PHASE 1: University and secondary school research collaboration

Maneesh Kuruvilla

In the summer of 2016, Maneesh Kuruvilla, a Postgraduate Researcher in the School of Psychology & Neuroscience, won the St Andrews final of Three Minute Thesis and was awarded £500 to run a public engagement with research project.

This is what he did.....

I came up with the idea of PHASE 1, a Platform for Honing and Accelerating Scientific Excellence aimed at introducing my passion for research to students at Madras College. Through PHASE 1, I hope to not only equip students with research skills for university but to also encourage future cohorts of school students to take up Higher Psychology courses.

I pitched my idea to the Depute Head Teacher and Higher Psychology Teacher at Madras College, a local secondary school in St Andrews.What makes Madras College unique is that it offers students a Higher Psychology course. Students who take this course must conduct their own psychology research projects.

Over several months I went into the Higher Psychology classes and delivered modules on various aspects of research fundamentals, design and methodology. We then selected students who had expressed a desire to pursue Psychology at university. The students worked in two groups and chose their research areas of interest, designed studies, formulated hypotheses and collected data by recruiting their peers to participate in their experiments.

Over a six-week period, these students were then invited to the School of Psychology and Neuroscience and spent over 10 hours analysing and interpreting their data and preparing 8-minute presentations and academic conference-style posters.

At the closing event, the students, who had been mentored by throughout the project, presented two 8-minute talks on the research projects and presented posters of their projects over tea and coffee. ​

The main objective of this outreach programme was to give school students a breath of research experience at a university level and, in this regard, PHASE 1 has been an unquestionable success. To put things in perspective:

1. The basic research fundamentals and types of analyses the students have performed with their data is at par with First Year Psychology undergraduates. 
2. The use of SPSS statistical package to analyse data is at par with Second Year undergrads. 
3. The ability to visually represent data in the form of a poster is comparable to Junior Honours level. And to receive supervision and give a presentation on one’s own research project is Senior Honors level and above. 

The sold-out event took place at the Byre Theatre in front of close to 100 audience members made up of staff and students from The University of St Andrews and Madras College as well as the general public.

Student presenters

PHASE 1 also featured guest talks by Professor Dave Perrett, Dr Jamie Ainge and Dr Maggie Ellis from the School of Psychology & Neuroscience.

We were pleased to welcome Professor Sally Mapstone (Principal and Vice Chancellor, University of St Andrews), Professor Keith Sillar (Head of School, Psychology & Neuroscience) and Mr David McClure (Rector, Madras College) at the inaugural edition of PHASE 1.

Student Presenters: Aeonie Ramsay, Ross Lavin, Till Sprengelmeyer, Arin Beaver and Jack Laird Mentors: Maneesh Kuruvilla (PhD Student, University of St Andrews); Brianna Vandrey (PhD Student, University of St Andrews); Dr Akira O'Connor (Lecturer, University of St Andrews); Mrs Catherine O'Donnell (Higher Psychology Teacher, Madras College)

Communicating with people with advanced dementia

There are 850,000 individuals with a diagnosis of dementia in the UK, many of whom are likely to progress to a state of advanced dementia. Professional care places a considerable strain on NHS resources and the distress that Alzheimer’s places on those living with the illness, their loved ones and professional caregivers cannot be underestimated. Much of this distress owes to the breakdown in speech-based communication that accompanies the illness.

People with advanced dementia who have lost the ability to speak are typically thought to have no communicative abilities or desire to interact and, as such, are typically excluded from the social world. Research by Dr Maggie Ellis and Professor Arlene Astell of the School of Psychology & Neuroscience has found that, despite a lack of speech, people with advanced dementia retain both the urge to interact and individual repertoires of non-verbal communicative capacities including sounds, movements, facial expressions and the capacity to imitate. These behaviours can be used by caregivers to re-engage individuals with advanced dementia in social interaction - an approach now known as 'Adaptive Interaction'. Organisations providing care for individuals with dementia have recognised the value of this evidence-based approach. For example, Alzheimer Scotland recommends Adaptive Interaction in a public document and the Alzheimer’s Society commissioned Dr Ellis to develop a training programme in the approach that is currently being rolled out to approximately 1000 volunteers across the UK.

While not eliminating Alzheimer’s disease, Adaptive Interaction supports the interpretation of behaviour as intentionally communicative and provides the means to engage with those living with advanced dementia. By supporting communication, Adaptive Interaction increases the wellbeing of those diagnosed and their family members and the job satisfaction of formal caregivers.

Research:
Astell, A. J., & Ellis, M. P. (2006). The social function ofimitation in severe dementia. Infant and Child Development, 15(3), 311-319.

Ellis, M. P., & Astell, A. J. (2011). Adaptive Interaction - a new approach to communicating with people with advanced dementia. Journal of Dementia Care, 19(3), 24-26.

CIRCA: Conversation support for people with dementia and their carers

CIRCA, Computer Interactive Reminiscence and Conversation Aid, is a novel touchscreen computer system designed to support conversation between people with dementia and their caregivers. CIRCA was based on research into the memory and communicative problems of people with dementia conducted by Prof. Arlene Astell, Dr Barbara Dritschell and Dr Maggie Ellis of the School of Psychology and Neuroscience.

Typically, people with dementia experience impairments in short-term memory, whilst retaining relatively well-spared long-term autobiographical memory. As such, it is often easier for people with dementia to talk about the past rather than recent events.
In collaboration with the University of Dundee and a major care home provider, the researchers developed CIRCA as a means of presenting multimedia reminiscence material – photographs, videos and music – to people with dementia and their caregivers. It was found that people with dementia were more likely to initiate conversations about the material and were more equal partners in the conversations when using CIRCA as compared to traditional reminiscence methods (Astell et al., 2010; doi: 10.1016/j.intcom.2010.03.003). The CIRCA system allows individuals with dementia to choose from a range of subjects from the past, thereby facilitating their retained long-term memory and providing prompts for successful conversations. CIRCA has been installed in numerous residential or day-care settings around the UK, including NHS and Council run residential care centres, Age Concern and Alzheimer’s Scotland Centres and private care homes.

The project has been funded by: Engineering and Physics Sciences Research Council (EPSRC), the Alzheimer’s Association and the Technology Strategy Board.

Living Link to Human Evolution research centre

Since ‘Living Links to Human Evolution’ opened in Edinburgh Zoo in 2008, around 250,000 visitors per year have engaged with live, on-going science and multiple associated resources and activities. Through classes visiting the Centre and online teacher packs, the research is also integrated with Scottish Biology Highers and Advanced Highers, which recently came to include primatology and animal behaviour. The teacher packs contain a lesson plan and video resources.
Living Links is a University of St Andrews research centre established in partnership with the Royal Zoological Society of Scotland and based in Edinburgh Zoo. Visitors can ‘join’ the primate family tree, match human chromosomes with a chimpanzee’s to see the similarities and differences and view active, on-going cognitive research at the Centre. Large outside and inside enclosures house capuchin monkeys and squirrel monkeys together, species which form mixed-species groups in the wild. For further information on the public engagement activities of Living Links, please download ‘Living Links Public Engagement with Science’.

Living Links is designed to support studies by scientists from the School of Psychology and Neuroscience as well as the Universities of Stirling, Edinburgh, Heriot-Watt, Aberdeen and Abertay, as part of the Scottish Primate Research Group (SPRG) and is the result of world-leading primate research by the ‘Origins of Mind’ research group. Relevant research articles include “Assessing public engagement with science in a university primate research centre in a national zoo.” (PLoS ONE) and “The ‘Living Links to Human Evolution’ Research Centre in Edinburgh Zoo: A new endeavour in collaboration” (International Zoo Yearbook). For further information, please contact Professor Andrew Whiten, Director of Living Links.
Living Links was created through a generous grant from the Strategic Research Development Scheme of the Universities’ Scottish Funding Council, and public engagement has been supported by sponsorship from the Scottish Governments’ Science Engagement Scheme and from the Wellcome Trust.
Living Links is affiliated with the Zoo’s Budongo Trail exhibit where SPRG scientists also study chimpanzees.

 

MONKEY MEDICINE at Living Links in Edinburgh Zoo

View more videos on YouTube

In March 2014, Prof. A. Whiten was awarded the Royal Society of Edinburgh' s Senior Prize for Public Engagement for his extensive, creative and unique forms of public engagement particularly as founding Director of the “Living Links to Human Evolution” Research Centre at Edinburgh Zoo.

The research is highlighted in the Leverhulme Trust Annual Review 2013.