DISSERTATION TOPICS AVAILABLE 2018/2019

This document lists staff available to supervise MSc dissertations for the 2018/2019
academic year, along with a brief statement of research interests, and a description of topics
that each staff member is willing to supervise. In some cases, specific projects may be
described; in others, a more broad description of a research area is given. In addition to the
specific topics suggested, it is possible for you to suggest your own topic to a potential
supervisor.

Arranging supervision
It is up to you to approach supervisors to discuss topics (not relevant for Philosophy students
– see below). Your dissertation topic will be negotiated with your supervisor and must be
agreed by both parties. Any student can be supervised by any academic staff member,
provided that the topic is approved by your taught Programme Director as a topic relevant
to your MSc programme; this includes staff members external from PPLS.

Please note:
 Some programmes may produce specific topic lists in January so please ask your
Programme Director to confirm whether this is the case.

 Supervisors may have limited places, so you should not necessarily expect to be
accepted for your first choice of project.

Once you have agreed upon a dissertation topic with a supervisor, the Programme Director
must be informed, and asked to approve the topic. Only then will your project with that
supervisor be confirmed.

Timing
Your dissertation topic should ideally be confirmed by the end of February, and considerably
earlier if the project is complicated or likely to involve special populations (e.g. children,
neuropsychological patients) or requires NHS approval.

Word length and deadline

The recommended word limit for the dissertation is 8,000 words for taught MSc students
(check your programme handbook for specifics).

The submission deadline for the dissertation is 4pm, Thursday 15th August 2019. Details of
how to format the dissertation will be made available online.

Philosophy
Students in the MSc Philosophy, MSc Mind, Language and Embodied Cognition and MSc
Epistemology, Ethics and Mind programmes are required to submit a dissertation proposal
mid‐way through semester 2, and to nominate 2 or 3 potential supervisors. Supervision
allocation will be determined once all proposals have been submitted. Further details can be
found in the relevant programme handbooks.
 PHILOSOPHY
Students in the MSc Philosophy, MSc Mind, Language and Embodied Cognition and MSc
Epistemology, Ethics and Mind programmes are required to submit a dissertation proposal mid‐way
through semester 2, and to nominate 2 or 3 potential supervisors. Supervision allocation will be
determined once all proposals have been submitted. Further details can be found in the relevant
programme handbooks.

Thomas Baker
Office: 5.11 DSB
Email: [email protected]
Web: https://www.ed.ac.uk/profile/tom‐baker

Research Interests
My main area of research is at the intersection between philosophy of art and
philosophy of mind. I am interested in how empirical findings and philosophical
theorising on topics such as attention, empathy, introspection, and perception can
inform debates in philosophical aesthetics.

I am also interested in certain intersecting topics in ethics and epistemology, such as

the potential for moral learning from fiction and epistemic injustice in art discourse.

Jason Carter
Arriving January 2019

Research interests
I would be willing to supervise MSc dissertations on:
 Ancient Philosophy (any topic)
 Ethics (especially topics on Kantian ethics and virtue ethics)
 Philosophy of Religion (especially topics on religious belief)

Matthew Chrisman
Office: 4.06 DSB
Email: [email protected]
Web: https://www.ed.ac.uk/profile/matthew‐chrisman

Research Interests
Metaethics, especially the meaning of ethical statements and the nature of ethical
concepts. Normative thought and language, especially the meaning of ‘ought’ and the
nature of rules and norms, Epistemology, especially epistemic norms and the nature
of doxastic agency and virtue. Philosophy of Language, especially the theory of
meaningfulness, the interaction between semantics and metasemantics, and speech‐
act theory. Political Philosophy, especially the role of public discourse, civil
disobedience and the speech‐act of protest.
Alix Cohen
Office: 4.13 (DSB)
Email: [email protected]
Web: http://www.ed.ac.uk/profile/alix‐cohen

Research Interests
Early modern philosophy, Kant, Kantian ethics, Rousseau, Hume.

Guy Fletcher
Office: 4.03 (DSB)
Email: [email protected]
Web: https://www.ed.ac.uk/profile/guy‐fletcher

Research Interests
Meta‐ethics and the Meta‐normative in general (especially the Meta‐prudential).
Ethics (including the history of ethics). Political Philosophy.

Jade Fletcher
Office: 6.03 (DSB)
Email: [email protected]
Web: https://www.ed.ac.uk/profile/jade‐fletcher

Research Interests
My main area of research is metaphysics. My PhD focussed on the theoretical role
assigned to truth in metaphysical method. I also have keen interests in the philosophy
of language, social and feminist philosophy, and the philosophy of art.

Emma Gordon
Office: 5.04 (DSB)
Email: [email protected]
Web: https://www.ed.ac.uk/profile/emma‐gordon

Research Interests
Intellectual virtues and vices, social epistemology, the nature of understanding,
epistemic luck, modal epistemology, and bioethics (especially moral, cognitive and
emotional enhancement).

Sophie Keeling
Office: 4.02 (DSB)
Email: [email protected]
Web: https://www.ed.ac.uk/profile/sophie‐keeling

Research Interests
My interests include the philosophy of mind, epistemology and the philosophy of
psychology. More specifically, I've been researching issues including self‐knowledge,
self‐ignorance, confabulation, reasons, and rationality.
Inna Kupreeva
Office: 5.02 (DSB)
Email: [email protected]
Web: https://www.ed.ac.uk/profile/inna‐kupreeva

Research Interests
Ancient philosophy and science. My main area of research is ancient Greek
philosophy. I am interested in ancient theories of mind and matter, moral philosophy,
science and medicine. I specialise in Aristotle and Aristotelian tradition, and pursue
research also in Platonism and Stoic philosophy. I also have research interests in
medieval philosophy, in particular, in early Byzantine philosophy and Greek
philosophy in the Arabic sources.

Suilin Lavelle
Office: 5.07 (DSB)
Email: [email protected]
Web: https://www.ed.ac.uk/profile/suilin‐lavelle

Research Interests
Philosophy of psychology, philosophy of mind, cognitive science, moral psychology,
philosophy of science.

David Levy
Office: 5.10 (DSB)
Email: [email protected]
Web: https://www.ed.ac.uk/profile/david‐levy

Research Interests
Moral Philosophy, Wittgenstein, Understanding, Plato, Meaning, Simone Weil.

Andrew Mason
Office: 6.10 (DSB)
Email: [email protected]
Web: https://www.ed.ac.uk/profile/andrew‐mason

Research Interests
Ancient philosophy and early modern philosophy.

Elinor Mason
Office: 6.06 DSB
Email: [email protected]
Web: https://www.ed.ac.uk/profile/elinor‐mason

Research Interests
Moral philosophy.
Aidan McGlynn
Office: 6.12 (DSB)
Email: [email protected]
Web: https://www.ed.ac.uk/profile/aidan‐mcglynn

Research Interests
I work mostly on issues in epistemology, philosophy of language and philosophy of
mind, and I have a longstanding but largely underdeveloped interest in Wittgenstein. I
recently finished a series of papers and a book critically engaging with the knowledge
first approach to epistemology and related areas of mind and language, while my
current research concerns first‐person thought, particularly the phenomenon of
immunity to error through misidentification, self‐knowledge, and related issues
concerning how we attribute mental states to ourselves and to others. I have also
started working on politically‐charged applications of speech act theory, and their
relation to issues in epistemology. Epistemology, Philosophy of Language, Philosophy
of Mind.

Katie Monk
Office: 4.02 (DSB)
Email: [email protected]
Web: https://www.ed.ac.uk/profile/katiemonk

Research Interests
I work in philosophy of language, feminist philosophy, and their intersections.

Maggie O’Brien
Office: 4.12 (DSB)
Email: [email protected]
Web: https://www.ed.ac.uk/profile/maggie‐o‐brien

Research Interests
Philosophy of law, political philosophy, feminist philosophy, bioethics.

Pauline Phemister
Office: 6.04 (DSB)
Email: [email protected]
Web: http://www.ed.ac.uk/profile/pauline‐phemister

Research Interests
Early modern philosophy, especially Rationalists and Locke, Ecological Philosophy.

Bryan Pickel
Office: 4.04b (DSB)
Email: [email protected]
Web: http://www.ed.ac.uk/profile/bryan‐pickel

Research Interests
Metaphysics, philosophy of language and history of analytic philosophy.
Duncan Pritchard
Office: 6.13 (DSB)
Email: [email protected]
Web: https://www.ed.ac.uk/profile/duncan‐pritchard

Research Interests
Duncan's research is mainly in epistemology with particular focus on the following
issues: the problem of scepticism, the epistemic externalism / internalism distinction;
the rationality of religious belief; testimony; the relationship between epistemic and
content externalism; virtue epistemology; epistemic value; modal epistemology; the
history of scepticism; and epistemological contextualism.

Brian Rabern
Office: 4.04c (DSB)
Email: [email protected]
Web: https://www.ed.ac.uk/profile/brian‐rabern

Research Interests
Philosophy of language, formal semantics and philosophical logic.

Alasdair Richmond
Office: 6.11 (DSB)
Email: [email protected]
Web: http://www.ed.ac.uk/profile/alasdair‐richmond

Research Interests
Metaphysics (especially time and space), philosophy of science, the British empiricists
(especially Hume on miracles).

Michael Ridge
Office: 6.09 (DSB)
Email: [email protected]
Web: https://www.ed.ac.uk/profile/michael‐ridge

Research Interests
Moral and Political Philosophy, Action Theory, Philosophy of Mind.

Debbie Roberts
Office: 4.12 (DSB)
Email: [email protected]
Web: https://www.ed.ac.uk/profile/debbie‐roberts

Research Interests
Moral Philosophy, particularly metaethics and related areas.
Anders Schoubye
Office: 4.05 (DSB)
Email: [email protected]
Web: https://www.ed.ac.uk/profile/anders‐schoubye

Research Interests
Philosophy of language, formal semantics, pragmatics, formal epistemology, logic and
philosophy of mind.

Wolfgang Schwarz
Office: 6.02 (DSB)
Email: [email protected]
Web: https://www.ed.ac.uk/profile/wolfgang‐schwarz

Research Interests
I work on a variety of topics mostly in decision theory and formal epistemology,
philosophy of language, philosophy of science, and metaphysics.

Issues I've been thinking about recently include:

 Foundational questions in decision theory
 The semantics of ability statements
 Belief update and diachronic norms in Bayesian epistemology
 The nature of mental and linguistic content
 Model theory of quantified modal logics

Paul Schweizer
Email: [email protected]
Web: https://www.inf.ed.ac.uk/people/staff/Paul_Schweizer.html

Research Interests
 Philosophy of Mind, Cognitive Science, AI
 Computation in Physical Systems
 Philosophy of Language

Martin Smith
Office: 5.08 DSB
Email: [email protected]
Web: http://www.ed.ac.uk/profile/martin‐smith

Research Interests
Epistemology, Logic, Philosophy of Law.
Mark Sprevak
Office: 5.12 DSB
Email: [email protected]
Web: https://www.ed.ac.uk/profile/mark‐sprevak

Research Interests
My primary research interests are in philosophy of mind, philosophy of science,
metaphysics, and philosophy of language, with particular focus on the cognitive
sciences.

Mog Stapleton
Office: 5.04 DSB
Email: [email protected]
Web: https://www.ed.ac.uk/profile/mog‐stapleton

Research Interests
Embodied and enactive approaches to the affective and cognitive sciences.

Patrick Todd
Office: 4.04a DSB
Email: [email protected]
Web: https://www.ed.ac.uk/profile/patrick‐todd

Research Interests
Free will, moral responsibility, metaphysics, ethics and philosophy of religion.

Nick Treanor
Office: 6.07 DSB
Email: [email protected]
Web: https://www.ed.ac.uk/profile/nick‐treanor

Research Interests
Metaphysics, Epistemology, Philosophy of Mind and Language.

Dave Ward
Office: 6.05 (DSB)
Email: [email protected]
Web: http://www.ed.ac.uk/profile/david‐ward

Research Interests
Dave is interested in working out the relationships between perception, agency and
understanding, and using both cognitive science and the history of philosophy to do
this. One aspect of this involves thinking about the scope and limits of 'enactivist'
approaches in philosophy of mind and cognitive science. Another aspect is trying to
work out what German Idealists (like Kant and Hegel) and Phenomenologists (like
Merleau‐Ponty) have to teach us about these relationships.

Philosophy of mind and cognitive science.

Lani Watson
Office: 5.05 (DSB)
Email: [email protected]
Web: https://www.ed.ac.uk/profile/lani‐watson

Research Interests
I am interested in the many ways in which the practice of asking questions affects our
everyday lives. My research focuses on the role that questioning plays in helping us to
learn and understand, and to participate in social and political institutions. I view
education as a primary context for training the skills involved in good questioning and
am currently developing a technological intervention, based on philosophical
principles, aimed at improving student questioning in the classroom.
PSYCHOLOGY
Sharon Abrahams
Office: S11 (7GS)
Email: [email protected]
Web: https://www.ed.ac.uk/profile/sharon‐abrahams

Research interests
Neuropsychology of Neurodegenerative Disease, Motor Neurone Disease and
Frontotemporal Dementia. Clinical Neuropsychology: Behaviour change, social cognition,
executive dysfunction,

Projects:
1. How does behaviour change during the course of Motor Neurone Disease (MND).

It is well documented that a significant proportion of patients with MND suffer from
behavioural changes similar to behavioural variant frontotemporal dementia
including apathy, disinhibition loss of sympathy and empathy, change in eating
behaviour and perseveration. Furthermore a recent study has shown that the
presence of these abnormal behaviours increases in later disease stages. This project
will involve analysis of previously collected data using the behaviour screen of the
Edinburgh Cognitive and Behavioural ALS Screen (ECAS: https://ecas.psy.ed.ac.uk).
Data has been collected with 3 to 4 month intervals in two previous studies. Here
the project will involve a qualitative analysis of the behavioural interviews. This
project will investigate the possible presence of these behaviour symptoms in a
normal healthy aging population, to determine what constitutes ‘abnormal’
behaviour.

 Crockford C, Newton J, Lonergan K, Chiwera T, Booth T, Chandran S et al. ALS

Specific cognitive and behaviour changes associated with advancing disease
stage in ALS. Neurology. 2018 Jun 28.
 Abrahams S, Newton J, Niven E, Foley J, Bak TH. Screening for cognition and
behaviour changes in ALS. Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis and Frontotemporal
Degeneration. 2014 Mar;15(1‐2):9‐14. Available from, DOI:
10.3109/21678421.2013.805784
 Goldstein LH, Abrahams S. Changes in cognition and behaviour in amyotrophic
lateral sclerosis: Nature of impairment and implications for assessment. The
Lancet Neurology. 2013 Apr;12(4):368‐380. Available from, DOI:
10.1016/S1474‐4422(13)70026‐7

2. The profile of apathy in aging

Apathy is a common feature of neurodegenerative disease. It is multidimensional
and we have identified 3 subtypes: Executive, Initiation and Emotional which are
varyingly affected in different diseases. These can be measured using the
Dimensional Apathy Scale. However apathy may also be a common feature of aging
particularly in people post retirement and the profile apathy in terms of the 3
subtypes has yet to be determined in an aged population. This project will
investigate the effect of aging on the dimensional apathy profile. The project will
collate previously collected data on aged and younger healthy groups and will collect
further data from ‘middle aged’ health participants.
  Radakovic R, Abrahams S. Multidimensional apathy: Evidence from
Neurodegenerative Disease . Current Opinion in Behavioral Sciences. 2018 Jan
30;22:42‐49. Available from, DOI: 10.1016/j.cobeha.2017.12.022
 Radakovic R, Abrahams S. Developing a new apathy measurement scale:
Dimensional apathy scale. Psychiatry Research. 2014 Nov 30;219(3):658‐663.
Available from, DOI: 10.1016/j.psychres.2014.06.010

Thomas Bak
Office: S3 (7GS)
Email: [email protected]
Web: https://www.ed.ac.uk/profile/thomas‐bak

Research interests
Cognitive effects of bilingualism across the lifespan, translation and adaptation of cognitive
and motor tests into different languages and cultures, the interaction between movement,
language and cognition in neurodegenerative diseases

Projects

Cognitive effects of bilingualism

Such projects could look at the relatively recent and hotly debated question whether
bilingualism can influence cognitive functions across the lifespan. Potential projects could
examine different types of bilingualism (from early balanced one to learning new languages
in later life), different tasks and different populations.

Vega‐Mendoza M, West H, Sorace A, & Bak TH (2015). The impact of late, non‐balanced
bilingualism on cognitive performance. Cognition. E‐pub 14/1/2015.

Bak TH, Vega‐Mendoza M, Sorace A (2014) Never too late? An advantage on tests of
auditory attention extends to late bilinguals. Frontiers in Psychology no. 5: 485. On‐line
publication 26 May 2014.

Bak TH, Long MR, Vega‐Mendoza M, Sorace A. (2016) Novelty, Challenge, and Practice: The
Impact of Intensive Language Learning on Attentional Functions. PLoS One. Published on‐line
27 April 2016
University of Edinburgh

Movement, language and cognition in neurodegenerative diseases

Current bureaucratic hurdles make direct work with patients as part of an MSc project
impossible, so the most clinical work I can offer is using already collected and anonymised
patient data, in particular Edinburgh Motor Examination (EMAS) and Boston Cookie Theft
Description for Boston Diagnostic Aphasia Examination (BDAE). An exception would be
overseas students having access to patients in their own countries.
Timothy C. Bates
Office: F33 (7GS)
Email: [email protected]
Web: https://www.ed.ac.uk/profile/timothy‐bates

Research interests
 Personality, particularly conscientiousness
 Testing replication, especially in education: e.g. Mindset
 Genetics: Both molecular and twin studies on anything from optimism to unemployment
 Improving education
 Improving intelligence and rationality

I am also happy to discuss any ideas related to my research or research.

Tom Booth
Office: F17 (7GS)
Email: [email protected]
Web: https://www.ed.ac.uk/profile/tom‐booth

Research Interests
My research interests sit at the intersection of personality, health and
organisational psychology. Much of my work is longitudinal, and all is quantitative. I am
happy to supervise projects within this broad area, and would invite potential students to
come and discuss their ideas. Currently I have a specific interest in:

1. Investigating the stability of personality‐criterion associations through close

consideration of item content.
2. Use of experience sampling methodology to investigate the degree to which
situations change individuals personality manifestations, and whether any such
differences are deliberate ‐ in other words, do we present differently in different
situations and how consistently.
3. Using experience sampling to validate other reports of personality.
4. Impact of retirement on mental and physical health (secondary data projects).

Nicolas Chevalier
Office: S28 (7GS)
Email: [email protected]
Web: http://www.ed.ac.uk/profile/nicolas‐chevalier

Research interests
While working on a project or assignment, you may need to prevent mind wandering and
ignore the temptation to check your emails and Facebook page. Efficient control over your
thoughts, actions and emotions will help you stay on task and get it done. In contrast,
children tend to be “all over the place”, not exerting cognitive control (also referred to as
executive functioning) as well as do adults. Yet, emerging cognitive control during childhood
is one of the best predictors of academic achievement and later life outcomes such as
health, income, or criminal records. Given the key role of cognitive control in child
development, the study of its development has become one of the “hottest” topics in
developmental science. My work uses behavioural, eye‐tracking, and neuroimaging (EEG,
fNIRS) measures to address how pre‐schoolers and school‐age children process
environmental information to determine how and when to engage cognitive control.

Projects on cognitive control development will give you the opportunity to learn how to
design and conduct an experiment with children of various ages, and to familiarize yourself
with the collection and analysis of behavioural (reaction times, accuracy), eye‐tracking (e.g.,
gaze time, pupillometry), and neuroimaging (EEG, fNIRS) data.

**Students are advised to contact Dr Chevalier as soon as possible in the academic year for
availability**

Catherine Crompton
Office: Centre for Clinical Brain Sciences/
Division of Psychiatry, Kennedy Tower.
Email: [email protected]

Research interests
Autism, neurodiversity, neurodiverse social interactions, social cognition, executive
function,

Projects
I am interested in supervising students on the following topics, but also welcome student‐
led proposals relating to my research interests
o autistic attitudes towards, and experiences of, peer support services
o Coding interactions between autistic and neurotypical peers for indicators of
interactive rapport
o understanding the experiences neurotypical peoples’ social interactions with
autistic people, including the experiences of autism professionals.

Rachael Davis
Office: Centre for Clinical Brain Sciences/
Division of Psychiatry, Kennedy Tower
Email: [email protected]

Research interests
Autism, bilingualism, cognitive development, neurodiversity, executive function, social
cognition

Projects
I am interested in supervising students on the following topics, but also welcome student‐
led proposals relating to my research interests
 Understanding the effects of bilingualism on executive function skills in children with
and without autism
 Understanding the effects of bilingualism on social cognition in children with and
without autism
 Play behaviours and gender stereotyping in children with autism
Sergio Della Sala
Office: F6 (7GS)
Email: [email protected]
Web: https://www.ed.ac.uk/profile/sergio‐della‐sala

Research interests
Cognitive neuropsychology, in particular memory and amnesia or visuo‐spatial and
representational neglect, and the cognitive deficits associated to Alzheimer’s Disease.

Projects
I am prepared to supervise projects proposed by MSc students within the field of my
expertise.

Alex Doumas
Office: S5 (7GS)
Email: [email protected]
Web: http://www.ed.ac.uk/profile/leonidas‐doumas

Research interests
Humans routinely make inductive inferences that far outstrip those made by even our
closest primate cousins. Broadly, I am interested in how humans (and non‐human machines)
develop the kinds of representations that support these inferences. More specifically, I am
interested in how systems can and do learn structured relational representations
(like above, next‐to, or chases). Relational reasoning (reasoning based on the relational roles
that objects play rather than the literal features of those objects) is ubiquitous in human
cognition, but relational representations are exceedingly difficult to learn. The power of
relational representations stems from their promiscuity: Our representation of a relation
like more, for instance, can take any possible arguments (e.g, the dog can weigh more than
the cat, the winnings can be more than the losses, and the relative neatness of one
particular cartoon alien can be more than the neatness of another particular cartoon alien).
In other words, the representation of the relation is invariant with respect to its arguments.
However, we never actually experience generalised instances of relations in our
environments. Our experience of relations in the world occurs only in the context of specific
objects. So, our representation of a relation like more is disembodied, or untied to any
specific objects, but our experience with more‐ness in the world has precisely the opposite
property. How, then, do we learn these kinds of relational concepts? How is it that children
by (roughly) the age of 5, reason about many relational concepts like experts, while no non‐
human animal seems able to even approximate truly relational thinking? In my lab we use
both empirical (with children and adults) and computational methods to get at answers to
these and other related questions.

Projects
 Relational reasoning
 Development of relational reasoning
 Capacity limits in human relational reasoning
 Training regimens and acquisition of relational concepts
Sue Fletcher‐Watson
Office: Centre for Clinical brain Sciences
Email: Sue.Fletcher‐[email protected]

https://www.ed.ac.uk/clinical‐brain‐sciences/people/principal‐investigators/dr‐sue‐fletcher‐watson

Research interests
Autism; social cognitive development; infant cognitive development; technology based
support and education; participatory methods.

Projects
I am interested in supervising students on the following specific topics, but am also happy to
hear student proposals relating to my research interests listed above:

 Development and validation of a large battery of “social” images depicting not just
human content but other forms of social information ‐ e.g. culturally or emotional
significant items and locations ‐ via eye‐tracking or verbal descriptions.

 Synthesis of recommendations for the design of clinical trials and research studies
with populations with learning disability from stakeholder input: qualitative analysis
of an existing data set

 Comparison of how different groups define “challenging behaviour” ‐ including

autistic adults, parents with and without autism, and autism professionals in health
and education settings.

Elena Gherri
Office: S41 (7GS)
Email: [email protected]
Web: https://www.ed.ac.uk/profile/elena‐gherri

Both the projects described are ideal for two students working in a pair.

Project 1: Target‐distractor competition in a tactile search task

While the electrophysiological correlates of target selection in search tasks have been widely
investigated in the visual domain (see Eimer, 2014; Woodman, 2013 for recent reviews), still
very little is known about attentional selectivity in other sensory modalities, such as touch.
In particular, the neural mechanisms underlying tactile selectivity remains almost completely
unexplored. Recently, a lateralised ERP component, labelled N140cc, was suggested to
reflect the correlates of target selection, similar to that observed during visual search tasks
(Foster, Tziraki and Jones, 2016).

Recent evidence from our lab (Ambron, Mas‐Casadesus & Gherri, 2018) has suggested that
the amplitude of the N140cc is modulated by the distance between target and distractor in
external space. Target‐distractor discriminations were less accurate when the hands were
close together, that is when the distance between stimuli was reduced. Crucially, we
observed that the amplitude of the N140cc component was reduced in the hands near
condition as compared to the hands far. This suggests that when competition between
stimuli is increased (their distance is reduced) the target selection process is degraded, in
line with evidence from the visual domain (e.g. Hilimire, Mounts, Parks & Corballis, 2010).
The aim of the present study is to investigate whether an analogous effect of distance can
be also mediated by the somatotopic distance between target and distractor. In this study
participants will keep their hands in the same position throughout the task. The tactile
search array will include six stimuli (three on the left and three on the right hand): one
target, one salient distractor and four homogeneous distractors will be randomly presented
on each trial. Participants will be asked to localize the target while ignoring all distractors.
Both behavioural and ERP data will be measured. We will investigate the target‐salient
distractor distance effect by comparing trials in which completion between these stimuli is
highest (when they are next to each other on the same side) and lowest (when they are
separated by an homogeneous distractor on the same side).

If the competition between target and the salient distractor hinders target selection we
expect to observe a reduced N140cc when it is highest (target and salient distractor next to
each other on the same side) as compared to when there is no competition (no salient
distractor) or when competition is lowest (increased distance between target and salient
distractors).

Project 2: Peri‐personal space around lower limbs

Consistent evidence shows that the body representation in the brain is highly flexible and
quickly adapts following apparent or real changes to the body (e.g. Farne et a., 2000;
Graziano et al., 2000; Pavani et al., 2000) as well as following active tool‐use that extends
reachable space (e.g. Iriki et al., 1996; Maravita et al., 2002). However, this evidence was
primarily concerned with the representation of the upper part of the body. Because the
brain constructs several body‐part‐centred representations of space, based on the
integration of visual, tactile and proprioceptive information, it is currently not known
whether analogous properties characterize brain representations of the lower limbs. The
aim of this project is to investigate the flexibility of the body representation of lower limbs
by measuring multisensory visuo‐tactile integration around the body.

Paul Hoffman
Office: F8 (7GS)
Email: [email protected]
Web: https://www.ed.ac.uk/profile/paul‐hoffman

Research interests
Semantic memory, in particular how we regulate and control our access to knowledge, how
this ability supports speech and language behaviours and how it changes in healthy ageing.
Wendy Johnson
Office: F10 (7GS)
Email: [email protected]
Web: http://www.ed.ac.uk/profile/wendy‐johnson

Research interests
Individual differences: structure of intelligence and personality, life‐span development of
intelligence and personality, health and aging, genetic and environmental transactions and
their influence on behavior, intelligence, and personality

Projects
Pretty much anything, but especially anything related to intelligence, personality, academic
achievement, health outcomes (mental and physical), genetics, sample selection, cognitive
and physical ageing, or education. I could supervise any of the research methodology
students. Many students who work with me will end up using archival data from existing
studies. While this simplifies the data accumulation process considerably, these projects
usually make it up in complexity of statistical analysis. Students working with me should
have solid basic analytical skills and willingness and ability to acquire more.

Elizabeth Kirkham
Email: [email protected]
Web: https://www.ed.ac.uk/profile/dr‐elizabeth‐kirkham

Research interests
I have research interests in the following areas: mental health; human neuroscience; early
life stress (such as abuse and neglect), and its effect on the adult brain; and human
processing of emotional stimuli (e.g. facial expressions).

Projects
 Relationships between early life stress and adults’ current psychological health and
functioning.
 How do experiences of mental health conditions and early life stress interact with
people’s processing of emotional stimuli?

I am also happy to discuss students’ ideas for projects which fall within my areas of research.

Billy Lee
Office: S40 (7GS)
Email: [email protected]
Web: https://www.ed.ac.uk/profile/billy‐lee

Research interests
I am interested in Phenomenological Psychology and use experience‐near qualitative
methods to explore and to understand people’s lived experiences. I welcome proposals for
projects to explore gender, identity, sexuality, relationships, mental health, well‐being,
therapy and counselling, and other areas of marginal or different experience. I am currently
exploring understandings of the talking therapies and the development of therapeutic
talking and listening in counsellors.
Projects
 Gender, identity and sexuality
 Mental health, relationships and well‐being
 Psychotherapy, counselling and social communication

Robert Logie
Office: F9 (7GS)
Email: [email protected]
Web: http://www.ed.ac.uk/profile/robert‐logie

Research interests
Research and teaching interests lie in the cognition of human memory in the healthy brain
across the lifespan, focused on experimental behavioural studies of working memory.

Projects
I am available to supervise MSc projects using cognitive, behavioural, experimental
approaches to the study of any area of memory in healthy human adults.

Steve Loughnan
Office: UF40 (7GS)
Email: [email protected]
Web: https://www.ed.ac.uk/profile/steve‐loughnan

Research interests
The psychology of attributing humanity and moral concern to people (dehumanization,
objectification) and to animals (anthropomorphism). The psychological impact of inequality
and scarcity.

Projects
I am available to supervise MSc projects on my topics of interest.

Sarah MacPherson
Office: S11A (7GS)
Email: [email protected]
Web: http://www.ed.ac.uk/profile/sarah‐e‐macpherson

Research interests
My research interests are the assessment and understanding of frontal lobe functions such
as memory, executive abilities and social cognition and how they are affected by healthy
adult ageing and brain damage. I am happy to discuss the supervision of other potential
projects related to my research, in addition to the topics below.

Projects
 The Cognitive Estimation Test in aging
 The influence of rewards on performance on frontal executive tests.
 The ecological validity of social cognition assessment in healthy aging?
 The assessment of multitasking abilities in healthy adult aging.
 Factors influencing source memory performance in healthy ageing.
Cristina Marinho

Office: S29 (7GS)

Email: [email protected]
Web: https://www.ed.ac.uk/profile/cristina‐marinho

Research interests

Language and politics from a discursive psychology perspective, investigating, for instance,
persuasion, political/identity dilemmas, and fascist/populist discourse in democratic
societies.

Project

Professor Sue Widdicombe and I are happy to co‐supervise projects using naturally occurring
discourse to examine identities and accountability in relation to political figures and events.
For example, in reactions to the recent death of journalist Jamal Khashoggi, or where there
are accusations of ‘fake news’. The project will contribute to discursive psychological work
on categorisations, blame, and accountability in real‐life contexts.

Similarly, we are happy to co‐supervise projects on the way that political issues can be
framed as hard choices that have to be made. For example, the police are presented as
having to make a hard choice between investigating hate crime and ‘traditional’ crimes like
burglaries. How is this construction used in accounting for actions and decisions?

Rob McIntosh
Office: UF36 (7GS)
Email: [email protected]
Web: https://www.ed.ac.uk/profile/robert‐mcintosh

Research interests
I work on perception, attention and action in the damaged and healthy brain. I am director
of the human movement lab, which has a range of cutting‐edge facilities for motion tracking
or hand, body and eye movements. I’m open to discussion of projects that intersect with any
of my main research interests (see homepage). However, there are three main projects that
I am most keen to take forward this year:

Projects

1. Modelling parietal lobe reaching deficits in the healthy brain

Damage to the posterior parietal lobe can cause a disorder known as Optic Ataxia. Patients
with Optic Ataxia make characteristic spatial errors when reaching for visual targets. This is
classically described as being independent of any problems in visual perception or attention;
but this traditional understanding is beginning to be questioned. Recent work suggests that,
if stringent tests are used, almost all patients with Optic Ataxia show some degree of
attentional impairment. This implies a close relationship between the control of visual
attention and the ability to make accurate visually‐guided movements. We have studied this
functional link by attempting to simulate Optic Ataxia in healthy adults, using a dual‐task to
place additional load on visual attention whilst people make reaching movements to targets
throughout their visual field. Our early studies suggest that attentional depletion can cause
healthy people to make reaching errors reminiscent of those seen in Optic Ataxia, though
smaller in magnitude. This project will seek ways to amplify these effects of attentional load
on misreaching. The specific experiments will be designed with the student. You will learn a
lot, theoretically, about attention and action in the healthy and damaged brain. Practically,
you will learn a lot about the kinematic analysis of movement.

McIntosh, R. D. (2010). Optic Ataxia. Encyclopedia of Perception. Goldstein, E. B. (ed.). Sage

Publications Inc., p. 706‐708. [pdf]
McIntosh, R. D., Mulroue, A., Blangero, A., Pisella, L., & Rossetti, Y. (2011). Correlated
deficits of perception and action in optic ataxia. Neuropsychologia, 49(1), 131‐137.
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neuropsychologia.2010.11.017

2. Decision‐making in the eye‐movement system

For several years, we have been studying an interesting eye‐movement phenomenon,
known as saccadic inhibition. This is a low‐level oculomotor response, whereby ongoing
behaviour is paused as an immediate response to any unexpected event within the visual
scene. The response is very fast and automatic; and the more salient the event, the more
likely the system is to pause. We recently published evidence that this inherent distractibility
of the eye movement system plays an adaptive role in behaviour, by providing more scope
for a rapid change of plan when unexpected events arise. This project will use eye‐tracking
to ask follow‐up questions to our recent paper establishing this functional advantage of
saccadic inhibition. The experiments will be designed with the student and with Dr. Antimo
Buonocore. You will learn a lot about the analysis of human eye‐movements.

Buonocore, A., Purokayastha, S., & McIntosh, R. D. (2017). Saccade reorienting is facilitated
by pausing the oculomotor program. Journal of cognitive neuroscience, 29(12), 2068‐2080.
https://doi.org/10.1162/jocn_a_01179

3. Performance, skill, and self‐estimation

In 1999, Kruger & Dunning, reported that, when people were asked to estimate how good
they are at judging humour, or reasoning, the people who were worst in these abilities vastly
over‐estimated their competence. This is one of those findings in Psychology that has really
captured people’s imagination. The paper has been cited thousands of times, and bloggers
and journalists love the idea that stupid people are too stupid to know how stupid they are
(google “Dunning‐Kruger”). However, the past literature has not clearly established that
differences in metacognitive insight really do underlie this effect. We recently examined the
role of metacognitive differences in the effect, using some more basic tasks, like simple
pointing at dots. We found that unskilled people do have poorer metacognitive insight, but
that this is neither necessary nor sufficient for the Dunning‐Kruger effect. A pre‐print version
of our paper, currently under review, is available at PsyArXiv. This project will follow‐up on
this paper. The experiment will be designed with the student and Prof. Sergio Della Sala. One
idea might be to apply our psychophysical methods for measuring metacognition, within the
sorts of ‘higher‐level’ cognitive tasks for which the Dunning‐Kruger effect was originally
established (e.g. logical reasoning or general knowledge tasks).

McIntosh, R. D., Fowler, E., Lyu, T., Della Sala, S., & McIntosh, R. D. (2018). Psychophysical
deconstruction of the Dunning‐Kruger effect. PsyArXiv.
https://doi.org/10.31234/osf.io/czms3
Adam Moore
Office: S32 (7GS)
Email: [email protected]
Web: https://www.ed.ac.uk/profile/adam‐moore

Research interests
 Moral judgement, particularly the cognitive mechanisms that underpin this; the
psychology of corruption
 Motivation and the desire for power; influence of individual differences in desire for
power on decision making
 Logical reasoning; mental models and probability heuristics models of reasoning

Projects
I am happy to discuss any ideas related to my research or research interests.

I will also offer to supervise a statistical reanalysis, and subsequent further analysis, of a
published dataset from:
Blake, K. R., Bastian, B., Denson, T. F., Grosjean, P., & Brooks, R. C. (2018). Income inequality
not gender inequality positively covaries with female sexualization on social media.
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 115(35), 8722‐8727.

René Mõttus
Office: S4 (7GS)
Email: [email protected]
Web: http://www.ed.ac.uk/profile/rene‐mottus

Research interests
I am interested in individual differences, mostly on the personality side.

Projects
Which personality characteristics tend to be most heritable and predictive of life outcomes?

Eva Murzyn
Office: G10 (7GS)
Email: [email protected]
Web: https://www.ed.ac.uk/profile/eva‐murzyn

Research interests
I’m interested in how people play video games. Potential topic areas include individual
differences in personality and game play, moral choices in games, and collaboration and
competition in multiplayer games. I use both quantitative approaches (questionnaire and
experimental methods) and Thematic Analysis.

Projects
 Toxic and collaborative behaviours in MMO and MOBA games
 Individual predictors of moral choices in video games
 E‐sports performance
 Serious and educational games
Martin Pickering
Office: S12 (7GS)
Email: [email protected]
Web: http://www.ed.ac.uk/profile/martin‐pickering

Research interests
I am interested in language production, comprehension, dialogue, bilingualism, and reading.
At the moment, I am particularly interested in studying interactive language as a form of
"joint action" (whereby the use of prediction and covert imitation appears to make
"smooth" dialogue possible), and in the question of whether interlocutors represent their
partners' utterances in the same format as their own. However, I am also interested in
"traditional" psycholinguistic questions, particularly as relating to syntax, semantics, and
discourse.

Projects
 Joint production of utterances
 Structural priming and language production
 Language switching in bilinguals
 Prediction, imagination and inner speech

Hugh Rabagliati
Office: S31 (7GS)
Email: [email protected]
Web: http://www.ed.ac.uk/profile/hugh‐rabagliati

Research interests
I study language acquisition and conceptual development, and have a side interest in the
relationship between language and attention / awareness. Current projects focus on the role
of linguistic prediction in language development, on word learning, on the psycholinguistics
of language production in young children, and (in adults) on the relationship between
language and consciousness. I am also particularly interested in meta‐science, and would be
happy to supervise meta‐analyses on important topics in cognitive development.

Richard Shillcock
Office: 4.24 (IF)
Email: [email protected]
Web: http://www.ed.ac.uk/profile/richard‐shillcock

Research interests
My research interests involve experimental and modelling
approaches to understanding normal and impaired isolated word recognition and binocular
reading of text; hemispheric interaction; philosophical issues in cognitive modelling and
theory construction; the mental lexicon.
Projects

1. Exploring visual‐phonological systematicity in Chinese orthography.

This project would suit a someone with a good knowledge of Chinese orthography and its
pronunciation. We will test the hypothesis that there is significant systematicity between the
visual form of phonetic radicals and their paradigm pronunciation. The project will involve
manipulating and adapting existing programs to measure visual distinctions and
phonological distinctions as applied to the phonological radicals of Chinese orthography.
These measurements will be made on a corpus of Chinese radicals that the student will need
to assemble. Correlational statistics (backed up by Monte Carlo modelling using existing
programs) will then be carried out with these data. We aim to be able to say something
about what facilitates the reading of Chinese.

A directly relevant draft paper is available on request.

For a related discussion of systematicity in language, see:

Monaghan, P., Shillcock, R. C., Christiansen, M. H., & Kirby, S. (2014). How arbitrary is
language?. Phil. Trans. R. Soc. B, 369(1651), 20130299.

2. Manipulating systematicity in orthography.

This project would suit someone with programming skills/experience. We will explore the
process whereby an orthography can evolve culturally so as to embody a systematic
relationship between its visual form and the phonological form it represents. The student
will write a program that iteratively changes orthographic representations and tests for
visual‐phonological systematicity (in part using existing programs). We will draw
psycholinguistic and educational conclusions from the outcomes regarding reading, the
cultural evolution of orthography, and interventions aimed at 'simplifying' orthographies.

A directly relevant draft paper is available on request.

For a related discussion of systematicity in language, see:

Monaghan, P., Shillcock, R. C., Christiansen, M. H., & Kirby, S. (2014). How arbitrary is
language?. Phil. Trans. R. Soc. B, 369(1651), 20130299.

Sarah Stanton
Office: S27 (7GS)

Email: [email protected]
Web: http://www.ed.ac.uk/profile/sarah‐stanton

Research interests
I use a social psychological approach to understand the cognitive and affective aspects of
close relationships and their effects on behaviour, physiology, and health and well‐being. I
am particularly interested in how promoting positive relationship experiences benefits close
others immediately and over time. My expertise lies in a theoretically‐driven, dyadic, multi‐
method approach to studying close relationship dynamics.

Projects
 Close relationships and health/well‐being
 Enhancing attachment security and responsiveness within relationships
 Affective processes within relationships
 Bias and accuracy in partner judgments
Patrick Sturt

Office: G29, 7 George Square

Email: [email protected]

Research interests
I am interested in language comprehension, and specifically in the moment‐by‐moment
processes by which people integrate the words of a sentence into its interpretation. I am
also interested in eye‐movement control during reading.

Projects
I am able to supervise projects on a wide range of topics in human language processing. If
you have a project in mind, please send me an email and we can discuss details. I include
two specific suggestions below, but these should not be interpreted as exhaustive.

Regressions in reading
It is well known that readers often make regressions to look back at earlier words in a
sentence, particularly when experiencing processing difficulty. However, existing models of
eye‐movement control in reading provide very little explanation of regressions, and in fact,
currently very little is known about the purpose of regressions, how people select the target
of the regression, or what information is processed during regressions. This project will
answer one of these questions using eye‐movement techniques, possibly involving a
contingent change method. It would be particularly suitable for two students to undertake
as a pair.
Reference
Sturt, P. and Kwon, N. (2018). Processing information during regressions: An application of
the reverse boundary‐change paradigm. Frontiers in Psychology (Language Sciences) , 9.
Article 1630

Comprehension of pronouns and memory retrieval:

This project will use reading time measures to investigate the comprehension of pronouns,
concentrating on how this process is affected by known properties of memory retrieval (for
example interference). The project will use either self‐paced reading or eye‐tracking, and
would be suitable for students to undertake as a pair.
Reference
Cunnings, I. and Sturt, P. (in press). Coargumenthood and the processing of pronouns.
Language, Cognition and Neuroscience, 33, 1235‐1251

Caroline Watt
Office: S39 (7GS)
Email: [email protected]
Web: https://www.ed.ac.uk/profile/caroline‐watt
and https://koestlerunit.wordpress.com/

Research interests
Methodological and replication issues in parapsychology, testing claimed role of altered
states of consciousness in extrasensory perception (ESP) task performance, the psychology
of paranormal beliefs and experiences. I’m happy to meet to discuss students’ ideas for
projects in these areas.

Projects
I am flexible about specific topics and can discuss ideas with students.
Alex Weiss
Office: B18 (7GS)
Email: [email protected]
Web: http://www.ed.ac.uk/profile/alexander‐weiss

Research interests
Broadly speaking, I am interested in personality and subjective well‐being. I study these via
several techniques, especially those that lend themselves to answering evolutionary
questions. These include studying these traits in other species (especially nonhuman
primates); behaviour genetic studies; and examining relationships between personality and
outcomes, including mortality, aging, and depression. I believe more powerful and
convincing studies are those that use multiple approaches. I am also interested in
multivariate statistical analysis, including factor analysis, structural equation modelling,
growth curve analysis, and survival analysis.

Projects
I am willing to supervise students interested in a broad range of questions related to
personality evolution.

Sue Widdicombe
Office: UF35 (7GS)
Email: [email protected]
Web: https://www.ed.ac.uk/profile/sue‐widdicombe

Research interests
I am interested in self and identities, interaction, culture, discursive psychology and
conversation analysis, and interviews as interaction.

Projects
I am willing to supervise projects related to any of the topics above (e.g. particular identities,
how they are constructed and used as resources in and for interaction); or projects designed
to show how some particular business (of making decisions, formulating clients’ problems,
developing relationships) gets done through interaction (e.g. in meetings, therapy, internet
interaction). I am happy to supervise projects that take a discursive psychological approach
to youth culture, culture and self, national or religious identities, or self‐descriptions. I also
have an interest in research interactions and knowledge production, including interviews as
a vehicle for social scientific research.

Maria Wolters
Office: 4.32a (Informatics Forum)
Email: [email protected]
Web: https://www.inf.ed.ac.uk/people/staff/Maria_Wolters.html

Research Interests
My main research goal is to investigate how technology can support people with chronic
illness in living rich and meaningful lives.

Projects
 Computational modelling of semantic and phonemic fluency data
 Technology as a cognitive prosthesis ‐ techniques for helping people remember tasks,
facts, and words
 Cognitive aspects of the usability of computer systems
 The effect of depressive states and dysphoria on people’s interaction with technology or
social media
LINGUISTICS & ENGLISH LANGUAGE
Peter Ackema
Office: 2.05 (DSB)
Email: [email protected]
Web: https://www.ed.ac.uk/profile/peter‐ackema

Research interests
Theoretical syntax and morphology

Topics
Happy to supervise any project within my research area, which broadly speaking is
theoretical syntax and morphology. I am especially interested in topics that concern
the interaction between these two modules of grammar (such as agreement,
incorporation, correlations between the inflectional make‐up of a language and its
syntactic behaviour, lexical integrity effects, phrasal derivation) but any topic that
concerns syntax or the 'syntactic side' of morphology is suitable. A lot of my own work
is focused on Germanic languages, but I'm certainly happy to supervise topics on
other languages as well.

Vicky Chondrogianni
Office: 2.07a (DSB)
Email: [email protected]
Web: https://www.ed.ac.uk/profile/vicky‐chondrogianni

Research interests
First and second language acquisition of morphosyntactic phenomena; child
bilingualism; language and cognitive development in bilingual children; children with
developmental language disorders; sentence processing in bilinguals.

Topics
I am happy to supervise topics related to language and cognitive development in
bilingual children and in children with developmental language disorders, as well as to
sentence processing of morphosyntactic phenomena (e.g. subject‐verb agreement,
tense, articles, pronouns, wh‐questions, relative clauses) in bilingual children.

Claire Cowie
Office: 1.11a (DSB)
Email: [email protected]
Web: https://www.ed.ac.uk/profile/claire‐cowie

I usually supervise dissertations related to the Global Englishes course. I am

particularly interested in supervising dissertations on all aspects of English in South
Asia and South East Asia, including the relationship of English to other languages in
those areas. I am running a number of projects on the perception and production of
Asian Englishes, and I can work with students to design projects using existing data
and/or methods from this work.
Chris Cummins
Office: 1.11 (DSB)
Email: [email protected]
Web: https://www.ed.ac.uk/profile/chris‐cummins

Research interests
I'm interested in how we understand and successfully convey meaning in context, and
attempt to address this using psycholinguistic methods. I work on topics including
implicature, presupposition, quantity information, and the structure of conversation.

Topics
I'd be happy to supervise on topics in the areas mentioned above.

Joseph Gafaranga
Office: 3.05 (DSB)
Email: [email protected]
Web: https://www.ed.ac.uk/profile/joseph‐gafaranga

Research interests
Discourse and Conversation Analysis (theoretical and applied); Bilingualism
(sociolinguistic and interactional dimensions).

Topics
I am happy to supervise any topics in the above areas of interest.

Nik Gisborne
Office: 2.03 (DSB)
Email: [email protected]
Web: https://www.ed.ac.uk/profile/nikolas‐gisborne

Research interests
Dependency theory; English syntax; lexical semantics; syntactic change and
grammaticalization.

Topics
Happy to supervise in Syntax, Semantics, Lexical Semantics, Grammaticalization,
Language Change, World Englishes.

Lauren Hall‐Lew
Office: 2.04 (DSB)
Email: Lauren.Hall‐[email protected]
Web: http://www.ed.ac.uk/profile/lauren‐hall‐lew

Research interests
Sociolinguistics; phonetic variation and change in English

Topics
 Sociolinguistics
Caroline Heycock
Office: 2.10a (DSB)
Email: [email protected]
Web: https://www.ed.ac.uk/profile/caroline‐heycock

Research interests
Syntax; the syntax of Germanic languages, particularly Faroese; the syntax of copular
constructions; syntactic variation and change.

Topics
Anything that falls within my research interests. I am also always happy to co‐
supervise with another member of staff with complementary interests / expertise.

Patrick Honeybone
Office: 3.06 (DSB)
Email: [email protected]
Web: https://www.ed.ac.uk/profile/patrick‐honeybone

Research interests
Historical Phonology, Phonological Variation, Phonological Theory and Northern
Englishes.

Topics
 Phonological theory
 Historical phonology
 The phonology of English: structural, dialectological and / or historical issues
 English in the North of England
 Variation and dialectology

Pavel Iosad
Office: 3.08 (DSB)
Email: [email protected]
Web: https://www.ed.ac.uk/profile/pavel‐iosad

Research interests
Phonological theory, in particular featural structure, the phonology‐phonetics
interface and historical phonology. I am also interested in various topics in historical
linguistics and historical dialectology.

Topics
 Categorical vs. gradient patterns in phonology
 Phonological analysis, with particular reference to feature theory
 Historical phonology, including phonological reconstruction
 Using evidence from variation (e.g. dialect variation) to address diachronic issues
 Using evidence from 'traditional' sources (e.g. dialect descriptions, dialect
surveys) to address any of the above questions.

My own work is focused on Celtic and Scandinavian languages, so I welcome any

projects related to these. I have also worked on Romance and Slavic varieties; in
general I am happy to work with any languages you suggest.
John Joseph
Office: 2.08 (DSB)
Email: [email protected]
Web: http://www.ed.ac.uk/profile/john‐e‐joseph

Research interests
Language and identities; language and politics; history of linguistics and semiotics.

Topics
Available to discuss with students whatever topics in the above areas they may wish
to carry out.

Simon King
Office: 3.11 (IF)
Email: [email protected]
Web: http://www.ed.ac.uk/profile/simon‐king

Research interests
Speech synthesis and automatic speech recognition.

Topics
 Speech synthesis for low resource languages or domains, especially using
unsupervised machine learning
 Speech synthesis of audiobooks
 Speech processing to improve the intelligibility of speech, including for hearing
aid users
 Measuring cognitive load / listening effort for synthetic speech
 Automatic detection of synthetic vs. natural speech
 Any other topic in speech synthesis, including both unit selection and statistical
parametric methods

Prof Simon Kirby

Office: 1.09 (DSB)

Email: [email protected]
Web: http://www.ppls.ed.ac.uk/people/simon‐kirby

Research interests
Evolution of language; origins and evolution of culture.

Topics
 Computational models of language evolution
 Iterated learning in the experiment lab and online
 The origins of design features of language
 The role of improvisation, interaction and learning in the origin of linguistic
structure
 Silent gesture and miniature artificial sign languages
 Evolutionary approaches to emerging sign languages
 Experimental approaches to the cultural evolution of music and art
 Self‐domestication and language evolution
Bettelou Los
Office: 2.07 (DSB)
Email: [email protected]
Web: https://www.ed.ac.uk/profile/bettelou‐los

Research interests

My area of specialisation is historical linguistics, particularly the history of English. I

can supervise dissertations on a range of topics that have to do with the history of
constructions as well as current developments in e.g. intensifiers (like literally) or
discourse markers (like basically), narrativity, or the role of information structure in
language change; as well as comparative work in macro‐structural planning
(“selecting what to say, and how to say it”) of English, Dutch and German, for which I
have a corpus students can work with.

Dr Mits Ota

Office: 2.07a (DSB)

Email: [email protected]
Web: http://www.lel.ed.ac.uk/~mits/

Research interests
First and second language acquisition of speech, phonology and lexicon.

Topics
I am happy to supervise topics related to language development, particularly in
relation to phonetics/phonology and the lexicon. More specific topics I can supervise
include: the role of input in early language development, the effects of phonology on
the learnability of words, prosodic development, and music and language learning.

Rebekka Puderbaugh
Office: 2.09 (DSB) M‐T and 2.13 (DSB) W‐F
Email: [email protected]
Web: https://sites.google.com/ualberta.ca/rebekka

Research interests
My interests are mainly in acoustic and descriptive phonetics, especially relating to
under‐described languages. I have experience with audio field recording, annotation
and analysis of speech using Praat, and statistical analysis in R including linear mixed
effects regression analysis. I’ve also done some work in experimental phonetics and
perception experiments. I am open to discussing possible topics with students.

Geoffrey Pullum
Office: 2.23 (DSB)
Email: [email protected]
Web: https://www.ed.ac.uk/profile/geoffrey‐k‐pullum

Research interests
General issues in syntactic theory; the grammar of Standard English; the philosophy of
linguistics.
Topics
Happy to supervise any project within my competence, subject to agreement with the
student concerned.

Michael Ramsammy
Office: 3.03 (DSB)
Email: [email protected]
Web: http://www.ed.ac.uk/profile/michael‐ramsammy

Topics
Laboratory and theoretical approaches to phonology, experimental phonetics,
sociophonetics, sign‐language linguistics (BSL), language change/historical phonology
in Romance or Germanic languages, Caribbean Creoles.

Hannah Rohde
Office: 2.06 (DSB)
Email: [email protected]
Web: http://www.ed.ac.uk/profile/hannah‐rohde

Research interests
Pragmatic and psycholinguistics.

Topics
Happy to supervise topics related to psycholinguistic approaches to questions in
pragmatics. Particularly relevant are topics in the establishment of discourse
coherence, the contextual cues that guide ambiguity resolution, the role of
expectations in processing, and the interpretation and production of referring
expressions. Current research includes open projects on deception, implicature,
pronoun interpretation, event structure, information structure, reference
expectations driven by Chinese classifiers, and individual differences in the
understanding of common ground, among others. Methods might include visual‐
world eye‐tracking, reading time, story continuations, and dialogue games.

Kenny Smith
Office: 1.08 (DSB)
Email: [email protected]
Web: http://www.ed.ac.uk/profile/kenny‐smith

Research interests
I am interested in the evolution of communication, human language, and the human
capacity for language. I use computational models and experiments with human
participants to investigate these questions, simulating (in the computer or in the lab)
the processes of language learning, language transmission, and communicative
interaction. I'd be interested in supervising dissertations involving these techniques
individually (e.g. looking at language learning or language use during communication)
or in combination (e.g. how do languages evolve as a result of their learning and use).
I can suggest specific research questions and experiments.
Graeme Trousdale
Office: 3.04 (DSB)
Email: [email protected]
Web: http://www.ed.ac.uk/profile/graeme‐trousdale

Topics
 Constructional approaches to language variation and change
 Morphosyntactic variation and change in British English dialects

Rob Truswell
Office: 1.12 (DSB)
Email: [email protected]
Web: http://www.ed.ac.uk/profile/robert‐truswell

Research interests
Syntax, semantics, linguistic interfaces, syntactic change, language evolution, history
of English.

Topics
I am happy to discuss topics in any of the above areas, but currently particularly
interested in:

 the relationship between language change and language typology

 event structure
 syntax and semantics of relative clauses
 syntax and semantics of pronouns and binding
 quantifier scope
 corpus‐based analysis of grammar change

Linda Van Bergen

Office: 3.02 (DSB)

Email: [email protected]
Web: http://www.ed.ac.uk/profile/linda‐van‐bergen

Research interests
English historical syntax (especially word order and negation), old and middle English
language

Topics
I am happy to supervise most topics that focus on an aspect of the history of the
English language.

Maria Wolters
Office: 4.32a (Informatics Forum)
Email: [email protected]
Web: https://www.inf.ed.ac.uk/people/staff/Maria_Wolters.html

Research Interests
My main research goal is to investigate how technology can support people with
chronic illness in living rich and meaningful lives.
Projects
 Computational modelling of semantic and phonemic fluency data
 Technology as a cognitive prosthesis ‐ techniques for helping people remember
tasks, facts, and words
 Cognitive aspects of the usability of computer systems
 The effect of depressive states and dysphoria on people’s interaction with
technology or social media

Sumin Zhao
Office: 2.03 (DSB)
Email: [email protected]
Web: https://www.ed.ac.uk/profile/sumin‐zhao

Research Interests
I am a discourse analyst specialising in qualitative critical & multimodal discourse
analysis.

Topics
My research focuses on two topics
 Digital literacies and multimodal practices of young children: the design and
use of mobile applications in the early childhood context, digital literacy
practices of immigrant families with young children, picture books and
transnational text flows
 Multimodality and social media discourses: selfies and digital genres, the
discourses of childhood & motherhood, technology‐mediated multimodal
interaction
Apart from the topics directly related to my research, I am willing to consider thesis
topics in the broad areas of Critical and Multimodal Discourse Analysis and Linguistic
Ethnography (in school and family contexts)