Yiovi Derpsch

Dr Yiovi Derpsch is a cognitive psychologist who joined the School of Psychology at UEA as a Lecturer in 2021. She has a particular interest in designing inclusive, innovative, and experiential learning environments that foster student confidence, belonging, academic development, and professional preparedness.

She has led PSY Togetherness as part of her Student Partnership Officer role, and now co-directs, with Dr Holly Hancock (LAW), the UEA Student Experience Network (a community of practice initiative) and the annual UEA Student Experience Conference. More recently, she has launched and been running the UEA Improv initiative, which aims to help students develop communication, presentation, and public-speaking skills, as well as creativity, problem solving, confidence and resilience.

She completed a BSc in Psychology and an MSc in Psychological Research Methods at Birkbeck, University of London, exploring the ventral/dorsal pathways of object and face recognition. Her PhD at the University of Liverpool (UoL) focused on the neural basis of symmetry perception and its links to cognition (attention, memory & ethanol disruption) using EEG and eye-tracking methods.

Yiovi also has broad experience working in different areas of psychology. She has worked as Clinical Research Facilitator for a Dementia study (part of The CHARIOT register) at Imperial College London, and as an Honorary Assistant Psychologist for the NHS at SLaM IAPT Lambeth Talking Therapies in London. Subsequently, she was a Research Assistant to Professor Melissa Gladstone (Neurodevelopmental Paediatrics at UoL), responsible for the cognitive assessment of children with cerebral malaria in Mozambique, and also worked on the CORE outcome set for studies on congenital Zika - COMET initiative. She speaks Spanish and Portuguese.

Her research interests are visual cognition and interactions between attention & memory, and her pedagogical focus is on belonging and the student experience in Higher Education, as well as the development of key soft skills - communication, creativity, confidence, and resilience. Her teaching experience includes Research Methods and Statistics, Intelligence, and Happiness for years 1 and 2, as well as lecturing Dreams, AI & Psychotherapy, Consciousness & The Self, Critical Thinking, and Mental Health for year 3 modules and Master's students.
She is currently Module Organiser for PSY-5014B Applied Psychological Sciences and PSY-6038B Science of Emotions, and teaches improvisational theatre on LDCD4025A The Actor’s Craft (Year 1) in Drama.