We offer a range of PhD studentships funded by research councils or charities. General information about these can be found under ‘Funding opportunities’.
To apply to study for a PhD at the Department of Psychology, please complete ALL the steps outlined below. To be considered for a studentship, your application will have to reach us by the deadlines advertised under step 3 and 4.
To begin the process, you will need to find a PhD supervisor whose research interests align with your own. You will need to contact them to discuss your application and the development of your research proposal. To help with this process, we advertise below ‘project ideas’ staff have proposed as starting points for the development of a research proposal. The project ideas are organised by research community (although many fall into more than one research community). Please read the advertised project ideas and additional information and contact the main supervisor to discuss the development of your research proposal. If you have an idea for a project that is not listed here, but which falls within the research area of a member of our staff, most staff are happy to be contacted about that. Just send them an email outlining your idea. You can find out about our staff's research interests by visiting our People pages.
Please contact your proposed supervisor as early as possible as developing your research proposal will take time.
As a department, we particularly encourage applications to work with early career staff. This year these include: Dr Abigail Fiske, Dr Alice Milne and Dr Alice Rees. Applications to work with these members of staff are weighted preferentially at the short-listing stage for the Faculty studentship.
Apply to Lancaster University through the Lancaster University Admissions Portal. Please complete this step at least 2 weeks before the submission deadline mentioned under steps 3 and 4.
If you wish to be considered for NWSSDTP funding, you need to apply to the NWSSDTP in addition to applying to Lancaster University. You will need follow the instructions here Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) Studentships - Lancaster University. Further information about the NWSSDTP can be found on the NWSSDTP website. Your NWSSDTP application must be submitted by 5pm on Monday 22nd February 2027.
If you wish to be considered for a Faculty Studentship, please Apply to the Department of Psychology by filling out our form. You will be asked to answer a few questions about your application and to upload a single PDF file that contains all the documents you have submitted under Step 2. Please complete this step by 5pm on Monday 22nd February 2027.
Please adjust the first sentence in ‘what happens after you have submitted your application?’ to:
We will work with Lancaster University Admissions to process your application.
We will work with Lancaster University Admissions and with the NWSSDTP to process your application. After the closing date, we will consider all applications and invite shortlisted candidates for an interview. Interviews will usually be held via Teams. The timescale for this will vary but is in the region of 4 weeks following the application deadline.
If you have any questions about your application, please contact the postgraduate coordinators by emailing pgr.psychology@lancaster.ac.uk.
Project details: How do children combine information from multiple sources to support their language learning? It is not only the words, but how they are said, who is saying them, and the context in which they are spoken that is critical for understanding how language proceeds. This project will combine analyses of corpora with experimental studies with children and adults to determine what sources of information learners are sensitive to, and how these information sources are used to support learning.
Supervisor: Padraic Monaghan
Contact: p.monaghan@lancaster.ac.uk
Research community: Cognitive
References and further information: Please look at our lab website for recent publications on similar topics:
https://www.lancaster.ac.uk/language-learning/
in particular:
https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/bilingualism-language-and-cognition/article/effect-of-label-mixing-on-vocabulary-acquisition-a-crosssituational-statistical-word-learning-study/690E8CFF0D2C27EF7AACDFFD09DD896A
https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/lang.70059
Project details: Sound symbolism refers to a direct relationship between the sound of a word and its meaning: for example, there is something angular about the word "spiky", and something smooth about the word "round". Sound symbolism looks like a very strong effect in laboratory studies of language processing and learning, but its existence in natural language is much more subtle. This project will explore, with corpus analyses and experimental studies, which sound-meaning mappings are found across language communities, enabling us to determine whether sound symbolism might be driven by language experience, or whether it reflects something more profound in the way vocabulary has evolved.
Supervisor: Padraic Monaghan
Contact: p.monaghan@lancaster.ac.uk
Research community: Cognitive
References and further information: For more general information about the work of our lab, please see here: https://www.lancaster.ac.uk/language-learning/
For some of our work on sound symbolism please see:
https://link.springer.com/article/10.3758/s13423-026-02864-0
https://doi.org/10.1098/rstb.2013.0299
https://www.cell.com/trends/cognitive-sciences/fulltext/S1364-6613(15)00177-1
Project details: Imagine working through a puzzle and silently asking yourself, “What should I try next?” Why put that question into words? What makes us begin talking to ourselves, and how might those words help us find a way forward? Why might someone else approach the same puzzle with little inner speech? This PhD explores a fundamental question about the relationship between language and thought: when and why do we recruit an inner voice, and how does this vary from person to person?
You will investigate the possibility that certain types of uncertainty prompt us to think in words. Does inner speech emerge when we are unsure how to interpret a situation, choose between alternatives, or decide what to do next? Does this depend on how useful language is for the task? Through behavioural experiments, EEG, and computational modelling, you will examine how people’s reported inner speech changes as they encounter uncertainty and learn how to respond, and how these patterns differ between individuals.
Individual differences will be central to testing this explanation. Does uncertainty prompt inner speech to the same extent in people who report frequent verbal thought, vivid visual imagery, or little of either? What strategies do people use when they experience little inner speech? You could also explore how neurodivergence relates to these patterns, or investigate what talking to ourselves changes in our decisions.
The aim is to develop and test an explanation of when and why people recruit language to guide their thinking, and how this varies between individuals. You will build a programme of experiments and an original dataset, using these to evaluate a model that makes explicit predictions about when inner speech should occur and how its use should vary from person to person. Together, these would form your contribution to understanding how language becomes a resource for thought across different ways of thinking. Along the way, you will develop the experimental and computational skills to pursue your own questions about the mind.
Supervisor: Bo Yao
Contact: b.yao1@lancaster.ac.uk
Research community: Cognitive
References and further information: https://lisn-lab.org/
Project details: The brain is a sophisticated prediction engine that uses language to anticipate perceptions, guide actions, and construct identity. During adolescence, this system confronts unprecedented challenges: the brain rewires itself whilst navigating intensified social pressures, information overload, and identity formation. When linguistic prediction falters, mental health vulnerabilities emerge – intrusive thoughts feel alien, rumination spirals, and social signals become illegible.
This PhD shifts the paradigm in youth mental well-being research. Rather than studying diagnosed conditions, you will investigate fundamental mechanisms, identifying subtle signatures of when the brain's linguistic prediction system begins to fail. You will work primarily with healthy young people experiencing typical adolescent stress and self-doubt, using methods spanning phenomenological interviews, computational behavioural tasks, and neurophysiological recordings.
This is fundamental research into how language prediction shapes mental experience. Your work will establish foundational science, mapping how variation in these mechanisms relates to different experiences of distress, worry, and self-perception across everyday adolescence and at-risk populations. If you are intellectually ambitious and fascinated by the intersection of language, prediction, and mental experience, this project offers the opportunity to establish theoretical frameworks, empirical evidence, and a toolkit that could transform how we understand the mental health spectrum and vulnerability.
Supervisor: Bo Yao
Contact: b.yao1@lancaster.ac.uk
Research community: Cognitive
References and further information: lisn-lab.org
Project details: Language is a tool for thought. Putting a problem into words can hold goals in mind, structure plans and expose flaws in reasoning, much of it through inner speech (Clark, 1998; Alderson-Day & Fernyhough, 2015). Many people now articulate their problems to large language models (LLMs) instead. If the model generates and evaluates the answers, the user may bypass the reasoning and retain only its output. In a field experiment, students with unrestricted GPT-4 access performed better on practice problems but worse on a later exam taken without it, and did not perceive the loss (Bastani et al., 2025).
That said, an LLM may also act as a dialogic partner. Inner speech often takes the form of a dialogue in which one perspective questions another (Fernyhough, 1996), and people vary in how dialogic their inner speech is (McCarthy-Jones & Fernyhough, 2011). For those who rarely debate with themselves, an LLM could supply the missing interlocutor (that is, if you don't want to talk to a human..). Creative thinking shows what is at stake: ideas from an LLM made individual stories more creative but made stories more similar to one another (Doshi & Hauser, 2024).
This PhD will explore the practices and consequences of human-AI co-cognition. When does dialogue with an LLM scaffold reasoning, and when does it replace it? Does habitual LLM use change how often people talk to themselves and how dialogic that self-talk is? What does it do to your brain health and neurocognitive fitness? You will combine reasoning and creativity tasks performed with and without AI, recordings of self-talk and prompts, inner speech questionnaires and EEG.
Supervisor: Bo Yao
Contact: b.yao1@lancaster.ac.uk
Research community: Cognitive
References and further information:
Alderson-Day, B., & Fernyhough, C. (2015). Inner speech: Development, cognitive functions, phenomenology, and neurobiology. Psychological Bulletin, 141(5), 931-965. https://doi.org/10.1037/bul0000021
Bastani, H., Bastani, O., Sungu, A., Ge, H., Kabakcı, Ö., & Mariman, R. (2025). Generative AI without guardrails can harm learning: Evidence from high school mathematics. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 122(26), e2422633122. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2422633122
Clark, A. (1998). Magic words: How language augments human computation. In P. Carruthers & J. Boucher (Eds.), Language and thought: Interdisciplinary themes (pp. 162-183). Cambridge University Press. https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511597909.011
Doshi, A. R., & Hauser, O. P. (2024). Generative AI enhances individual creativity but reduces the collective diversity of novel content. Science Advances, 10(28), eadn5290. https://doi.org/10.1126/sciadv.adn5290
Fernyhough, C. (1996). The dialogic mind: A dialogic approach to the higher mental functions. New Ideas in Psychology, 14(1), 47-62. https://doi.org/10.1016/0732-118X(95)00024-B
McCarthy-Jones, S., & Fernyhough, C. (2011). The varieties of inner speech: Links between quality of inner speech and psychopathological variables in a sample of young adults. Consciousness and Cognition, 20(4), 1586-1593. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.concog.2011.08.005
Project details: Near misses are events that whilst resembling a win, are nonetheless a loss. For example, in a slot machine context, a near miss would be two winning symbols on the payline and an adjacent winning symbol. Despite being formally equivalent to any other loss, these events may have meaningful psychological, physiological, and behavioural consequences with a potent impact on gambling behaviours. This project idea will explore new methods for examining the impact of near miss events and look at how they may have different effects on occasional- and intensive-gamblers. We will leverage our connection with the newly established GraceNet - Gambling Resilience and Community Engagement Network - to recruit participants and disseminate findings.
Supervisor: Dr Tom Beesley and Prof. John Towse
Contact: t.beesley@lancaster.ac.uk
Research community: Cognitive
References and further information: Pisklak, J. M., Yong, J. J. H., & Spetch, M. L. (2020). The Near-Miss Effect in Slot Machines: A Review and Experimental Analysis Over Half a Century Later. Journal of gambling studies, 36(2), 611–632. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10899-019-09891-8
Project details: This project will expand on theoretical models of contingency learning in visual search by extending their application to search within 3D virtual environments. The project will develop new methods and new measures of behaviour and will be highly exploratory in nature. It would be well-suited to a candidate that has strong technical skills in computer programming, but also a passion for experimental research.
Supervisor: Dr Tom Beesley
Contact: t.beesley@lancaster.ac.uk
Research community: Cognitive
References and further information: Beesley, T., Yun Tou, Y., & Walsh, J. (2022). Examining the role of depth information in contextual cuing using a virtual reality visual search task. Journal of experimental psychology. Human perception and performance, 48(12), 1313–1324. https://doi.org/10.1037/xhp0001049
Project details: I would be interested in developing a PhD research proposal with an enthusiastic and highly motivated candidate interested in topics related to emotion, language, bilingualism and culture.
Culture in particular is something that has been underexplored in mainstream psycholinguistic research, also when it comes to studying second language processing.
Here are some of my ideas and suggestions, which are meant to be a starting point for developing further ideas, rather than restricting options.
Multilinguals, i.e., people who speak more than one language fluently in their daily life, typically experience more emotional distance from their second or non-dominant language. Many factors can drive this difference, for example how early in life the second language was acquired, personal identification with one or the other language more strongly, proficiency in the second language, but also the specific culture of the multilingual speaker.
In this project, we will look at affective and cognitive responses to the native (L1) versus second language (L2), by specifically manipulating the content of texts or spoken discourse and make it relevant to one’s native culture vs. non-relevant. Through a series of psycholinguistic and neurolinguistic experiments we will measure emotional engagement in response to language, and tease apart effects of proficiency or immersion in the L2 from effects due to cultural relevance.
Example research questions:
1) What is the time course of emotional engagement during L2 processing?
2) Does the content of L2, e.g., relevant to native vs. second culture make a difference?
3) How can we most effectively communicate within intercultural groups?
Ultimately, this project may provide initial guidelines on intercultural discourse, and how to best engage, and effectively communicate with, interlocutors from different cultures.
Supervisor: Francesca Citron
Contact: f.citron@lancaster.ac.uk
Research community: Cognitive
References and further information: Initial references:
Project details: Prosody—or the intonation and rhythm of speech—affects the interpretation of spoken sentences, by assisting listeners in segmenting sentences into syntactically and semantically appropriate chunks (Carlson, 2009; Cutler et al., 1997). More controversially, it has also been argued that implicit prosody facilitates comprehension of written material (Fodor, 2002; Webman-Shafran, 2017), and in the reading acquisition literature, the prosody with which a child reads a text has been consistently associated with that child’s reading comprehension level (Veenendaal et al., 2015). In this project, we will investigate whether adults and developing readers indeed use prosody in parsing written sentences using psycholinguistic and electrophysiological methods.
Supervisor: Dr. Margriet A. Groen
Contact: m.groen@lancaster.ac.uk
Research community: Cognitive
References and further information: Carlson, K. (2009). How prosody influences sentence comprehension. Language and Linguistics Compass, 3(5), 1188-1200.
Cutler, A., Dahan, D., and Van Donselaar, W. (1997). Prosody in the comprehension of spoken language: A literature review. Language and Speech, 40 (2), 141-201.
Fodor, J. D. (2002). Psycholinguistics cannot escape prosody. In: Speech Prosody 2002, International Conference.
Veenendaal, N. J., Groen, M. A., and Verhoeven, L. (2015). What oral text reading fluency can reveal about reading comprehension. Journal of Research in Reading, 38(3), 213–225.
Webman-Shafran, R. (2017). Implicit prosody and parsing in silent reading. Journal of Research in Reading, 41(3), 546-563.
Project details: This project would investigate the intricate relationship between curiosity and creativity using longitudinal or cross-sectional mixed methods design. While the conceptual and theoretical links between curiosity and creativity have been proposed, empirical research, especially in developmental populations, demonstrating the relationship between these multi-dimensional psychological constructs and the underlying cognitive mechanisms is in its infancy. Furthermore, the predictive value of each concept on academic and well-being outcomes remains under-explored. In this project, children (as early as in infancy) will be tested using age appropriate measures of curiosity and creativity, utilising different approaches, from experimental to self- and other-report. In addition to shedding light on the theoretical psychological links between curiosity and creativity, the project has a potential to make substantial methodological advances to the field of research on both curiosity and creativity.
Supervisor: Marina Bazhydai
Contact: m.bazhydai@lancaster.ac.uk
Research community: Developmental
References and further information: Bazhydai, M., & Westermann, G. (2020). From curiosity, to wonder, to creativity: A cognitive developmental psychology perspective. In A. Schinkel (Ed)., Wonder, education, and human flourishing, VU University Press, Amsterdam.
Gross, M. E., Zedelius, C. M., & Schooler, J. W. (2020). Cultivating an understanding of curiosity as a seed for creativity. Current Opinion in Behavioral Sciences, 35, 77-82.
Evans, N. S., & Jirout, J. J. (2023). Investigating the relation between curiosity and creativity. Journal of Creativity, 33(1), 100038.
Ivancovsky, T., Baror, S., & Bar, M. (2024). A shared novelty-seeking basis for creativity and curiosity. Behavioral and Brain Sciences, 47, e89
Koutstaal, W., Kedrick, K., & Gonzalez-Brito, J. (2022). Capturing, clarifying, and consolidating the curiosity-creativity connection. Scientific reports, 12(1), 15300.
Schutte, N. S., & Malouff, J. M. (2020). A meta‐analysis of the relationship between curiosity and creativity. The Journal of Creative Behavior, 54(4), 940-947.
Vaisarova, J., Saguid, L., Kupfer, A. S., Goldbaum, H. S., & Lucca, K. (2024). Exploring the creativity-curiosity link in early childhood. Journal of Creativity, 34(3), 100090.
Project details: Children are curious learners, actively seeking information both through independent exploration and social learning. They are also able to share what they know with others from infancy, thus taking an active role in the social knowledge transmission process. This project would aim to investigate the connections between child-led information seeking and information sharing in young children. Through a series of experimental studies, it will pose research questions such as, how does active solicitation of information impact its subsequent transmission in childhood, e.g., whether curiosity-driven motivation to obtain new knowledge makes such knowledge more likely to be shared, what are the characteristics of information or informants themselves that make children more likely to share such knowledge, and what is the role of individual differences in both sides of the process. This line of investigation can include behavioural, including online interactive methods, and eye-tracking, including head-mounted or gaze contingent methods.
Supervisor: Marina Bazhydai
Contact: m.bazhydai@lancaster.ac.uk
Research community: Developmental
References and further information: Karadag, D., Bazhydai, M., & Westermann, G. (2025). Young Children's Transmission of Information following Self-discovery and Instruction. Frontiers in Developmental Psychology, 3, 1553491.
Bazhydai, M., & Harris, P. L. (2021). Infants actively seek and transmit knowledge via communication. Commentary on Phillips et al. Behavioral and Brain Sciences, 44, e142. doi:10.1017/S0140525X20001405
Bazhydai, M., & Karadag, D. (2022). Can bifocal stance theory explain children’s selectivity in active information transmission? Commentary on Jagiello et al. Behavioral and Brain Sciences. doi:10.1017/S0140525X22001327
Bazhydai, M., Westermann, G., & Parise, E. (2020). “I don’t know but I know who to ask”: 12-month-olds actively seek information from knowledgeable adults. Developmental Science, 23. doi:10.1111/desc.12938
Gweon, H. (2021). Cognitive foundations of distinctively human social learning and teaching. Trends in Cognitive Sciences. https://doi.org/10.31234/osf.io/8n34t
Liszkowski, U., Carpenter, M., Striano, T., & Tomasello, M. (2006). 12-and 18-month-olds point to provide information for others. Journal of Cognition and Development, 7(2), 173-187. https://doi.org/10.1207/s15327647jcd0702_2
Ronfard, S., & Harris, P. L. (2018). Children’s decision to transmit information is guided by their evaluation of the nature of that information. Review of Philosophy and Psychology, 9(4), 849-861. https://doi.org/10.1007/s13164-017-0344-5
Strauss, S., Calero, C. I., & Sigman, M. (2014). Teaching, naturally. Trends in Neuroscience and Education, 3(2), 38-43. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tine.2014.05.001
Qiu, F. W., Park, J., Vite, A., Patall, E., & Moll, H. (2025). Children's Selective Teaching and Informing: A Meta‐Analysis. Developmental Science, e13576. https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/desc.13576
Project details: What aspects of early language might predict which children will go on to have a language delay? And how do we test them when toddlers are not always cooperative? This project will work on individual differences in early vocabulary, and how these are related to children's family circumstances and risk factors such as prematurity and family history of language difficulties. It will also involve creating new ways to assess children's comprehension of grammar and vocabulary around the age of 2.
Supervisor: Katie Alcock
Contact: k.j.alcock@lancaster.ac.uk
Research community: Developmental
References and further information: Alcock, K. J., Meints, K., & Rowland, C. (2025). Gesture screening in young infants: Highly sensitive to risk factors for communication delay. International Journal of Language & Communication Disorders, 60.
Levine, D., Pace, A., Luo, R., Hirsh-Pasek, K., Michnick Golinkoff, R., de Villiers, J., Iglesias, A., & Sweig Wilson, M. (2020). Evaluating socioeconomic gaps in preschoolers’ vocabulary, syntax and language process skills with the Quick Interactive Language Screener (QUILS). Early Childhood Research Quarterly, 50, 114-128. https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ecresq.2018.11.006
Project details: We know there is a higher probability of being diagnosed with gender dysphoria, where an individual has distress around their sexed body and/or gender stereotypes associated with their sex, if an individual is autistic. What we don't know is why this is. There are various possible explanations, including cognitive, biological, and social. This project would investigate the cognitive/social links between these two conditions, in children, adults, or both.
Supervisor: Katie Alcock
Contact: k.j.alcock@lancaster.ac.uk
Research community: Developmental
References and further information: Relevant reading:
Kallitsounaki, A., Williams, D. M., & Lind, S. E. (2021). Links Between Autistic Traits, Feelings of Gender Dysphoria, and Mentalising Ability: Replication and Extension of Previous Findings from the General Population. Journal of Autism and Developmental disorders, 51(5), 1458-1465. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10803-020-04626-w
Zucker, K. J., Bradley, S. J., Kuksis, M., Pecore, K., Birkenfeld-Adams, A., Doering, R. W., Mitchell, J. N., & Wild, J. (1999). Gender Constancy Judgments in Children with Gender Identity Disorder: Evidence for a Developmental Lag. Archives of Sexual Behavior, 28(6), 475-502. https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1018713115866
Alcock, K. (2024). Do school and equality education characteristics influence young children’s understanding of sex/gender constancy? Journal of Experimental Child Psychology, 241. https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jecp.2024.105879
Baron-Cohen, S. (1989). Are autistic children “behaviorists”? An examination of their mental-physical and appearance-reality distinctions. Journal of Autism and Developmental disorders, 19(4), 579-600.
Project details: In the first months of life, infants are better able to remember and categorise objects that occur with words, suggesting that language and vision are linked in early human development. However, it is unknown how and why learning a language influences how infants see the world. This project is designed to test how words influence how 6 and 12-month-olds infants perceive objects, and whether hearing language has effects on how they do so.
Specifically, infants’ vision is immature, and they often fail to perceive and identify individual objects in their environment. However, objects accompanied by spoken words are better encoded and categorised than objects encountered with other sounds or in silence, effects which take hold in the first months of life. We aim to better understand the developmental process by which hearing language prepares infants to see and interpret their environment starting in the first year, when infants are still developing the ability to form coherent object representations. Possible contributions are caregivers' object-naming behaviours, infants' motor development and object handling during naming, and developments in perceptual organisation in infants' visual systems.
Supervisor: Jill Lany
Contact: j.lany@lancaster.ac.uk
Research community: Developmental
References and further information: Ayzenberg, V., & Behrmann, M. (2024). Development of visual object recognition. Nature Reviews Psychology, 3(2), 73-90.
Lany, J., Thompson, A., & Aguero, A. (2022). What’s in a name, and when can a [beep] be the same? Developmental Psychology, 58(2), 209–221.
Lany, J., Aguero, A., & Thompson, A. (2022). The temporal dynamics of labelling shape infant object recognition. Infant Behavior and Development, 67, 101698.
Li, Y., & Benitez, V. L. (2025). Concurrences across time and sensorimotor capacities promote infant learning. Child Development Perspectives, 19(2), 99–107. https://doi.org/10.1111/cdep.12531
Smith, L. B. (2013). It’s all connected: Pathways in visual object recognition and early noun learning. The American Psychologist, 68(8), 10.1037/a0034185. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0034185
Project details: In recent years some researchers have begun to focus on the active role infants play in their own learning. In my lab we investigate the behaviours and exploration strategies employed by infants to understand what drives such intrinsically motivated exploration, how it develops, and how it relates to infants’ learning. This PhD project would explore these questions further. For example, studies can test the interaction between the complexity and novelty of objects in attracting infants’ attention, and how exploration strategies change with age as knowledge is accumulated. Overall, these projects will enable us to gain insights into the development of semantic networks in infants and toddlers over the first years of life. The main method of this project will be (gaze-contingent) eye tracking and recording of free play sessions, but head-mounted eye tracking can also be used.
Supervisor: Gert Westermann
Contact: g.westermann@lancaster.ac.uk
Research community: Developmental
References and further information: Altmann, E. C., Bazhydai, M., Karadağ, D., & Westermann, G. (2025). The Infant and Toddler Curiosity Questionnaire: A Validated Caregiver-Report Measure of Curiosity in Children From 5 to 24 Months. Infancy, 30(1), e70001. https://doi.org/10.1111/infa.70001
Altmann, E., Bazhydai, M., & Westermann, G. (2024). Curious Choices: Infants’ moment-to-moment information sampling is driven by their exploration history. Cognition, 254, 105976. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cognition.2024.105976
Bazhydai, M., Twomey, K. E., & Westermann, G. (2020). Exploration and curiosity. In Benson, J.B. (Ed.), Encyclopedia of Infant and Early Childhood Development (2nd ed.), Vol. 2: Cognition, Perception & Language, pp. 370-378. Academic Press
Chen, X., Twomey, K., & Westermann, G. (2022). Curiosity enhances incidental object encoding in 8-month-old infants. Journal of Experimental Child Psychology, 223, 105508 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jecp.2022.105508
Twomey, K., & Westermann, G. (2018). Curiosity-based learning in infants: A neurocomputational approach. Developmental Science, e12629. doi: 10.1111/desc.12629
Project details: Curiosity is a significant driver of exploration and learning already in infants. The way in which young children explore their environment changes across the first 3 years of life, from broad exploratory behaviours in infancy to more focused and goal-directed exploration in toddlers. The aim of this project is to investigate if this change in behaviour is accompanied by the development of executive functions during this period. Executive functions, involving abilities such as planning, attention control, and problem-solving, emerge early in infancy and develop rapidly during toddlerhood alongside significant reorganisation and changes in prefrontal cortex. No research has systematically examined how executive function and prefrontal cortex development shape curiosity. Therefore, this project aims to investigate the roles of the prefrontal cortex and executive function in developmental changes in curiosity-based behaviours from infancy to toddlerhood. The aim is to test 9- to 12-month-old infants and 18- to 21-month-old toddlers on exploration and executive function tasks, combining methods including naturalistic observation, eye tracking, and functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) to measure children’s behavioural and neural responses and detect correlation between these developmental changes.
This project will be co-supervised by Gert Westermann and Abigail Fiske.
Supervisor: Gert Westermann, Abigail Fiske
Contact: g.westermann@lancaster.ac.uk
Research community: Developmental
References and further information: Chen, X., Twomey, K. E., & Westermann, G. (2022). Curiosity enhances incidental object encoding in 8-month-old infants. Journal of Experimental Child Psychology, 223, 105508. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jecp.2022.105508
Fiske, A., Collins-Jones, L., de Klerk, C., Lui, K. Y. K., Hendry, A., Greenhalgh, I., Hall, A., Dvergsdal, H., Scerif, G., & Holmboe, K. (2024). The neural correlates of response inhibition across the transition from infancy to toddlerhood: An fNIRS study. Imaging Neuroscience, 2, imag–2–00206. https://doi.org/10.1162/imag_a_00206
Hendry, A., Jones, E. J. H., & Charman, T. (2016). Executive function in the first three years of life: Precursors, predictors and patterns. Developmental Review, 42, 1–33. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.dr.2016.06.005
Kidd, C., & Hayden, B. Y. (2015). The Psychology and Neuroscience of Curiosity. Neuron, 88(3), 449–460. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neuron.2015.09.010
Poli, F., Li, Y.-L., Naidu, P., Mars, R. B., Hunnius, S., & Ruggeri, A. (2024). Toddlers strategically adapt their information search. Nature Communications, 15(1), 5780. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-024-48855-4
Project details: Infants and older children play an active role in their learning through intrinsically motivated exploration of their environment. One mechanism that has been suggested to explain such exploratory behaviour is learning progress maximisation: learners choose at each point information from which they can learn maximally. We implemented such active exploration in a neural network of infant categorisation (Twomey & Westermann, 2018) which suggested that infants’ exploratory choices are affected by what information is available to them, their existing knowledge, and the learning mechanism itself. The focus of this PhD project is to develop this model further to gain a deeper understanding of the factors shaping active exploration in infants’ knowledge acquisition. There is also the opportunity to complement the modelling work with experimental studies to compare model and infant behaviours.
One strand of investigation could examine the role of early language on shaping knowledge and active exploration by presenting objects to the model (and infants) with and without labels and analysing the resulting object representations. Another strand could examine the interplay between short- and long-term knowledge in shaping exploration strategies for new objects. A third strand could investigate the relation between learning progress maximisation and prediction error minimisation as two related explanations for active exploration in young children. Overall, this project would aim to gain a better understanding of the factors driving and shaping infants’ and toddlers’ active learning about the world around them.
Supervisor: Gert Westermann
Contact: g.westermann@lancaster.ac.uk
Research community: Developmental
References and further information: Twomey, K., & Westermann, G. (2018). Curiosity-based learning in infants: A neurocomputational approach. Developmental Science, e12629. doi: 10.1111/desc.12629
Twomey, K., & Westermann, G. (2019). Building the foundations of language: mechanisms of curiosity-driven learning. In: Horst, J., & Torkildsen, J. (eds.), International Handbook of
Language Acquisition, pp. 102-114. Oxford, New York: Routledge
Twomey, K. & Westermann. G. (2018). Learned labels shape pre-speech infants’ object representations. Infancy, 23, 61–73. doi: 10.1111/infa.12201
Westermann, G. and Mareschal, D. (2014) From perceptual to language-mediated categorization. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B, 369, 20120391. doi: 10.1098/rstb.2012.0391
Westermann, G. and Mareschal, D. (2012). Mechanisms of developmental change in infant categorization. Cognitive Development, 27, 367-382. doi: 10.1016/j.cogdev.2012.08.004
Project details: Gesture production influences language processing (Kita et al., 2017). Both adults and children perform better on language tasks if they are allowed to gesture. Relatedly, Mumford et al. (2023) found that encouraging 3-year-old to point with the right, but not the left, hand gave them a performance advantage on a word learning task. It has been suggested that producing gestures increases activation in brain areas involved in language processing, making it easier to form and access language representations. In this project, we will use transcranial Doppler ultrasound to measure brain activation directly, rather than rely on assumed language lateralisation based on performance on handedness tasks as has been done in previous studies. If right-handed pointing leads to increased left hemisphere activation, there should be an increased blood flow to left-hemisphere areas involved in language. Additionally, we will include children at risk for atypical language development and explore whether individual differences in gesture use are predictive of differences in language development in these groups.
Supervisor: Dr. Margriet A. Groen
Contact: m.groen@lancaster.ac.uk
Research community: Developmental
References and further information: Kita, S., Alibali, M. W., and Chu, M. (2017). How do gestures influence thinking and speaking? The gesture-for-conceptualization hypothesis. Psychological Review, 124(3), 245-266.
Mumford, K. H., Aussems, S., and Kita, S. (2023). Encouraging pointing with the right hand, but not the left hand, gives right-handed 3-year-olds a linguistic advantage. Developmental Science, 26(3): e13315.
Project details: Individuals with neurodegenerative disorders (Polden & Crawford, 2022) or psychiatric conditions (Smith & Crawford, 2022) often show pronounced and consistent impairments in inhibitory control on the antisaccade task. However, the specific sensorimotor and cognitive mechanisms underlying these deficits remain poorly understood. One influential explanatory framework is the Race Model (Crawford et al., 2011), which proposes that the first neural unit to reach threshold initiates a rapid, reflexive movement. These quickly activated units increase the likelihood of short-latency saccades, potentially including express saccades. As a consequence, increasing the probability of fast action responses should reduce procrastination and accelerate saccade initiation. While this facilitates prosaccades, it simultaneously increases the occurrence of erroneous rapid saccades toward the target during antisaccade trials.
Because correct antisaccades require both inhibition of the reflexive error response and additional processing time to generate the appropriate voluntary saccade, fast acting processes tend to undermine correct performance, whereas slower attentional operations support it. It is well established that the gap paradigm enhances fast attention release (FAR) and speeds saccade generation in both healthy and clinical groups—presumably due to early disengagement of attention from central fixation (Crawford et al., 2015). In contrast, the overlap paradigm promotes slower attention release (SAR), resulting in longer saccadic reaction times. Demonstrating these effects within the same individuals would offer a strong test of the Race Model.
This PhD project will conduct a detailed experimental assessment of the Race Model and compare its predictions with those derived from working-memory-based alternatives.
Supervisor: Trevor Crawford and Thom Wilcockson (Loughborough University)
Contact: t.crawford@lancaster.ac.uk
Research community: Neuro
References and further information: Eye Tracking and Neuropsychology lab: Inhibhttps://wp.lancs.ac.uk/emr/
Project details: Subjective Cognitive Decline (SCD) represents a critical, pre-clinical stage for dementia progression, yet lacks objective, accessible biomarkers.
The global health challenge posed by Alzheimer’s Disease and related dementias necessitates effective preclinical detection in order for early intervention to be effective. The clinical consensus now recognises a continuum of decline, starting decades before the onset of overt dementia. Within this continuum, the stage of Subjective Cognitive Decline (SCD) has emerged as the most critical and challenging demographic. Identifying the specific individuals within this large group who are at an increased and imminent risk of progressing to MCI and AD is essential for enabling very early, targeted interventions before significant irreversible neuropathological damage has occurred. Individuals reporting persistent, subjective concerns are significantly more likely to progress to Mild Cognitive Impairment, and eventually to clinically diagnosed AD, compared to their peers.
Traditional methods rely heavily on declarative memory impairment, but literature strongly suggests that the earliest cognitive deficits in pre-clinical AD pathology manifest not in classical memory function, but in executive particularly those functions reliant on the frontal and pre-frontal cortices.
Building on our recent evidence linking SCD to impaired inhibitory control of saccadic eye movements this project will conduct research study to validate this metric as a predictor of conversion to objective cognitive decline. Moreover, the work will employ participants with and without specific cognitive impairment (e.g.) spatial and verbal working memory to evaluate models of executive control by employing single case methodology to probe selective dissociations of cognitive operations (Crawford and Higham, 2016).
Supervisor: Trevor Crawford and Thom Wilcockson (Loughborough University)
Contact: t.crawford@lancaster.ac.uk
Research community: Neuro
References and further information: Eye Tracking and Neuropsychology Lab: https://wp.lancs.ac.uk/emr/
Project details: Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) is increasingly recognised in women, yet our understanding of how hormonal fluctuations influence cognition remains limited. Growing evidence suggests that ADHD symptoms and cognitive performance can vary across the menstrual cycle, with fluctuations in oestrogen and progesterone potentially affecting attention, executive function, working memory, and emotional regulation (Osianlis et al., 2025; Wynchank et al., 2025).
This project will investigate how cognitive and auditory processing change across the menstrual cycle in women with ADHD. Of particular interest is how hormonal fluctuations influence the processing of complex auditory information, including auditory attention, sensory prediction, learning, and responses to uncertainty, and whether these changes contribute to symptom variability frequently reported by women with ADHD.
The project provides the opportunity to combine behavioural approaches with neurophysiological methods, including electroencephalography (EEG) and pupillometry. EEG provides an excellent tool for probing automated as well as conscious processing. Pupillometry offers a non-invasive measure of cognitive effort and attentional resource allocation (Milne et al., 2021; Zhao et al., 2019) and may provide insight into activity within the locus coeruleus-noradrenergic system, which has been implicated in attentional regulation and ADHD (Shirama et al., 2020).
Potential directions include investigating how hormonal fluctuations influence auditory attention, listening effort, sensory prediction, and statistical learning in ADHD; examining changes in arousal and neuromodulatory function using pupillometry; or characterising neural responses to auditory information across the menstrual cycle using EEG. Further ideas can be discussed provided they align broadly with these themes.
Supervisor: Alice Milne, Carly Anderson
Contact: a.milne1@lancaster.ac.uk
Research community: Neuro
References and further information: References
Milne, A. E., Zhao, S., Tampakaki, C., Bury, G., & Chait, M. (2021). Journal of Neuroscience, 41(28), 6116-6127. https://doi.org/10.1523/JNEUROSCI.3195-20.2021
Osianlis, E., Thomas, E. H. X., Jenkins, L. M., & Gurvich, C. (2025). Journal of Attention Disorders, 29(9), 706-723. https://doi.org/10.1177/10870547251332319
Shirama, A., Takeda, T., Ohta, H., Iwanami, A., Toda, S., & Kato, N. (2020). PLOS ONE, 15(12), e0244662. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0244662
Wynchank, D., Sutrisno, R. M. G. T. M. F., van Andel, E., & Kooij, J. J. S. (2025). Journal of Clinical Medicine, 15(1), 121. https://doi.org/10.3390/jcm15010121
Zhao, S., Bury, G., Milne, A., & Chait, M. (2019). Trends in Hearing, 23, 2331216519887815. https://doi.org/10.1177/2331216519887815
https://sites.google.com/view/alicemilneneuro
https://www.lancaster.ac.uk/psychology/about-us/people/alice-milne
https://www.lancaster.ac.uk/psychology/about-us/people/carly-anderson
Project details: Menopause is a major neuroendocrine transition that affects approximately half the population, yet its impact on brain function remains poorly understood. Alongside well-known physical symptoms, many individuals experience changes in cognition, attention, memory, mood, sleep, sensory processing, and confidence in everyday activities (Brinton et al., 2015; Maki & Jaff, 2022). However, the mechanisms underlying these experiences, and why they vary markedly between individuals, remain unclear (Gurvich et al., 2026).
This PhD will investigate how hormonal changes across the menopausal transition influence cognitive, auditory, and neural function. The project could examine domains including attention, learning, decision-making, sensory processing, listening effort, and adaptation to changing environments. There could also be a particular focus on changes to the noradrenergic and dopaminergic pathways (Schwarz, et al. (2024), auditory processes, and predictive coding (Friston, 2005).
The project aims to develop a mechanistic understanding of the menopausal brain, identifying factors that contribute to individual differences in cognitive and sensory experiences and informing future strategies to support women in educational, clinical, and workplace settings. Depending on the interests of the student, the project could focus specifically on neurodivergent populations, including individuals with ADHD or autism, or explore similarities with other conditions associated with hormonal fluctuations and cognitive symptoms, such as endometriosis.
Supervisor: Alice Milne, Kate Slade
Contact: a.milne1@lancaster.ac.uk
Research community: Neuro
References and further information: Brinton, R. D., Yao, J., Yin, F., Mack, W. J., Cadenas, E., & Pike, C. J. (2015). Perimenopause as a neurological transition state. Nature Reviews Endocrinology, 11(7), 393-405. https://doi.org/10.1038/nrendo.2015.82
Gurvich, C., Spector, A., & Hickey, M. (2026). Advances in understanding of cognitive symptoms during menopause. The Lancet Obstetrics, Gynaecology, & Women’s Health, 2(4), e335-e345.
Maki, P. M., & Jaff, N. G. (2022). Cognitive changes during the menopause transition. Obstetrics and Gynecology Clinics of North America, 49(3), 473-488. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ogc.2022.05.007
Schwarz, J., et al. (2024). Autonomic nervous system dysfunction throughout menopausal transition: A potential mechanism underpinning cardiovascular and cognitive alterations during female ageing. Maturitas, 190, 108062.
https://sites.google.com/view/alicemilneneuro
https://www.lancaster.ac.uk/psychology/about-us/people/alice-milne
https://www.lancaster.ac.uk/health-and-medicine/about-us/people/kate-slade
Project details: ADHD is one of the most common neurodevelopmental conditions and can be associated with difficulties in education, employment and social life (Willcutt et al., 2012). Adults with more ADHD traits report talking to themselves more often (Benfield & Cole, 2026), and people with more hyperactive symptoms report thoughts that change more often in content (Raffaelli et al., 2025). These findings are difficult to reconcile with an influential theory describing ADHD as delayed development of inner speech (Barkley, 1997).
What does this inner speech do? It might aid focus, cause distraction, support self-regulation, or simply accompany fluctuations in alertness. Its functions and impact may differ between people and across contexts, potentially supporting adaptation in some circumstances while interfering with cognitive function or wellbeing in others. It could also vary depending on ADHD traits and whether people think in words and/or in images. This PhD will explore individual differences in the nature, functions and impact of inner speech in ADHD.
Participatory research will be central to the project. The student will be supported to work collaboratively with people with ADHD to shape research priorities, methods and interpretations. Within this framework, the student will have scope to develop various research questions and methodological approaches. Possible directions include relationships between inner speech and attention, goal-directed behaviour, emotional regulation or mental health; the neural mechanisms underlying different inner speech experiences; and the potential role of experience-dependent plasticity. The project could combine subjective, behavioural and neuroscientific methods, including EEG and fNIRS.
Supervisor: Dr Carly Anderson, Dr Bo Yao, Dr Alice Milne
Contact: c.anderson11@lancaster.ac.uk
Research community: Neuro
References and further information: https://www.lancaster.ac.uk/psychology/about-us/people/carly-anderson
https://www.lancaster.ac.uk/psychology/about-us/people/bo-yao
https://www.lancaster.ac.uk/psychology/about-us/people/alice-milne
Barkley, R. A. (1997). Behavioral inhibition, sustained attention, and executive functions: Constructing a unifying theory of ADHD. Psychological Bulletin, 121(1), 65–94. https://doi.org/10.1037/0033-2909.121.1.65
Benfield, E., & Cole, G. G. (2026). Self-directed speech and attention deficit hyperactive disorder-like behaviours. British Journal of Psychology, 117(1), 301–313. https://doi.org/10.1111/bjop.70027
Raffaelli, Q., et al. (2025). Hyperactive ADHD symptoms are associated with increased variability in thought content in less constrained contexts. Scientific Reports, 15, 9792. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-025-93053-x
Willcutt, E. G., et al. (2012). Validity of DSM-IV attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder symptom dimensions and subtypes. Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 121(4), 991–1010. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0027347
Project details: Our brains are constantly extracting patterns from the world around us. From the steady hum of a train to the rhythm of a conversation, predictable sensory information can help us navigate complex environments efficiently. Theories of predictive processing propose that the brain uses regularities in sensory input to generate expectations, reducing uncertainty and allowing cognitive resources to be allocated more effectively (Friston, 2010). Neuromodulatory systems involving dopamine, acetylcholine, and noradrenaline are thought to play a central role in these processes, influencing attention, learning, uncertainty, and mental effort (Aston-Jones & Cohen, 2005; Yu & Dayan, 2005).
This PhD will investigate how predictable sensory information shapes attention, cognitive effort, and behaviour. A particular focus will be understanding the influence of different auditory environments, including structured background sounds and noise, on cognitive performance. The project will explore why some individuals appear to benefit from background noise, while others are distracted by it. Individual differences associated with attentional traits and neurodivergence, including ADHD, will form an important part of the investigation. Previous studies suggest that background noise can improve cognitive performance in some people with ADHD, but the mechanisms underlying these effects remain unclear (Söderlund et al., 2007).
The project can involve a variety of neuroscientific techniques including pupillometry, EEG and non-invasive brain stimulation.
Supervisor: Dr Alice Milne, Dr Helen Nuthall
Contact: a.milne1@lancaster.ac.uk
Research community: Neuro
References and further information: Aston-Jones, G., & Cohen, J. D. (2005). Annual Review of Neuroscience, 28, 403-450.
Friston, K. (2010). Nature Reviews Neuroscience, 11(2), 127-138.
Söderlund, G. B. W., Sikström, S., & Smart, A. (2007). Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, 48(8), 840-847.
Yu, A. J., & Dayan, P. (2005). Neuron, 46(4), 681-692.
https://sites.google.com/view/alicemilneneuro
https://www.lancaster.ac.uk/psychology/about-us/people/alice-milne
https://www.lancaster.ac.uk/psychology/about-us/people/helen-nuttall
Project details: From rugby and football to boxing and martial arts, growing attention is being paid to the long-term effects of repeated head impacts on brain health. This PhD will investigate how exposure to head impacts influences hearing, listening effort, cognition and neural function across the lifespan. The project will combine behavioural assessments of hearing and cognition with cutting-edge neurophysiological methods including EEG to examine how the brain processes sound following sporting exposure. There will also be opportunities to explore whether non-invasive brain stimulation can be used to probe or enhance neural systems linked to attention, listening and cognitive performance. The project is ideal for students interested in neuroscience, psychology, sport science, audiology, biomedical sciences or data science, and offers the opportunity to contribute to an area of increasing scientific, clinical and public interest.
Supervisor: Helen Nuttall, Kate Slade (Lancaster Medical School), Chris Gaffney (Lancaster Medical School)
Contact: h.nuttall1@lancaster.ac.uk
Research community: Neuro
Project details: Why do some older adults struggle to follow conversations in noisy environments? Evidence from sleep research suggest that older adults' sleep may be part of the answer. This PhD will investigate how age-related changes in sleep architecture influence listening effort, speech understanding, and memory consolidation in older adults. Using high-density EEG, sleep recordings, and cognitive assessments, the project will examine how neural activity during sleep predicts performance in listening and memory tasks. Students will gain experience in neurophysiology, cognitive neuroscience, sleep science and advanced signal processing while addressing important questions about healthy ageing and quality of life. This project is particularly suited to students from psychology, neuroscience, biomedical science, physiology, computer science, engineering or related disciplines.
Supervisor: Helen Nuttall, Sana Hannan (Biomedical and Life Sciences)
Contact: h.nuttall1@lancaster.ac.uk
Research community: Neuro
Project details: Why do some people remain cognitively resilient throughout later life while others experience decline? This PhD will explore the role of hearing and communication in building cognitive reserve and brain health across the lifespan. Using hearing assessments, cognitive testing and neurophysiological measures such as EEG, the project will investigate how auditory function and lifestyle factors influence cognitive ageing. The work has direct relevance to healthy ageing, dementia prevention, and public health, and is ideal for students from psychology, neuroscience, audiology, biomedical sciences, health sciences and related disciplines.
Supervisor: Helen Nuttall, Kate Slade (Lancaster Medical School), Alice Milne
Contact: h.nuttall1@lancaster.ac.uk
Research community: Neuro
Project details: Lying convincingly can be a difficult task. We know that people who are credible liars are also better at other cognitive tasks that require mental flexibility, such as episodic future thinking (O’Connell et al., 2022) and counterfactual thinking (Briazu et al., 2017). We also know that working memory is associated with both lying and lie detection (Maldonado et al., 2018). However, we know very little about other cognitive skills that people rely on to tell lies successfully.
This PhD would study one or more cognitive skills that may contribute to successful lying. The skills that are studied could include: working and autobiographical memory, mental time travel, inhibition, task switching, language proficiency, emotion recognition, and/or visual imagination. How many and which skills are studied would be decided by the applicant in collaboration with the supervisors as the proposal is developed. We welcome ideas by the applicant. The aim of the PhD would be to find associations between different skills and to attempt to establish which skills are most important for successful lying.
The PhD would consist of several studies, which could each be centred on a different skill or could combine the study of different skills in different ways. Regardless of the skills that are included in the PhD, there will be studies looking at lie generation and at lie detection.
Supervisor: Lara Warmelink
Contact: l.warmelink@lancaster.ac.uk
Research community: Social
