Dr Matthew Buckley

Research Interests

I am an experimental psychologist with a broad interest in learning and memory, but much of my theoretical work has focused on understanding the spatial representations and learning processes that govern navigation. Currently I am interested in how spatial representations exert control over memories for events in the past, and vice versa. I conduct studies in the laboratory and online by creating novel behavioural procedures, and reverse-translating rodent paradigms, in which participants navigate through 3D virtual environments. I apply the knowledge generated from this theoretical work to understand cognitive decline in healthy and pathological ageing, with a particular focus on predicting Alzheimer’s Disease, and the developmental trajectories of spatial learning in childhood. I also conduct studies that seek to understand the neural substrates of spatial learning through neuroimaging techniques.