Patric Bach -- Lab Lead
Patric investigates how people plan their own actions and understand those of others. He studied Psychology at the Ludwigs-Maximillians-University at Munich, Germany and received his PhD at the Max-Planck-Institute for Cognitive Neuroscience in Munich and Leipzig. From 2004, he worked as a post-doc in Steve Tipper's lab at Bangor University, Wales, before took up a Lecturer position at Plymouth University in 2009. Since 2020, he is Professor for Psychology at the University of Aberdeen.
Michail Niklas -- Postdoctoral research fellow
Michail Ntikas completed his PhD at the University of Stirling, during which he investigated the brain neurophysiology changes caused by head impacts in contact sports. His main interests focus on the use of sensitive neuroimaging techniques, like EEG, TMS and fMRI, to investigate subtle brain alterations and the prediction of human behaviour. He is also interested in applying innovative statistical techniques and machine learning to neurophysiological data. He joined the Action Prediction Lab in 2022 to work on the neuroimaging part of the “Social Perception as Bayesian Hypothesis Testing and Revision” project, funded by the Leverhulme Trust.
Joel Currie -- PhD researcher
Joel has a Master’s in Electrical and Electronic Engineering. He joined the lab in October 2021, to work on an interdisciplinary PhD project funded by the SGSSS/ESRC, investigating whether and under what circumstances people attribute intentions and take the perspective of robots, supervised by Patric and Elena Giannaccini. As a newcomer to the field of psychology Joel is excited to develop a more human-centred perspective to his research and design skills and is optimistic about the emerging role that Human Robot Interaction (HRI) will play in the future.
Igne Jasukaityte -- PhD researcher
Igne started her PhD in October 2022 after completing her MRes Psychology degree at the University of Aberdeen. She is joining the lab to focus on a PhD project, funded by the SGSSS/ESRC, which combines her interests in predictive social and emotion perception. Supervised by Patric and Dr Madge Jackson, her research will investigate how contextual information and prior expectations shapes emotion perception in neurotypical and autistic individuals.
Louis Aldrich — PhD researcher
Louis is a current psychology student, enrolled on the University of Aberdeen 1 + 3-year School Studentship programme. He is interested in the conditions prerequisite for the emergence of spontaneous perspective taking and altercentric interference phenomena. His PhD project (supervised by Dr Bert Timmermans and Prof Patric Bach) will investigate how other actor’s appearance, and the degree to which we imbue them with consciousness, influences joint-action performance in a face-to-face setting.
Alzbeta Manova — PhD researcher
Alzbeta has a BSc degree in Computing Science and Mathematics and has joined the lab to work on an interdisciplinary 1+3 PhD project funded by the SGSSS/ESRC. This project is supervised by Prof Patric Bach and Prof Georgios Leontidis and will investigate how people make sense of the behaviour of others using deep learning. Alzbeta is interested in evaluating and improving generative AI models using research methods founded in Psychology while investigating how humans perceive and execute actions in comparison to deep learning processes. She is excited to learn about ways to incorporate Psychology into Machine Learning and vice versa.
Róisín Harrison -- PhD researcher
Róisín completed her psychology MRes degree in 2020 at the University of Aberdeen and began her PhD shortly afterwards. Róisín’s research interests include motor expertise obtained through sport, and how this relates to the perception and execution of complex human movements. In her PhD project she is examining the effects of motor expertise on basic perceptual, motor and proprioceptive performance, under the supervision of Dr Constanze Hesse, Patric and Dr Martin Giesel.
Vilma Pullinen -- PhD researcher
Vilma started her PhD in October 2020, after completing psychology MRes degree at the University of Aberdeen. Vilma’s research interests include emotion perception and processing, predictive social perception as well as social cognition more broadly. Her PhD project, funded by ESRC, examines the role of prior expectations in understanding the meaning of (dynamic) facial expressions of emotion, supervised by Dr Madge Jackson, Prof Louise Phillips and Prof Patric Bach.
Leoni Shirin Masroujah — Research assistant
Leoni is a current Psychology student at the University of Aberdeen. She has completed two internships in the past two summers, receiving the Discovering Research Psychology Award and the Carnegie Vacation Scholarship. Leoni’s research interests include perspective taking and if we can see the world through someone else’s eyes. She has also worked in face perception research and has looked at scenes and context driven effects.
Camilla Enwereuzor — Research internship
Camilla is currently studying Psychology at the University of Aberdeen. She was awarded the Anderson Prize and the Developing Scientist scholarship to undertake a research internship at the Action Prediction Lab over the summer. Camilla’s research interests include action and social perception, focusing on how expectations can guide perception, and on the mechanisms behind these processes. In addition, she is interested in visual search and how it may differ in neurodivergent people.