CogSoCoAGE is a five-year interdisciplinary research project based at the University of Kent’s School of Psychology, funded by the European Research Council. It aims to investigate the cognitive basis of social communication and how it changes across the life-span.
This project has received funding from the European Research Council (ERC) under the European Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme (grant agreement number: 636458).
This research is particularly important and timely given the consequences that can result from impairments in social communication. For example, misunderstanding another person’s meaning or intentions can cause offence and discourage further interactions. Difficulties of this kind reduce social participation in older adults, which in turn leads to isolation, loneliness and poor health.
CogSoCoAGE seeks to learn more about the cognitive mechanisms that underlie healthy ageing and social communication, and to develop new methods to enhance social communication in older adults by training these cognitive skills. Looking ahead, this could offer exciting opportunities to apply tailored training methods to clinical populations who suffer impaired social skills (e.g. autism).
The team
- Professor Heather Ferguson (Grant holder, Principal Investigator)
- Dr Matt Fysh (Postdoctoral researcher, 2018-19)
- Martina De Lillo (PhD Student, 2016-19)
- Mahsa Barzy (Postdoctoral researcher, 2019-20)
- Rebecca Foley (Research assistant, 2019-20)
- Millie Woodrow-Hill (Research assistant, 2019-20)
Please get in touch with Heather if you are interested in joining the research team, as a postdoctoral researcher, PhD student, Master’s student, or as an undergraduate research assistant.
