Lab Director

Patricia is a Professor of Decision Neuroscience, Sir Henry Dale Fellow and Jacobs Foundation Research Fellow at the University of Birmingham. She was previously a Junior Research Fellow at Christ Church and Somerville College, University of Oxford, and a Medical Research Council Fellow at the Univeristy of Birmingham, University of Oxford and University of Zurich. She holds a PhD in Psychology from University College London and a BSc in Psychology and Philosophy from the University of Bristol. Outside of the lab, she enjoys spending time with her very fluffy cat SoftMax, socialising with friends, and eating nice food.

CV • Twitter:@thepsychologist • Bluesky: @thepsychologist.bsky.social • Google Scholar

Postdoctoral Research Fellow

Jo researches prosocial decisions to help other people and why we are curious about what is happening to others. Jo is currently a Wellcome Trust Early Career Fellow. Previously, she was a Postdoctoral Researcher in the SDN Lab at the University of Oxford then University of Birmingham. Jo completed her PhD in Psychology and MSc in Cognitive Neuroscience at the University of Sussex, and has a BSc in Psychology from the University of Leeds. Outside of the lab, Jo enjoys exploring Birmingham, learning salsa, and visiting new places.

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Postdoctoral Research Fellow

Todd is a postdoctoral research fellow investigating how our environment affects decisions to help (or hurt) others. He holds a PhD and MSc in Psychology from McGill University, and a BSc in Psychology from Southern Illinois University Edwardsville. Outside of the lab, Todd enjoys catching up with friends, playing guitar, watching movies, and failing at crosswords.

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PhD Student

Zhi-Lin is a PhD candidate in Psychology funded by the Ministry of Education in Taiwan. He is supervised by Prof. Patricia Lockwood, Prof. Matthew Apps and Dr Todd Vogel at the University of Birmingham. He holds an MSc in Cognitive Neuroscience and a BSc in Psychology from National Taiwan University. Zhi-Lin is intrigued by the behavioural, computational and neural mechanisms underlying social learning and group decision-making in health, disease, and development. He is investigating collective timing decisions in group foraging using behavioural experiments and computational modelling. Outside of the lab, he enjoys doing gymnastics, playing volleyball, and eating chocolate chip cookies.

CV • Twitter: @su_zhilin • Bluesky:@zhilinsu.bsky.social • Website

BBSRC MIBTP PhD Student

Janine holds a BSc in Psychology and Neuroscience and an MSc in Cognitive and Clinical Neuroscience from Maastricht University. In the course of her Masters, she completed a research internship at the School for Mental Health and Neuroscience in which she focused on instrumental learning and effort-based decision making in individuals with motivational deficits. She also worked as a research assistant at the University of Amsterdam where she used psychometric network analysis to model the development and interaction of symptoms. Janine is particularly interested in the computational and neural mechanisms underlying social learning and decision making – and how these are altered in psychiatric and neurological disorders. Outside of the lab, Janine enjoys yoga, discovering new music, and a good cup of coffee.

CV • Twitter:@PfirrmannJ • Google Scholar

Engineering & Physical Sciences Research Council PhD Student

Eden is a PhD student funded by the ERC/UKRI. She is interested in the psychological, computational, and neural processes underlying social interaction during both positive and negative interactions. Eden holds both a BSc and an MSc in Psychology from National Taiwan University. Currently, she is researching how focal lesions to the medial prefrontal cortex impact strategic social interactions under the supervision of Prof. Patricia Lockwood and Dr. Lei Zhang at the University of Birmingham. Outside of her studies in psychology and neuroscience, Eden enjoys exploring music, beverages, and cats from around the world.

CV • Twitter: @EdenHsiehTaiwan

Research Assistant / Lab Manager

Elizabeth has a BSc in Neuroscience from Aston University, which included a placement year as a Research Assistant at the University of Birmingham and two summer studentships. Elizabeth is interested in creating impactful research that enables better understanding of how neural mechanisms underpin behaviour and how this might change over the lifespan, particularly in individuals with complex needs and neurodevelopmental conditions. In her previous role she led a longitudinal project looking at behavioural and emotional outcomes in individuals with neurodevelopmental conditions and aided in using this dataset to create a large scale rare genetic syndrome database. In her spare time, she enjoys travelling to new places, cooking new recipes and attempting to crochet.

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