Business and social sciences resources

Behavioural science lab

The Behavioural Science Laboratory is a purpose-built facility, for both internal and external behavioural scientists to collect state-of-the-art behavioural data. By providing a space to conduct behavioural and decision-making research, we aim to facilitate, develop and grow the community of behavioural scientists within a range of disciplines.

The behavioural science lab features:

A reception with a PC, phone, projector and ceiling speakers.
A computer lab fitted with 29 networked workstations, separated by individual cubicles.
A control room area with one controller PC station for the observation room and one controller PC station for the eye-tracking pod.
An eye-tracking "pod" fitted with a RED250 Mobile remote eye-tracking station and the SMI Experiment Suite Scientific software featuring tailored tools for eye-tracking research from experimental design through to data analysis.
An observation room fitted with three HD Cameras equipped with microphones and a control station equipped with the Noldus media recorder software to video and/or audio-record participants in the observation room and the Observer XT software for gathering and analysing observational data.

If you are interested in making use of this facility for your research, or if you are interested in learning more about behavioural decision science research, please contact the Head of the Decision, Attitudes, Risk, and Thinking group: Prof Gaëlle Vallée-Tourangeau, g.vallee-tourangeau@kingston.ac.uk

Psychology labs and facilities

Researchers in psychology benefit from a number of purpose-built research laboratories and a wide range of state-of-the-art equipment.

Specialist laboratories include a fully-equipped high-resolution EEG laboratory (BioSemi ActiveTwo 64+8+2 channel system). For studies of brain stimulation using tDCS, we have two NeuroConn DC-STIMULATOR PLUS probes. Real-time physiological monitoring is provided by a Biopac MP100 Physiological monitoring system (primarily used to measure galvanic skin response, respiration and cardiovascular function).

One laboratory is set up for psychopharmacological studies, such as tests of drug effects on eating behaviour, and includes equipment for drug preparation and storage, drug administration and the measurement of drug responses. Portable psychophysiological monitors of blood pressure, GSR, and blood-alcohol concentration are also available. Daytime and night-time activity can be measured via online actigraphs (MotionWatch 8, CamNtech).

There are two laboratories dedicated to eyetracking research: one is equipped with an Eyelink 1000 high-resolution eyetracker; a second (primarily used for studies with children and infants) is equipped with two eyetrackers, a Tobii T-120 eyetracker and a Tobii X2-60 eyetracker. For field research offsite, researchers use a mobile eyetracker (Tobii Smart IR plus Tobii Studio Enterprise Edition).
Neurocognitive testing is provided by two CANTABeclipse tablet-based (touchscreen) neuropsychological test batteries, and we also subscribe to the online CANTAB neuropsychological test platform. Cognitive testing is also provided by the web-based Inquisit application. Additionally, the department has developed its own bespoke platform for online psychological testing.

Studies of physiological and psychological influences on driving performance are conducted using a driving simulator in a dedicated laboratory (XPDS-RS simulator from XPI Simulation). The department's facilities also include state-of-the-art behavioural monitoring in a dedicated observation room with a separate digital viewing/editing suite (configured by Tracksys with Observer XT 11.0 monitoring applications). The observation lab is used for studies of problem solving, group processes and developmental psychology. One laboratory is configured to support studies of babies and infants.

To facilitate the management of recruitment to psychology studies we subscribe to the web-based ‘Sona Systems' research participant management application. A dedicated Psychology Store room houses the psychometric test bank (for loan; over 100 tests). Laptops are available for offsite testing with E-Prime and Superlab software; Psychology staff and students also have access to Adobe Photoshop CS3 Extended for image processing (e.g. for face recognition studies), Cooledit and Presentations software, Observer XT Video Pro, Observer Facereader and NVivo. We also have individual and networked access to MatLab. The School subscribes to Qualtrics for the development and distribution of online surveys and experiments. Find out more.