ACADEMIC STAFF
Admissions
We admit four students each year across these courses.
The course
You can read Psychology on its own (as Experimental Psychology) or with Philosophy and/or with Linguistics (PPL). For any of these three options, you choose from the same list of Psychology papers and attend the same lectures and tutorials in a given topic.
In the first three terms all students take introductory courses in three subjects chosen from: Psychology; Statistics; Linguistics, Philosophy; and Neurophysiology. Lectures and weekly College tutorials are provided on each topic. The Preliminary Examination is taken at the end of the third term.
After Prelims, for the next three terms Experimental Psychology students study the following core topics: Cognitive Neuroscience; Behavioural Neuroscience; Perception; Memory and Information Processing; Language and Cognition; Developmental Psychology; Social Psychology; Personality, Individual Differences and Psychological Disorders; Statistics and Experimental Design. These are followed by second year examinations, which count towards the final degree mark. EP students then spend the next three teaching terms taking advanced topics in EP, including a research project and the option of writing a library dissertation. Psychology, Philosophy and/or Linguistics students who study Psychology will combine Psychology topics with subjects in Philosophy and/or Linguistics. These include topics such as: Early Modern Philosophy; Philosophy of Logic and Language; Ethics; Philosophy of Mind; Philosophy of Cognitive Science, Sociolinguistics; Semantics; Phonetics and Phonology; Psycholinguistics and Linguistic Theory. Students take a final examination during their last term and all must complete a course of laboratory-based practical work.
Experimental Psychology is now a four year course with an integrated Masters. In the fourth year, students complete an extended project, for which they will recieve skill based training. They will also work on an indpendent current oopinions review.
The chief research interest of the tutor, Dr Dejan Draschkow, focuses on understanding the adaptive nature of cognition and behaviour. In particular, he is interested in how memories of different timescales form during natural tasks and, in turn, how these memories ultimately guide a wide variety of behaviours. He is further interested in how we select and prioritise information within memory in service of ongoing behaviour. An important part of advancing this research has been the development and utilisation of methods necessary to measure cognitive processes during unconstrained behaviour (including virtual reality, neurophysiological, and other approaches).
See the Brasenose PPE webpage to read about the Philosophy tutors who may also teach on some of these courses.
Read more about Experimental Psychology and Psychology, Philosophy and Linguistics at Oxford.
Careers
Many people study Psychology simply because they are interested in how the brain works, and do not expect to follow a career in Psychology. However, there are a range of careers for which this degree is the ideal start, such as Educational Psychology and Clinical Psychology. There are also industrial openings in human factors (optimising the design of the interface between people and machines, e.g.
making user-friendly human-computer interfaces), and in personnel management.