Introduction

The Cognitive Group consists of nine core academic researchers who work on various aspects of cognition and cognitive neuroscience. Some of this research activity occurs in collaboration with researchers in Computing Sciences, as part of the Kent Centre for Cognitive Neuroscience and Cognitive Systems.

Our research involves both neurologically healthy volunteers and those who suffer from brain-abnormalities and concentrates on two key areas:

• Visual Cognition & Attention
• Language & Communication

Recent highlights

• Markus Bindemann has been awarded £2,000 from the Experimental Psychology Society to fund an Undergraduate Research Bursary for Julien Leblond who will be working on a project entitled "Can a gaze-contingent eye-tracking paradigm reverse undesirable attention biases in smokers?"
• Alejandro Hidalgo has been awarded prestigious scholarship from the School of Psychology to carry out doctoral research on "Behavioural characteristics and brain correlates of clinically impaired face processing from birth". Congratulations and welcome to the group!
• Heather Ferguson (along with Ian Apperly, CoI) has received a research grant from the Leverhulme Trust for a project that will examine the topic "Understanding the minds of others: A cognitive approach to Theory of Mind" (£141,940).
• David Wilkinson (CoI) has been awarded funds from the AHRC for a project entitled "Imagining autism: drama, performance and intermediaility as interventions for autistic spectrum conditions" (£430,234).
• Kirsten Abbot-Smith, Markus Bindemann and Erika Nurmsoo have each been awarded £1,000 from the University of Kent's Faculty of Social Sciences Research Grants to support their research.
• David Wilkinson has recently been awarded a grant from the Medical Research Council to examine "Does repeated vestibular stimulation induce lasting recovery from hemi-spatial neglect?" (£313,752).
• Kirsten Abbot-Smith (along with Caroline Rowland and Julian Mark Pine, CoIs) has recently been awarded an ESRC grant to examine "The role of the agent in sentence comprehension by preschool children" (£98,554).
• David Wilkinson has received funding from the East Kent Hospitals University NHS Foundation Trust to examine "Quantitative Magnetic Resonance Imaging for Diagnosis of Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease and other Dementias" (£95,000), and also "Flexibility & Sustainability Funding" (£10,500).
• David Wilkinson and Heather Ferguson have recently been awarded a British Academy grant to examine "Modulation of the N170 Event-Related Potential during galvanic vestibular stimulation" (£7,490).