof. Susan R. Fussell. His research has been supported by German Govt. Fellowship, National Science Foundation, and MacArthur Genius Grant. Frequently collaborating with industry (Google Research, Yahoo Labs, HP Labs, Bloomberg Labs), he has published 10 first-author papers in top-tier HCI conferences and journals (CHI, CSCW , JASIST, ICTD , ICIC and Ubicomp/IMWUT) and has received two best paper honorable nomination awards.

• Speaker: Speaker to be confirmed
• Thursday 11 July 2019, 12:00-13:00
• Venue: Nick Mackintosch Room, Department of Psychology, Downing Site.
• Series: Social Psychology Seminar Series (SPSS); organiser: Melisa B.

Add to your calendar or Include in your list

My research vision is to enable expert and non-experts to successfully make sense of complex world problems. As a Human-Computer Interaction researcher, I iteratively focus on studying how sensemaking is performed to identify challenges in collaborative data analytics, design tools using computational techniques that overcome these challenges and evaluate my designs using human participants to inform subsequent designs. Solving crimes correctly is one such critical and life-altering problem. National Registry at the University of Michigan points out that almost 175 wrongfully incriminated folks were exonerated after having spent a non-trivial amount of their life in prison for crimes they did not commit in 2016 alone. This is 4X the number 10 years ago and continues an upward trend. During my work, I have discovered that sharing information socially, succumbing to cognitive biases, and lack of support afforded by changing interaction paradigms as key challenges in collaborative data analytics. Subsequently, I have iteratively developed multiple tools, including SAVANT REFLECTIVA , CROWDS4ANALYTICS, TEMPORA , and RAMPARTS to overcome these challenges. My approach establishes a research framework for creating rich collaborative data analytic systems by: (1) utilizing human generated analytic artifacts to inform and design the interactions (2) leveraging “off-the-shelf” natural language processing, sensors and crowds creatively to design intelligent data analytic tools, and (3) evaluating the effect of these designs in controlled settings to identify the cost vs. benefit of each design decision.

Tesh (Nitesh) Goyal is a researcher at Google, where his collaborative sensemaking research has been used in Google Maps and Web experiences. Tesh’s research develops design approaches to build novel data analytics tools that enhance information sharing, reduce biases using visualizations, minimize distractions using physiological data, and support collaborative problem-solving with crowds. His research has also contributed to the theory of Sensemaking by inventing Sensemaking Translucence as a design metaphor for a mirror that enables self-reflection. He received his MSc in Computer Science from University of California, Berkeley and RWTH Aachen under Prof. John Canny’s advice, prior to receiving his PhD from Cornell University in Information Science where he was advised by Prof. Susan R. Fussell. His research has been supported by German Govt. Fellowship, National Science Foundation, and MacArthur Genius Grant. Frequently collaborating with industry (Google Research, Yahoo Labs, HP Labs, Bloomberg Labs), he has published 10 first-author papers in top-tier HCI conferences and journals (CHI, CSCW , JASIST, ICTD , ICIC and Ubicomp/IMWUT) and has received two best paper honorable nomination awards.

• Speaker: Speaker to be confirmed
• Thursday 11 July 2019, 12:00-13:00
• Venue: Nick Mackintosch Room, Department of Psychology, Downing Site.
• Series: Social Psychology Seminar Series (SPSS); organiser: Melisa B.

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Abstract not available

• Speaker: Rogier Kievit, MRC CBU, U. of Cambridge)
• Thursday 23 May 2019, 15:30-17:00
• Venue: Lecture Theatre, MRC Cognition and Brain Sciences Unit, University of Cambridge, Chaucer Road.
• Series: Chaucer Club; organiser: Vicky Collins.

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The first 1000 days of life (from conception to two years of age) are a critical window of vulnerability to exposure to socio-economic and health challenges (i.e. poverty/undernutrition). While only a fraction of our lifespan, it is characterised by prodigious physiological, psychological and physical change. Studies suggest that the presence of these risk factors in infancy has a lasting impact throughout the life course, however almost nothing is known about the neural bases of these early deficits. We have established a prospective longitudinal study (Brain Imaging for Global Health: BRIGHT Project) to chart early neurocognitive trajectories of brain development and behaviour at two parallel sites, in the UK and The Gambia. During the first two years of life, infants partake in a series of neurocognitive fNIRS, EEG , eye-tracking and behavioural assessments. In this talk I will highlight some of the key milestones, challenges and emerging findings from this work to date.

Bio

Sarah Lloyd-Fox is a Research Fellow at Birkbeck, University of London, an Honorary Research Associate at UCL and has recently become an Affiliated Lecturer at the University of Cambridge. Lloyd-Fox received a PhD in developmental cognitive neuroscience from Birkbeck, University of London in 2011. After a post-doc at the Central European University in Budapest, she returned to Birkbeck as a part time postdoctoral researcher. Her research focuses on the investigation of core early cognitive and neural mechanisms in infancy: in particular through the optimisation and application of functional Near Infrared Spectroscopy (fNIRS) to study infant brain development. She is currently investigating how individual differences in neurodevelopmental trajectories associate with factors such as increased familial likelihood for developmental disorders (i.e. autism) and poverty associated challenges (i.e. undernutrition), with a major focus in developing field friendly neuroimaging and behavioural toolkits for use in low-income settings in the UK, Africa and Asia (www.globalfnirs.org/the-bright-project). Lloyd-Fox’s work has garnered awards and funding, including an Association for Psychological Sciences Rising Star Award, the early career Wiley Prize in Psychology from the British Academy and grant funding from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.

PLEASE NOTE, THIS ZANGWILL CLUB SEMINAR WILL START AT 12.00PM. THERE WILL BE NO ZANGWILL TEA AT 4.00PM

• Speaker: Dr Sarah Lloyd-Fox, Centre for Brain and Cognitive Development, Birkbeck, University of London, Affiliated Lecturer, Department of Psychology, University of Cambridge
• Friday 17 May 2019, 12:00-13:30
• Venue: Ground Floor Lecture Theatre, Department of Psychology.
• Series: Zangwill Club; organiser: Louise White.

Add to your calendar or Include in your list

The first 1000 days of life (from conception to two years of age) are a critical window of vulnerability to exposure to socio-economic and health challenges (i.e. poverty/undernutrition). While only a fraction of our lifespan, it is characterised by prodigious physiological, psychological and physical change. Studies suggest that the presence of these risk factors in infancy has a lasting impact throughout the life course, however almost nothing is known about the neural bases of these early deficits. We have established a prospective longitudinal study (Brain Imaging for Global Health: BRIGHT Project) to chart early neurocognitive trajectories of brain development and behaviour at two parallel sites, in the UK and The Gambia. During the first two years of life, infants partake in a series of neurocognitive fNIRS, EEG , eye-tracking and behavioural assessments. In this talk I will highlight some of the key milestones, challenges and emerging findings from this work to date.

Bio

Sarah Lloyd-Fox is a Research Fellow at Birkbeck, University of London, an Honorary Research Associate at UCL and has recently become an Affiliated Lecturer at the University of Cambridge. Lloyd-Fox received a PhD in developmental cognitive neuroscience from Birkbeck, University of London in 2011. After a post-doc at the Central European University in Budapest, she returned to Birkbeck as a part time postdoctoral researcher. Her research focuses on the investigation of core early cognitive and neural mechanisms in infancy: in particular through the optimisation and application of functional Near Infrared Spectroscopy (fNIRS) to study infant brain development. She is currently investigating how individual differences in neurodevelopmental trajectories associate with factors such as increased familial likelihood for developmental disorders (i.e. autism) and poverty associated challenges (i.e. undernutrition), with a major focus in developing field friendly neuroimaging and behavioural toolkits for use in low-income settings in the UK, Africa and Asia (www.globalfnirs.org/the-bright-project). Lloyd-Fox’s work has garnered awards and funding, including an Association for Psychological Sciences Rising Star Award, the early career Wiley Prize in Psychology from the British Academy and grant funding from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.

PLEASE NOTE, THIS ZANGWILL CLUB SEMINAR WILL START AT 12.00PM. THE ZANGWILL TEA WILL BE AT THE USUAL TIME OF 4.00PM

• Speaker: Dr Sarah Lloyd-Fox, Centre for Brain and Cognitive Development, Birkbeck, University of London, Affiliated Lecturer, Department of Psychology, University of Cambridge
• Friday 17 May 2019, 12:00-13:30
• Venue: Ground Floor Lecture Theatre, Department of Psychology.
• Series: Zangwill Club; organiser: Louise White.

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