Unit of Assessment 4
Psychology, Psychiatry and Neuroscience

Research within our School of Psychology and Clinical Language Sciences focuses on the interface between fundamental and applied questions, in areas including child and adolescent anxiety and depression, autism, diet–brain interactions, and motivation. We are home to state-of-the-art research facilities including brain imaging systems (MRI, EEG, TMS), and are unique in housing four clinical research facilities on site (for autism, anxiety and depression in childhood and adolescence, and adult and paediatric speech and language therapy).

• Ranked 23rd in UK (out of 93) for Grade Point Average (research quality).

Our work focuses on three complementary themes: 

• Psychopathology and affective neuroscience: We study the development of emotion regulation, the treatment of psychopathology, and how the brain and body interact in terms of social cognition and emotional behaviour. With a focus on translational research, we seek to advance understanding of the causes and treatment of depression, anxiety, eating disorders and autism in children and younger adults, as well as neurodegeneration and wellbeing in older adults.
• Cognitive science: We have added to our core strengths in language science, learning, memory and forgetting, and perception by developing new streams of research into motivation, curiosity and behaviour change, with implications for education and policymaking. Language is a particular strength and we have significant expertise in typical and atypical development, bilingualism and multilingualism, language impairment, and psycholinguistics.
• Personalised nutrition and applied research: We investigate the interplay between diet and measures of cognitive and mental health, and seek to understand how social, cognitive, sensory and economic factors interact to influence food choice across the lifespan. Other research investigates the development of technological aids for people with dementia and Alzheimer’s disease, the use of plant-derived compounds to support cognitive performance and mental wellbeing, and how humans interact with emerging technologies such as artificial intelligence and the ‘Internet of Things’.

Staff and doctoral students

We submitted 49 staff in UOA4 (45 FTE), including 17 Professors, 19 Associate Professors, 7 Lecturers, 4 Research Fellows; overall 9 are early career researchers.

Over the assessment period, 107 students were awarded their doctorate. We usually have about 80 PhD students at any one time and in 2019/20 they came from 30 different countries. We support our research students through membership of two Doctoral Training Partnerships, the ESRC’s South-East Network for Social Sciences (SeNSS) and the Reading-based BBSRC FoodBioSystems DTP, held jointly with Department of Food & Nutritional Sciences. 

Research centres and partnerships

 Our research is supported by four interdisciplinary research centres:

• Centre for Integrative Neuroscience and Neurodynamics (CINN): focuses on the physiological and psychological mechanisms that underpin complex behaviour, targeting typical and atypical development across the life span, including obesity, ageing and cognitive decline.
• Centre for Literacy and Multilingualism (CELM): brings together researchers from Education, Psychology and Modern Languages to explore the linguistic, psychological, clinical and educational aspects of literacy and multilingualism.
• Institute for Food, Nutrition and Health (IFNH): brings together the University’s world-leading expertise in agriculture and the environment to understand how improvements in food production, processing and nutrition can help deliver better diets and health.
• Reading Centre for Cognition Research: involves researchers from Philosophy, Linguistics Psychology, Biomedical Engineering to focus on the understanding human intelligence and the mind.

Our NHS and independent clinics are central to our research activity, while supporting training and providing clinical services to the local community. The work of the Anxiety and Depression in Young People Research Clinic (AnDY), the Centre for Autism and our adult and paediatric Speech and Language Therapy Clinics underpin our research agenda, including by running clinical trials into new interventions. The Charlie Waller Institute draws on the latest research evidence base to support its clinical training while also researching best practice in training delivery and evaluating clinical outcomes.

Sector recognition

Selected examples of national and international recognition between 2014 and 2020:

• British Medical Association President’s Award (Professor Cathy Creswell)
• British Pharmacological Society’s Sir James Black Award for Contributions to Drug Discovery (Professor Claire Williams, 2019)
• Fellow of the Academy of Social Sciences (Professor Judi Ellis)
• Fellow of the British Academy (Professor Peter Cooper)
• Fellow of the British Psychological Society (Professor Judi Ellis)
• FJ McGuigan Early Career Investigator Prize, American Psychological Foundation (Professor Kou Murayama, 2016)
• Philip Leverhulme Prize Winners (Professor Bhismadev Chakrabarti, 2015; Dr Netta Weinstein, 2021)

Examples of the impact our research has had at local, national and global levels.