The Sussex Colour Group are a team of researchers who have research expertise in Cognitive Neuroscience, Developmental Psychology and Vision Science. The team are:
Dr. Anna Franklin, Group Leader
Anna has been investigating colour perception and cognition for the last 12 years, often taking a developmental approach. She joined the University of Sussex and established the Sussex Colour Group & Baby Lab in 2011. Prior to this she led a Baby Lab at the University of Surrey, and was a visiting scholar at the University of California, Berkeley. She is a Reader in the School of Psychology at Sussex and teaches Cognitive Development and Visual Perception to undergraduate and postgraduate students. She is a recipient of a 5 year ERC Starting Grant award. For more about Anna, see here.
Dr. Xun He, Post-doctoral Research Fellow
Xun researches the behavioural components and neural mechanisms of visual attention and perception. A crucial question he asks is how attention and perception interact with other brain functions such as working memory and language, and how they are shaped by social factors. Xun is a member of the ‘CATEGORIES’ project team, and will be investigating the impact of colour terms on colour perception using both the Event-Related Potential technique and functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging.
Dr. Christoph Witzel, Post-doctoral Research Fellow
Christoph is interested in how our perception, our insights and worldviews, are shaped by implicit assumptions that we automatically internalized through our experience in and interaction with our physical and social environment. Starting from this question, principal parts of his research have investigated the role of language and experience in perception with the prime example of colour perception. Notably, he has conducted research on colour categorization, memory colours, and colour constancy, but also on implicit perceptual learning. He has recently completed his PhD on colour psychophysics at the University of Giessen. He joins the Sussex Colour Group with funding from a DAAD post-doctoral fellowship, and is conducting a project on the interaction of categorisation and colour constancy.
Gemma Catchpole, Research Assistant
Gemma graduated from the University of Sussex with a Masters in Developmental Psychology. She then worked on a large scale developmental project at the Institute of Education, University of London, before taking a career break to have her four children. She is responsible for the day-to-day running of the Sussex Baby Lab, and enjoys meeting the babies and their carers and learning about how babies see colour.
Alice Skelton, Research Assistant
Alice is a research assistant in the Sussex Baby Lab, and is working on the ‘CATEGORIES’ project. She is particularly interested in Developmental Psychology, and has previously worked with children with neuro-developmental conditions such as Autism Spectrum Conditions and Williams Syndrome. In her current role she is working with 4-month old infants to establish how they categorise the colour spectrum.
John Maule, PhD student
John's main interest is in how our brains are evolved to make sense of the world around us and how the environment in which we live may affect this development. He started his academic career here at Sussex, graduating in 2010 with a BSc in Human Sciences. He has just finished a masters (MRes Psychological Methods, also at Sussex) during which he worked with the Sussex Colour Group for his dissertation 'Perceptual Prominence of Focal Colours'. John has now started his PhD entitled 'The Origins of Colour Categories', investigating the representation of colour categories in the brain. He is funded by the ESRC and supervised by Dr. Anna Franklin.
Lewis Forder, PhD student
Lewis completed a Masters in Psychological Research Methods in 2012 during which he investigated continuous flash suppression (CFS) of colour and why we see some colours faster than others. He is now undertaking a PhD under the supervision of Dr. Anna Franklin with joint funding from University of Sussex and the ERC funded ‘CATEGORIES’ project. He is currently investigating cross-linguistic differences in colour perception using neurophysiological methods. He is an Associate Tutor on the undergraduate course.
Zoe Slaughter, Research Intern
Zoe is currently studying for an Undergraduate degree in Psychology, and aims to continue with Postgraduate and Doctoral studies after. She has a strong interest in understanding how the brain processes perceptual information. During her internship with the Sussex Colour Group she is working with Christoph, investigating the development of colour constancy in toddlers.
Collaborators
Dr. Alexandra Clifford, University of Surrey
Professor Anya Hurlbert, University of Newcastle
Dr. Amanda Holmes, University of Roehampton
Professor Paul Kay, University of California, Berkeley
Professor Stephen Palmer, University of California, Berkeley
Professor Terry Regier, University of California, Berkeley
Dr. Karen Schloss, University of California, Berkeley
Dr. Paul Sowden, University of Surrey