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ABOUT OUR DEPARTMENT

The Department of Experimental Psychology at the University of Oxford, under the directorship of Professor Matthew Rushworth, includes over 30 research groups with upwards of 400 undergraduates, graduate students and researchers. Key areas of research include Behavioural NeuroscienceDevelopmental Psychology, Perception and CognitionSocial Psychology, and Psychological and Brain Health

The Undergraduate courses in Experimental Psychology (EP) and Psychology, Philosophy and Linguistics (PPL) together account for an undergraduate body of about 250 students.  Students at Oxford study Psychology, Neuroscience, Philosophy, Statistics, and related topics via small-group tutorials and lectures given by the senior academic staff.  As well as studying for examinations, students complete laboratory work and a research project as part of the course.  Both EP and PPL courses are accredited by the British Psychological Society (BPS) and many students go on to careers in research or clinical practice.

Research in EP benefits from strong links with other University departments and institutes. Some researchers are partly based at the Nuffield Department of Clinical Neurosciences, and in particular the Wellcome Centre for Integrative Neuroimaging, a world-leading brain imaging centre with access to 3T and 7T MRI facilities.   EP is also closely linked to the Department of Psychiatry, which provides access to clinical populations, and also houses the Oxford Centre for Human Brain Activity (OHBA), which provides access to facilities for Magnetoencephalographic (MEG) recordings.  Internally, the Oxford Centre for Cognitive Neuropsychology conducts patient research in conjunction with multimodal brain imaging.

The department was founded in 1898 and  has a long and prestigious history.  Key figures in the history of Psychology taught at Oxford, including Donald Broadbent, Jerome Bruner, Anne Treisman, Larry WeiskrantzAlan Cowey, Dorothy Bishop and Dick Passingham.  EP is fortunate to be home to a number of current world-leading research groups, and continues to be among the top-ranked Psychology departments worldwide.