Research on Perception and Learning, DU Psychology Department

09/06/2025

🎯 Get Paid Up to £60 to Take Part in an Experiment on your Senses! 🧠👀👂
We're running a psychology experiment at Durham University and looking for participants aged 18–39 to help us explore how the brain combines information from different senses! 🔍✨
👁️👂 In just two 2-hour sessions, you’ll do a simple task involving sight and sound — and get up to £60 for your time (£30 base + up to £30 bonus depending on performance). 🤑
Who can take part?
✅ Aged 18–39
✅ No epilepsy (flashing lights involved)
✅ Normal or corrected vision
✅ Normal hearing
✅ Not colour blind
✅ Not tone deaf
📍Send an email to [email protected] to sign up now! Limited spaces! 🎉

08/08/2023

We are looking for people to take part in our latest study investigating how people combine cues from multiple sensory modalities (e.g., vision, audition) to better understand and interact with their environment 👀👂.
This is a multi-session study, and will involve 12 sessions of around 2 hours, spread over 3 weeks. You will be asked to complete some visual and auditory judgement tasks, either wearing a distance sensor or 3-D glasses, as well as filling in a short questionnaire and taking part in an interview about your experiences of the stimuli. You will be compensated £10 per hour and can also earn bonuses based on task performance!
If you would like to find out more, please get in touch via [email protected] and we can provide you with more information. Please note: you must be over 18, have normal or corrected-to-normal vision and hearing, be neurotypical and a proficient English-speaker.
We look forward to hearing from you. Thank you! :)

07/09/2022

Hi all,
We’re looking for participants for another study. In this experiment, participants will try to discriminate between the weight of different jars, based on holding the jars, viewing the contents of the jars, or a combination of both.
The experiment is split into two sessions, both of which will last around 90 minutes (3 hours total), and participants will be rewarded 30 pounds upon completion of the second session.
Requirements are normal or corrected to normal vision, and the ability to repeatedly hold small objects with one hand.

The experiment is similar to a weight perception experiment we ran some months ago — anyone who participated in that study is welcome to sign up for this one as well.

If you would like to participate, please contact [email protected]

23/08/2022

Hello to all our perception enthusiasts!
We would like to send out a big *thank you* to all our followers that have already participated in the 4-session study on depth perception! 👏 It's been great to meet you and thanks to your time and commitment we're one step closer to understanding how our brain can learn to use new senses - exciting 🤩
We are now looking for our final participants to fill the last 5 slots. If you have not yet participated, or know someone that would be keen to participate please feel free to get in touch with us via [email protected]

Here is a reminder of the details:
- The task is a depth perception task that asks you to use/learn different sensory cues (visual, auditory) to perceive the distance of an object.
- The task is split into 4 sessions (~2 hours long), which will need to take place in the same week. It is also reward-based, meaning you can earn a minimum of £73 or even over £100, depending on performance.
- If you have, or have had any developmental visual, auditory or cognitive conditions that may affect your ability to perceive stereo cues (e.g. amblyopia), strongly affect attention/memory, or pitch perception, unfortunately you will not be able to take part in this experiment. Note that a pre-assessment that tests your stereo vision will be conducted in the first session. For this study we are recruiting participants who aged between 18 and 40 years.

Send a message to learn more

10/05/2022

Hi everyone, we're recruiting participants for another multi-part experiment. You'd need to complete 4 sessions which are 2 hours long, preferably on consecutive days. The task is reward-based, so you will earn a minimum of £73 but could earn just over £100 depending on performance.
You'll need to have normal or corrected to normal vision and hearing, and be neurotypical to take part. Unfortunately, if you've done one of our pilots you won't be able to take part in this one too.
If you're interested please contact [email protected]

14/04/2022

Hi all,
We’re looking for participants for another study. In this experiment, participants will try to discriminate between the weight of different jars, based on lifting the jars, viewing the contents of the jars, or a combination of both.
The duration of the experiment is between 60 and 90 minutes, and participants are rewarded 15 pounds.
Requirements are normal or corrected to normal vision, and the ability to repeatedly lift small objects with one hand.
If you would like to participate, please contact [email protected]

18/02/2022

Anyone who took part in our colour-shape experiment a while ago, the results are in! Check out the pre-print below!

Newly learned shape-colour associations show signatures of reliability-weighted averaging without forced fusion or a memory colour effect

Reliability-weighted averaging of multiple perceptual estimates (or cues) can improve precision. Research suggests that newly-learned statistical associations can be rapidly integrated in this way for efficient decision-making. Yet, it remains unclear if integration of newly-learned statistics into....

02/02/2022

Hi everyone!
We're running another study which is a slight variation on the one before Christmas!

The study involves completing a computer-based task over 4 sessions that will last for 1 hour. The sessions must be completed on 4 different days.
During the task you will wear a pair of 3D glasses and will be asked to make a judgement about the distances between objects presented on a screen. Full instructions will be given on the day. There will be a short screening test on the first day which you'll need to pass to proceed.
After completion of the 4th session you will be compensated with £10 per session, or 1 participation point if you sign up on SONA.

If you're interested please email [email protected], or check out the slots on SONA here:

Psychology Research Participation Department of Psychology

02/12/2021

NEW STUDY!
Hi everyone! We have a new experiment which we're recruiting for now.

The study involves completing a computer-based task that will last for 1.5-2.5 hours over 4 sessions on 4 consecutive days.
During the task you will wear a pair of 3D glasses and headphones and will be asked to make a judgement about the distances between objects presented on a screen. Full instructions will be given on the day. There will be a short screening test on the first day which you'll need to pass to proceed.
After completion of the 4th session you will be compensated with £5 per half hour (rounded up) and £5 for each negative lateral flow test obtained within the previous 24 hours of each session (required for participation). That means you'll get between £80 and £120 overall!

If you're interested please email [email protected]

13/09/2021

Hi Everyone,
Our next experiment is up and running and we're looking for participants! This is a lab-based training session and a short behavioural measure in the Psychology Department. The training and the behavioural measure involve lifting a set of objects accompanied by a series of arbitrary signals. All participants will receive £10 as compensation for their time, and £5 compensation per Lateral Flow test (to be obtained from a campus testing facility within the last 24 hours before entering the department), or 1 participation point and 0.5 points for the LFT.

Psychology students can sign up here: https://durham-psych.sona-systems.com/default.aspx?p_return_experiment_id=273

This is very similar to a previous experiment which involved lifting coffee cups, so if you took part in that one I'm afraid you won't be able to help us with this one.

If you're interested please email [email protected]

Psychology Research Participation Department of Psychology

27/07/2021

New experiment!
I'm currently looking for participants for an experiment. It involves judging the weight of a series of objects. It lasts 1 hour and you'll receive £10 for the session and £5 for obtaining a lateral flow test (required before entering the department).
For further information, please get in touch ([email protected]) or if you're a Psychology student and would prefer participation points, the link for SONA is

Psychology Research Participation Department of Psychology

29/06/2021

I need a few more participants for a colour shape experiment we're currently running, details below:

The aim of this research is to understand how humans master perception and action under uncertainty. Perceptual estimates and the outcomes of actions are uncertain. Everyday behaviour is thus underpinned by abilities to perceive and act under uncertainty – e.g. crossing a busy road in dim light. While there are models of how humans may deal with uncertainty in the processing of perceptual information and the initiation of actions, we do not yet understand how or when humans learn to deal with uncertainty during development. This project aims to understand how such abilities are learnt by asking observers to complete a novel computer-based task. In the task, you will learn to use two new cues to judge the location of an octopus hiding in the sea.

Are you eligible to take part?

If you are a generally healthy individual with no colour vision deficiencies (we will test for this prior to participation) we would like to hear from you.

What is involved in the study?

You will take part in an experiment in the Psychology Department at Durham University. The experiment consists of 3 sessions completed on different days lasting up to an hour and a half each (up to 4 and a half hours total). All participants will receive £30 as compensation for their time once all sessions are complete, and £5 per Lateral Flow test (required each day before entering the department).

Would you like to be involved?

To participate in the study please contact Heather Slater at [email protected].