Dr Edward Redhead is Associate Professor within Psychology at the University of Southampton.
BSc Cardiff University
PhD University of Birmingham
Research Associate, School of Psychology, Cardiff University
Lecturer, Department of Psychology University of Durham
Associate Professor , Psychology, University of Southampton
My research concentrates on two types of learning, simple associative learning where we learn that one stimulus can predict an outcome, and spatial learning where we learn to locate one stimulus based on its spatial relationship with another.
Lately there has been a lot of work done showing the similarity between the underlying processes involved in these two types of learning. In associative learning studies I have shown how the attention paid to a stimulus is dependent on whether the association between the stimulus and outcome has been learned. This is much in line with theories of attention in associative learning but the attentional processes involved with spatial learning do not fit with these models.
Another series of experiments, I have published, looking at spatial learning indicated that attention to spatial cues was maintained even if they were not the best indicator for the position of a platform within a water maze. It would appear that the most important factor was the stability of the configuration of cues. I am interested in examining this difference between the attentional processes seen in spatial learning tasks and that described by associative models.
Examining the kinds of cues people use to remember where things are in the environment, for example whether we predominantly use the shape of a room to where something is in that room or whether we use landmarks such as doors or windows.
Exploring the fundemental mechanisms involved with associative learning, for example if you learn that a stimulus is made of red and blue dots is followed by food do you learn that both the red dots and the blue dots are separately associated with food or do you learn about the food and the red and blue dots as a whole?
Examining the neurological basis of spatial memory impairment in epileptic patients and how this memory loss can be recovered.
My current PhD student’s project in
Spatial learning within a computer generated environment
Centre for Perception and Cognition (CPC)
Deputy Head of Psychology (Education).
Unit Co-ordinator for
Behavioural Neuroscience (PSYC 2006)
Spatial Cognition (PSYC 3054)
Room Number: 44/4119