Abstract painting of a face in a piano

Centre for Research in Expertise Acquisition, Training and Excellence (CREATE)

About the CREATE Research Hub

Achieving high levels of performance expertise is a complex process involving a range of factors: practice is one piece of the puzzle, naturally, but individual differences such as aptitudes, interests, motivation and creativity are also involved. In the CREATE Research hub, our particular focus is upon factors for excellence in cognitively challenging pursuits, creative problem-solving and artistic performance.

CREATE is a thriving centre of research activity within the School of Psychology at The University of Buckingham.

We welcome expressions of interest from postgraduate students interested in either our MSc (Research) in the Psychology of Creativity and Performance Expertise or our PhD Psychology programme, as well as from potential collaborators, across a wide range of relevant topic areas. These include:

  • Insight and creativity
  • Drivers of performance excellence and expertise development (e.g. in music, theatre, puzzle-solving, board-games, memory challenges and medicine)
  • Hobbies, motivations and characteristics of niche populations
  • Psychology of music, choreography and dance
  • Time perception and those with ‘natural’ time-keeping abilities

Our staff members are engaged in active research within all of these areas, with a focus on innovative and interdisciplinary research. In support of these aims, we collaborate with a number of external contacts in the performance fields (such as music conservatoires, dance schools and creativity / performance researchers), together with internal colleagues in the School of Computing and University of Buckingham Medical School. We were the co-founders of the UK Creativity Researchers group, which holds an annual conference; and have recently co-edited a Frontiers in Psychology special issue on Novel Approaches for Studying Creativity in Problem-Solving and Artistic Performance.

Although we are happy to consider relevant applications in any of the areas listed above, we are particularly looking to supervise students in a number of key topics. To see what specific opportunities are available right now, visit our adverts on FindAPhD.

You can keep up to date with our activities by following us on Twitter ‎@createpsy and on our WordPress blog CREATE Ψ.

To get in touch with us directly, contact

via email: create-research@buckingham.ac.uk

Image source: http://waterpolo218.deviantart.com/art/no-creativity-346991145