Art, Cognition/Creativity and Emotion Research Group (ACErg)

About us

We are an interdisciplinary team of psychologists from different areas, audio-visual artists, and neuroscientists investigating several aspects of human behaviour: from empirical aesthetics and creativity through to neuro- and cognitive processing, extending to emotion and perception in social environments. The wide range of studies we develop in our laboratories allows us to cast aside the dichotomy between internal and external factors (environmental, cultural and neurocognitive) that constrained interdisciplinary research in the past. The research group has published a wide range of multidisciplinary studies in refereed national and international journals and book chapters, has organised meetings and small art exhibitions, and has a thriving group of PhD students.

Our purpose-built laboratories employ a wide range of equipment and methodologies (Biofeedback recorders, EEG, Eye-trackers, tDCS, Observation Labs, and assorted software) and research is also conducted through an extensive network of collaborating institutions.

Staff

Research Group Head: Dr Fatima M Felisberti
Dr Simona Cantarella
Dr Leonardo Weiss-Cohen
Dr Giulia Galli
Dr Chris Hewer
Dr Sabira Mannan
Dr Maria Mencia (KSA)
Dr Cristina Martinelli
Dr Amanda Rotella
Prof Frédéric Vallée-Tourangeau
Dr Nora Shaileshkumar Vyas
Dr Mircea Zloteanu

PhD students

Beren Barklam
Susan Cooper
Lara Quartel
Zoë McHayle
Sarah Geisemeyer (Viva: 2017)
Angela Medvedeva (Viva: 2019)
Wendy Ross (Viva: 2021)
Rose Turner (Viva: 2020)
Jane Trueman (Viva: 2017)

Research topics

For details of each of the topics currently being investigated in our laboratories, check the individual pages of our members.

Art and empirical aesthetics (e.g. visual art, music)
Behavioural finance, financial decisions, investments and trading
Cognition (memory, vision, perception)
Creativity, curiosity and serendipity
Decision making and judgements: decisions-from-experience, learning from feedback, description-experience gap.
Emotion and attachment (e.g. pet ownership)
Empathy and Theory of Mind
Face recognition (collaboration, trust, cheating and deception)
Neurocognition (e.g. hemineglect, dementia, schizophrenia)
Warning labels and disclaimers

Research funding

ongoing: Office for Product Safety and Standards, Department for Business, Energy, & Industrial Strategy: Risk-taking and responsibility attribution when using 'smart' products. L Weiss-Cohen (Co-PI)
ongoing: NCH-NU Research and Learning Development Initiative Grant, US$10,000: Effects of trading frequency and patterns using a simulated realistic stock market trading engine. L Weiss-Cohen (Co-PI)
ongoing: CResCID 2021 grant – "Individual differences affecting dynamic emotion authenticity perception". M Zloteanu (PI), F M Felisberti (PI)
ongoing: Senior Research Advancement Fund (SRAF 2021): Enhancing learning with educational audiobooks. F M Felisberti (co-PI)
British Academy Small Research Grant. G Galli (PI)
CResCID 2021 grant – "Individual differences affecting dynamic emotion authenticity perception". M Zloteanu (PI).
Covid-19 Research – "Recall of handwashing behaviour in hazardous scenarios". F M Felisberti (PI)
Marie Skodowska-Curie Horizon 2020 grant – "Quality of experience management in emerging multimedia services". F M Felisberti (co-PI)
BA/Leverhulme Small Research Grant, £9500 (PI): Researching a gambling warning label's effect on betting behaviour. Manuscript under review at Lancet Public Health. L Weiss-Cohen (Co-PI)
ING ThinkForward Initiative, €9100 (CI): How to empower people to make better financial decisions. Published in JEP:A. L Weiss-Cohen (Co-PI)

Representative publications

Kostopoulou, O., Nurek, M., Cantarella, S., Okoli, G., Fiorentino, F., & Delaney, B.C. (2019). Referral decision making of general practitioners: A Signal Detection study. Medical Decision Making, 39 (1).
Cantarella, S. , Hillenbrand, C., Aldridge-Waddon, L., & Puzzo, I. (2018). Preliminary evidence on the somatic marker hypothesis applied to investment choices. Journal of Neuroscience, Psychology, and Economics, 11(4), 228.
Felisberti, F M (2021). Experiences of ugliness in nature and urban environments. Empirical Studies of the Arts, 1–17. https://doi.org/10.1177/02762374211001798
Felisberti, F M (2018). Long-lasting effects of family-related factors on adults' ability to recognise brief facial expressions of emotion. Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology, 17, 1512–1525. https://doi.org/10.1177/1747021817742080
Galli, G, Miniussi, C & Pellicciari, M C (2020). Transcranial electric stimulation as a neural interface to gain insight on human brain functions : current knowledge and future perspective. Social Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience https://doi.org/10.1093/scan/nsaa099
Medvedeva, A., Materassi, M., Neacsu, V., Beresford-Webb, J., Hussin, A., Khan, N., Newton, F. and Galli, G. (2019). Effects of anodal transcranial direct current stimulation over the ventrolateral prefrontal cortex on episodic memory formation and retrieval. Cerebral Cortex, 29, 657-665. https://doi.org/10.1093/cercor/bhx347
Kajtazi-Testa, L & Hewer, C J (2018) Ambiguous loss and incomplete abduction narratives in Kosovo. Clinical Child Psychology and Psychiatry, 23(2), 333–345.
Roberts, R & Hewer, C J (2015) Memory, madness and conflict: a Laingian perspective. Memory Studies, 8(2), 169–182.
Mannan, S.K., Pambakian AL, and Kennard C.J (2010) Compensatory strategies following visual search training in patients with homonymous hemianopia: an eye movement study. Journal of Neurology, 257,1812-1821.
Mannan, S.K., Hodgson TL, Husain M, and Kennard, C. (2008). Eye movements in visual search indicate impaired saliency processing in Parkinson's disease. Progress in Brain Research, 171,559-62.
Rigoli, F., Martinelli, C. & Shergill, S S (2019) The role of expecting feedback during decision-making under risk. NeuroImage, 202, 116079.
Martinelli, C, Rigoli, F, Averbeck, B & Shergill, S S. (2018) The value of novelty in schizophrenia. Schizophrenia Research, 192, 287–293.
Rotella, A., Sparks, A. M., & Barclay, P. (2020). Feelings of obligation are valuations of signalling-mediated social payoffs. Behavioral and Brain Sciences, 43.
Rotella, A. M., & Mishra, S. (2020). Personal relative deprivation negatively predicts engagement in group decision-making.
Vallée-Tourangeau, F & March, P L. (2020) Insight out : making creativity visible. Journal of Creative Behavior, 54, 824–842.
Vallée-Tourangeau, F & Vallée-Tourangeau, G (2020) Mapping systemic resources in problem solving. New Ideas in Psychology, 59, 100812.
Vyas, N S., Buchsbaum, M S., Lehrer, D S., Merrill, B M., DeCastro, A, D, Nicholas A., Christian, B T. & Mukherjee, J (2018) D2/D3 dopamine receptor binding with [F-18]fallypride correlates of executive function in medication-naïve patients with schizophrenia. Schizophrenia Research, 192, 442–456.
Vyas, N S, Ahn, K, Stahl, D R, Caviston, P, Simic, M, Netherwood, S, Puri, B K, Lee, Y & Aitchison, K J (2014) Association of KIBRA rs17070145 polymorphism with episodic memory in the early stages of a human neurodevelopmental disorder. Psychiatry Research, 220(1-2), 37–43.
Weiss-Cohen, L., Newall, P.W.S., & Ayton, P. (2021). Persistence is futile: Chasing of past performance in repeated investment choices. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Applied.
Weiss-Cohen, L., Konstantinidis, E., & Harvey, N. (2021). Timing of descriptions shapes experience-based risky choice. Journal of Behavioral Decision Making, 34(1), 66-84.
Zloteanu, M, Bull, P, Krumhuber, E & Richardson, D (2020) Veracity judgment, not accuracy : reconsidering the role of facial expressions, empathy, and emotion recognition training on deception detection. Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology.
Zloteanu, M, Krumhuber, E G & Richardson, D C (2020) Acting surprised : comparing perceptions of different dynamic deliberate expressions. Journal of Nonverbal Behavior.

Events

14/01/2020. Talk by Dr Beatriz Calvo-Merino (City University): "Embodied perception: the influence of sensorimotor expertise in action, emotion and aesthetic processing". [JG 1001]
04/02/2020. Talk by Dr Fatima M Felisberti: "Emotions, mental imagery and aesthetic experiences with music and visual art". [JG 3001]
11/03/2021. Talk by E Beren Barklam: FARO Series - "Pet Ownership and Well-being during the COVID-19 Pandemic" [online]
2021/22 Events: TBC