About CREATE

Centre for Research in Expertise Acquisition, Training and Excellence

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 offer a dedicated MSc by Research in the Psychology of Creativity and Performance Expertise for those with a first degree in Psychology who wish to take their knowledge further in this exciting field. Topic areas include:

  • Creativity
  • Insight and the Aha! moment
  • Imagination and Visual imagery
  • 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
  • Problem-solving and Fluid Intelligence
  • Musical performance
  • Choreography and Dance
  • Stage Fright and Performance Anxiety
  • Time perception and those with ‘natural’ time-keeping abilities

Places are limited, and the MSc runs twice a year, with start dates in September and January. Click here to find out more.

We also accept PhD students wishing to continue their studies in these areas. Topics can be either student-selected or programme-driven. To see what specific programme opportunities are available right now, visit FindAPhd and search for the University of Buckingham, or get in touch with us directly. Check out the blog, too: all our current PhD opportunities are advertised there.

Our hub members are engaged in active research in all the above 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 Applied Computing and the Medical School at the University of Buckingham.

We were involved in co-editing a Frontiers in Psychology Research Topic: Novel Approaches for Studying Creativity in Problem-Solving and Artistic Performance ;and we are also founder members of the UK Creativity Researchers group.

You can keep up to date with our activities by following us on Twitter ‎@createpsy. Contact us by email, or check us out on our University pages: