School of Psychology
University of Hertfordshire
College Lane
Hertfordshire
AL10 9AB

Tel : 01707 285282
Fax : 01707 285073

Email :

p.j.lovatt@herts.ac.uk

Telephone:

01707 284608

Location:

1H256, CP Snow

My personal home page or work area

Subject Area :

Psychology of dance, Improvisation and Role-play see www.dancedrdance.com

Personal Statement

I am a Principal lecturer and Reader in Psychology. Before starting on an academic career I was a professional dancer and actor working in musical theatre. I trained at the Guildford School of Acting, on the three year Musical Theatre course. I left full time theatre to study Psychology and English at the Roehampton Institute, London, and graduated from the University of Surrey in 1993. Following this I took an MSc in Neural Computation from the Centre for Cognitive and Computational Neurosciences at the University of Stirling in 1994 (funded by a SERC scholarship), and thereafter went on to do doctoral research in the department of Psychology at the University of Essex (funded by a University Teaching Fellowship). In 1996 I was appointed to a lectureship in cognitive psychology at the University of Greenwich and in 1998 joined the Research Centre for English and Applied Linguistics, at the University of Cambridge, as a Senior Research Psychologist. After a spell in industry, as a Principal Research Scientist for a speech-based R&D company, I joined Kingston University, where I was the co-ordinator of the Psychology Research Unit and Deputy Head of the School of Social Sciences. I joined the Psychology Department at the University of Hertfordshire in September 2004, where I have been a Principal Lecturer and Reader in Cognitive Psychology ever since. My aim is to become a Professor of the Psychology of Performing Arts.

For more information see: www.dancedrdance.com

Research

Member of Research Group: Learning, Memory and Thinking

My research interests are in two broad fields.

1. The Psychology of Dance. I am interested in how we communicate through dance. This involves understanding how we express ourselves when we are dancing and also how people read us, or are affected by us, when we dance. I collect data in several ways for this project. For example, in controlled laboratory studies, in places where people dance and also through internet surveys, so that I can get a picture of people's dancing, and attitudes to dance, in a wide range of settings. One of my recent surveys was completed by over 13,000 respondents. Some of my recent work in this area has been covered a great deal in the media. It has been covered by the serious press (e.g. The Sunday Telegraph) and radio (Radio 4 Today programme). The appeal of my work also extends to light hearted television coverage (e.g. The Graham Norton Show - you can see the clip on YouTube).

2. The Psychology of Improvisation and Role-play. I am particularly interested in the cognitive basis of improvisation and role. I became interested in this area because I read a lot of work by non-academic practitioners who claimed that after people had engaged in improvisation activities their cognitive processes seemed sharper. For example, they wrote that people reported seeing colours as being brighter and their thoughts were more lucid. As a cognitive psychologist I wanted to test these claims under experimental conditions.

My early research suggests that improvisation does indeed wake up the senses and so I am currently following this up with a series of experimental projects.

I am also interested in how improvisation techniques can be used in large lectures to help people learn traditional academic content more effectively. This work is supported by a grant awarded to me and Dr Sue Anthony.

Teaching

I am involved in University teaching and also in the Public Understanding of Psychology.

University Teaching
I designed and teach a course on the Psychology of Performance (Performing Arts). I also teach on Advanced Topics in Memory and have taught several courses on the Psychology of Language. I have also taught undergraduate research methods. Over the years I have taught Psychology to a wide range of students, including open entry evening class students, undergraduates, MPhil students and PhD students. With regards to teaching my aim is to make Cognitive Psychology interesting and relevant to students. I am currently supervising one PhD student.

Public Understanding of Psychology
I have given public lectures on the Psychology of Dance, the Psychology of Improvisation and on the Psychology of Spying. These lectures have been given at the Dana Centre (part of the Science Museum in London) and at the Wellcome Trust in London. I also give lectures/performances at International Science Festivals. You can see one of my lectures at the Science Festival in Edinburgh in April 2009.

Publications

Williams, J.N. & Lovatt, P.J. (2005). Phonological Memory and Rule Learning:II. Language Learning, 55 (s1), 177-233.

Joiner, R., Gavin, J., Duffield, J., Brosnan, M., Crook, C., Durndell, A., Maras, P., Miller, J., Scott, A.J. & Lovatt, P. (2005). Gender, Internet Identification, and Internet Anxiety: Correlates of Internet Use. CyberPsychology & Behavior, 8 (4), 371-378.

Williams, J.N. & Lovatt, P.J. (2003). Phonological Memory and Rule Learning. Language Learning, 53 (1), 67-121.

Lovatt, P.J., Avons, S. E. & Masterson, J. (2002). Output decay in immediate serial recall: Speech time revisited. Journal of Memory and Language, 46 (1), 227-243.

Lovatt, P. J. & Avons, S. E. (2001). Re-evaluating the word-length effect. In (Ed.) J. Andrade Working Memory in Perspective. Psychology Press.

Lovatt, P.J., Avons, S. E. & Masterson, J. (2000). The word-length effect and disyllabic words. Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology. 53A, 1-22.

Administrative and Professional

I am responsible for the Psychology timetable.