Professorial Lecture Series 2014

Professor Stephen Fairclough - Tuesday 1 July 2014 - 5.30pm - James Parsons Building, Lower Lecture & Exhibition Area please click here for directions

Stephen Fairclough obtained his PhD in Psychology from Loughborough University in 2000. As a Professor of Psychophysiology his research is concerned with applied psychophysiology in the context of human performance. His work has included studies of mental workload, emotion, stress and sleepiness and he has a particular interest in motivation and mental effort. Stephen also has an active research interest in human-computer interaction (HCI), particularly physiology computing paradigms where data from the human body is used as a control input to a technological system. His work has been published in a range of journals spanning psychology and computer science. He is the co-editor of a collected work (Advances in Physiological Computing) to be published in May 2014 and a member of the editorial board for IEEE Transactions on Affective Computing.

The title of Stephen's lecture is:
Biocybernetic loops: applied psychophysiology and human-computer interaction
Psychophysiology is the science of inferring psychological meaning from physiological processes in the body and brain. Signals from the cardiovascular system and changes in brain activity can provide a covert quantification of effort and motivation during cognitive performance. A series of studies are presented to illustrate how the process of energy mobilisation by the body and brain responds to psychological challenge. The same process of inference is fundamental to the development of a new category of technology called physiological computing where signals are used for real-time classification of human cognition, motivation, emotion and health. This approach enables the creation of adaptive technology that monitor the user and respond to changes in emotion and motivation. The potential benefits and costs of this technology will be discussed with reference to applications for health promotion and implications for personal privacy and identity.