Doctoral projects
Verbal fluency as a multi-component word production task: reliability, latent structure, and external validation of process measures
Yumeng's work investigates the cognitive processes underlying verbal fluency performance, moving beyond total correct responses to a richer set of process measures. The project asks which verbal fluency indices are psychometrically reliable, how those measures cluster into broader latent components, and which external cognitive constructs best explain them.
The current programme includes work on test-retest reliability, cross-context generalisation, latent structure, and external validation. It sits at the intersection of psychometrics, cognition, language, and methodological rigour, with a strong emphasis on making verbal fluency measures more interpretable and theoretically useful.
AI, quantitative methods, and higher education
Caitlin's doctoral work examines how large language models and agentic AI systems support quantitative data work in higher education. The project looks at AI not just as a tool, but as a changing cognitive environment for students working with statistics and research methods.
Current questions include how different autonomy levels alter student judgement, what verification scaffolding is needed to keep students in control, and how benefits, risks, and inequalities emerge when AI assistance augments or substitutes for statistical reasoning. The project is designed to stay future-proof as AI shifts from chat-style support toward multi-step agentic workflows.
Good supervision fits
- language, psycholinguistics, and word learning
- memory, consolidation, and retrieval
- speech perception, comprehension, and event understanding
- verbal fluency, measurement, and cognitive process modelling
- research methods, statistics, and measurement quality in psychology
- AI in psychology, especially where the focus is judgement, reasoning, or method rather than hype
Working with me
If you are considering a PhD, MSc, or MRes project, the most helpful first step is usually to read the Research and CogLang Lab pages and then make contact with a concise summary of your interests, background, and the kind of problem you want to work on.
Projects tend to work best when there is a clear fit with the current research programme, a sensible methodological route, and a topic that is specific enough to become a real study rather than only a broad area of interest.