An introduction to Andrea Oskis

All of the new staff have been asked to introduce themselves to the department, and wider readership, through this blog.

Here is the first:

All of my research is driven by the common aim of investigating how our interpersonal bonds impact our psychological and physical well-being, especially earlier on in the lifespan. My studies span the areas of Health Psychology, Clinical Psychology and Psychophysiology. In the main, my research has examined attachment style in relation to objective, physiological markers of well-being, and most of my work has involved the classic 'stress' hormone cortisol. Given that cortisol can be measured easily and non-invasively in saliva, this has probably contributed to me being known as the 'spit lecturer' in my previous posts. My new and exciting project still involves saliva, but this time the 'bonding' hormone, oxytocin, and examining this in relation to attachment, love and other aspects of interpersonal behaviour. I am carrying out this work with the Psychophysiology and Stress Research Group at the University of Westminster.

Since I love to talk to people about their relationships, I need a research tool that allows me to do this within a scientific setting! I have developed my expertise in interview assessments of attachment style and parenting via my association with the Centre for Abuse and Trauma Studies. I work with this group in an applied capacity as accredited trainer for the Attachment Style Interview. This work has served to be a springboard for me to develop my consultancy services to support those who work in healthcare settings, where these the measurement of attachment style is increasingly forming part of the assessment procedure. 

As well as talking to people and using interesting research tools, I also enjoy drumming up enthusiasm to study Psychology at university. So I am really excited to speak at this year's BPS ‘Psychology 4 Students’ event in London.  

Come and visit me in TG40, call me on extension 3107 or email me on A.Oskis@mdx.ac.uk. 

Andrea Oskis

Music Therapy and Music Psychology

In an attempt to find ways (a) to communicate about my blue-sky research to relevant community audiences, and, conversely, (b) to explore the community-based work in order to understand which of their needs my research might meet, I have attended the inaugural Nordoff-Robbins Plus Conference MUSIC AND COMMUNICATION: Music Therapy and Music Psychology, London 20th Sept. 2013.

In relation to point (a) I have presented two pieces of work as posters (see below for details), and in relation with point (b) I accepted to lead the discussion in one of several groups (and report back to plenary), working around questions that would help developing a common ground between practitioners in music therapy and education and researchers in psychology of music. This has been a dire challenge yet a refreshing and exciting bridge-building exercise!


Poster 1
This research is an international collaboration with Milan-Bicocca University (Psychology Dept.):

Infant attention to vocal or instrumental music at 6 months is mediated by sex

Fabia Franco, Laura D’Odorico & Iryna Kozar

This study is part of an extensive research programme investigating various aspects of the relationship between language and music in infancy (Franco, 2013 submitted). Specifically, the present ongoing study aims to assess whether [1] different preferences for vocal or instrumental music are observed at different ages during the first year of life, [2] early preferences for vocal or instrumental music predict language development at 12-14 months, and [3] different patterns of motor responses are observed in babies while they listen to vocal or instrumental music (e.g., rhythmic patterns).

The first tranche of data concerns 36 infants (18 female) aged 6 months, tested with three melodies (all major mode/fast tempo, 1 minute duration) presented once as instrumental and once as vocal music using non-words (randomised). The preferential listening experiment was run with MATLAB in a soundproof environment. 

Results revealed that both overall listening time (p= .046) and mean duration of infants’ listening (p = .02) were significantly longer with vocal than instrumental musical tracks. However, there was a significant sex X type interaction when considering both the duration of the first orientation towards the musical stimulus (p = .02) and the number of distraction episodes (p= .007), with male babies orienting for longer and getting distracted less with vocal than instrumental music and female babies displaying longer orientation and fewer distraction episodes with instrumental music. Other measures concerned frequency of smiles and vocalizations and visual checking with the parent.

The results suggest early sex differences in music attending, with males but not females presenting an early orientation to music associated with speech-like patterns. A follow- up at 14 months is planned to regress the 6-month listening measures against language development measures.

Poster 2
This is a collaboration with Joel Swaine (a community musician affiliated to the Centre for Music & Science at the University of Cambridge) – Kasia graduated with a 1st class degree with us last year:

Mood-matching music improves cognitive performance in adults and preschoolers

Fabia Franco, Joel Swaine & Kasia Zaborowska 

Many studies either supported or failed to support Rauscher et al.’s (1993) original findings of enhanced cognitive performance after listening to a Mozart sonata. In a subsequent wave of studies, Schellenberg and colleagues supported their hypothesis that the ‘Mozart effect’ is produced by the positively arousing effects of fast, upbeat music (see Schellenberg, 2012).

We tested a novel, alternative hypothesis that cognitive performance would be enhanced by exposure to music whose perceived expressive characteristics are congruent with a participant’s mood, and, conversely, would be hampered (or unaffected) by music that is mood-incongruent.

Experiment 1 involved 94 adults screened for mood. Two moods with opposite valence but similar arousal profiles were selected (happy vs. angry). Participants in each mood group were randomly assigned to a mood-congruent (e.g., angry/angry) or -incongruent (e.g., angry/happy) music condition. Before and after music exposure, participants completed an automated visual digit span memory test.

Experiment 2 involved 30 3-5-year-olds. A mood induction procedure with cartoon video clips was used with the children, and mood/music congruence was tested for ‘happy’ vs. ‘sad’ moods. Children’s memory was tested using an online matching game with the same before/after design used with adults.
In both experiments, music had been composed ad hoc and validated.

The mood-matching hypothesis was supported by the results, showing improved cognitive performance with respect to baseline only following exposure to music that was congruent with participants’ moods (i.e., improved performance was associated with exposure to ‘angry’ music in angry participants, but to ‘sad’ music in ‘sad’ participants). The effect was moderated by gender in the adult study, with women, not men, showing the mood-matching effect.

References
Rauscher, F. H., Shaw, G. L., & Ky, K. N. (1993). Music and spatial task performance. Nature, 365 (6447), 611.

Schellenberg, E. G. (2012). Cognitive performance after listening to music: a review of the Mozart effect. In MacDonald, R., Kreutz, G., & Mitchell, L. (eds.), Music, health, and wellbeing (pp. 324-338). Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Fabia Franco

Launch of the Social Science Section of the Parliamentary Office of Science & Technology (POST)

On Tuesday 10 September I attended the launch event for the new Social Science Section of the Parliamentary Office of Science & Technology (POST), an event titled ‘Social Science in Parliament: Improving the Evidence Base for Policy’ which was held at Portcullis House.

The social science section is being established in partnership with the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) and with the support of University College London. London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE) published a blog post the day before the event in which they provide reflections from some of the key speakers on the making of the Social Science Section and how it will seek to improve the impact of social science in policy-making. Follow this link.

I will briefly share some of my observations of the event. The seminar began with a welcome from Adam Afriyie MP (Chair of the Parliamentary Office of Science and Technology), an MP I hadn’t come across before but who seemed incredibly enthusiastic and committed to providing all parliamentarians with more access to social science research evidence.

Short presentations were then given by Dr David Halpern (National Adviser of the What Works Centres and Director of the Cabinet Office Behavioural Insights Team); Professor Teresa Rees AcSS (Board Member of the Campaign for Social Science and former Pro Vice Chancellor (Research), Cardiff University; Ms Jane Tinkler (Manager of the Public Policy Group and Research Fellow at the Department of Government, London School of Economics and Political Science) and Professor Paul Boyle (Chief Executive, ESRC). Professor Rees provided a very convincing argument for the importance of equalities in underpinning everything done by both researchers and parliamentarians. Jane Tinkler provided some interesting insights into the work her team have been doing on the impact of social sciences (see this blog), the key findings from which will be published as a book in 2014. Among the many figures Jane presented the fact that 12% of total grants and contracts to universities come from Social Science stood out as being both heartening but also a percentage we should be seeking to increase. Professor Boyle from the ESRC was very keen to focus our minds on developing new routes to the co-production of knowledge, in particular he urged us to think about links with the private sector and how these can be facilitated.

                                                                                                            

Reflections on the presentations were then presented by Baroness Lister of Burtersett CBS FBA. She highlighted that many parliamentarians do not appreciate or value qualitative research, they are however quick to give much more weight to anecdote. Baroness Lister argued that changing this mistaken belief is crucial because in order to create cultural change we need the in depth insights only qualitative research can provide. There was then a useful Q&A session, which took a while to warm up, yes even with all the high-flyers in the room the questions were slow to get started! The session was then concluded with comments from Kelvin Hopkins MP (Chair of the All-Party Parliamentary Group for Social Science and Policy) and Dr Chris Tyler (Director of POST).

I talked to Dr Abbi Hobbs, Social Sciences Advisor for POST after the event and she was very keen to hear more about what we’re doing in Middlesex. As a result she will be coming to the department in November (date TBC) to give a presentation about POST and hear more about our work.

You can find out more about POST at: www.parliament.uk/post

You can follow POST on Twitter: @POST_UK

Miranda Horvath

Run rabbit, run

Yvan Russell's research on predator evasion has had recent headline coverage - follow this link.

The work was presented by his collaborators at the recent Behaviour 2013 conference, held at the Gateshead Sage Centre.  The abstracts can be perused here.

This meeting was a joint gathering of the International Ethology Conference and the Association for the Study of Animal Behaviour, and was some 900 delegates strong.  An exciting array of keynote speakers were arranged, and the quality of the papers I saw whilst there was uniformly excellent.  Some very interesting science being done.

Perhaps of broader interest to the department was the work of Iain Couzin (Princeton) on group behaviours.  This video link gives a short version of his talk.

Tom Dickins

Success and conceptual dispersal

Nicky Payne and Suzan Lewis (PI) in the Business School along with some external colleagues have been successful in obtaining a ESRC research seminar series grant.   They have been awarded £23,536 for a series on work-life balance in the recession and beyond.   This is great news and I am sure we will all be interested in the outcome of the discussions too.

Also, Olga van den Akker has been spreading the word on the BBC.  She appear on Eddie Nestor's show and can be heard talking about sex and relationships.

Tom Dickins

Thoughts about REF

Over on Heuristics and Theories I have made a few comments about evolved psychology and the research excellence framework that might be of interest.

Tom Dickins

Community universities

The THE ran a story about two globetrotting early career academics who have given up their jobs to explore alternative university models.

I will soon be visiting Haight Ashbury, so I felt a little cynical at first, but Udi Mandel and Kelly Teamy have been keeping an enlivened learning blog of their adventures in pedagogic space, and it makes for interesting reading.

One point that they make is about cooperative knowledge economies, the idea that we might work with our students rather than present them with an education, thereby seeing universities as creative engines of culture, rather than training facilities.  Whilst we cannot break loose and set up shop on Hampstead Heath there are perhaps other ways we might engage more freely with our students and the community during the academic year.  Perhaps something to think about...

It also reminded me of a suggestion I heard some time back that students should have their lectures at home - no, not MOOCs, but stuff we prepare for them - and come to university to do their homework.  So classes become seminars and labs where we help the students to learn skills such, whilst they gain content in their own time.  That idea always struck me as economically more sensible - a better use of us and our abilities.  And, of course, it changes the whole 'contact time' dynamic.  It is not so much the amount of time, but the quality of its use.

Tom Dickins