There will be a departmental talk next Tuesday on 1 Mar (4pm) by Prof. Peter Mitchell. More details are appended below. This talk will be held in Seminar Room B, AS7 (1-17). For more information on talks, please visit the departmental blog at https://blog.nus.edu.sg/psychology/.

Title: How do we read other people’s minds? Are those with autism impaired?

Abstract:
Information emanating from people’s eyes provides a rich source of psychological information. Our research using eye tracking and behavioural methods shows that people with autism differ in a very subtle way from people who do not have a clinical condition. In summary, it is not that people with autism spend less time looking at the eyes, rather they are slower to look at the eyes but relatively quick to look at physical objects. The opposite is true in people without autism, reflecting a reversal in processing priority).

Speaker’s Profile:
Peter Mitchell is Professor in Psychology and Dean of Science at the University of Nottingham Malaysia Campus, based in Semenyih, near Kuala Lumpur. Previously, he was Head of the School of Psychology in Nottingham UK. He has published around 100 scientific articles in leading international journals, has published six books and he is editor of the British Journal of Psychology. His research has won national prizes in the UK (The Neil O’Connor Prize for the UK’s best article on cognitive aspects of developmental disorders in 2007) and his paper on cognitive theories of autism, published in Developmental Review, ranks number 1 as the journal’s most downloaded article. He has served as Chair of the Developmental Section of the British Psychological Society and as Chief Examiner for the Economic and Social Research Council UK PhD studentship competition. Before joining Nottingham University he worked at the University of Birmingham, University of Oxford, University of Wales and University of Warwick. He also served as visiting professor at McGill University in Canada.