Dr Lindsay Murray
Associate Professor
Biography
Lindsay is an Associate Professor of Animal Psychology in the School of Psychology. She is currently Level 6 Year Tutor and has previously held the roles of Deputy Head of Department, Deputy Undergraduate Programme Leader, Level 5 Year Tutor and Assessment Officer. In the wider University, her roles include Dignity and Respect Adviser, Mental Health First Aider, University Mentor, and she is a member of the Management Group for the Sustainability and Environment Research and Knowledge Exchange Institute. She has external roles in the Association for the Study of Animal Behaviour and the Primate Society of Great Britain, and is a Senior Fellow of the Higher Education Academy and a Fellow of the Royal Society of Biology.
Teaching and Supervision
Lindsay’s current teaching focuses on Animal Psychology in the specialist third year elective module PS6022 Animal Psychology, and in three first year modules: PS4010 Core Topics in Psychology, PS4018 Secrets of the Brain, and PS4021 Topics in Applied Psychology. She also teaches individual differences at undergraduate and postgraduate level and supervises dissertations at undergraduate, Masters, MRes and PhD levels.
Research and Knowledge Exchange
Lindsay's research interests lie primarily in the discipline of animal psychology, with a special focus on primatology, particularly in the areas of personality, laterality, self-awareness and social behaviour in great apes. At the North of England Zoological Society (Chester Zoo) she has studied the UK's largest group of chimpanzees since 1992 and is continuing a longitudinal exploration of personality traits and their ability to predict behaviour. She supervises PhD students investigating both human and nonhuman psychology; for example, using social network analysis to understand links between personality and laterality of hand preference in chimpanzees, utilising proximity indices and personality ratings to monitor changes in elephants’ behaviour and welfare, and incorporating Artificial Intelligence into the investigation of behaviour and welfare in chimpanzees. She also researches comparative mirror self-recognition in gorillas and spider monkeys. As well as contributing articles and reviews to the popular press, Lindsay has been an invited speaker, contributor and organiser at conferences both nationally and internationally.