Bulletin Summer 1988

Feature Interview 一 Professor Liu In-mao. Department of Psychology The department of psychology, established only since the 82/83 academic year, is a relatively new faculty department of the University. The study of psychology as a scientific discipline is also relatively recent, and hence there is still the misunderstanding about it among laymen to see psychology as mere common sense or even pure my t h , rather than as science. It is to the credit of Professor Liu In-mao who has been leading the department from its outset to develop the major programme as a scientific discipline integrating knowledge, method ， and application in the study of psychology. Professor Liu has studied reaction time ， conditioning ， verbal learning ， and cognition among other areas in psychology, and much of his findings have been published in international journals of psychology. More recently, Professor Liu focuses his interests in the research into the human memory system, and into the understanding of the psychological process of comprehension. All these studies represent an attempt to understand the everyday behaviour of the human being in a scientific perspective. These studies are supported by experiments as well as the use of the computer. The Bulletin interviews Professor Liu on the study of psychology ， the development of the department of psychology, and in particular asks Professor Liu to explain to readers, in simple terms ， one of the research projects he is conducting: the ‘computational procedure' of the human brain towards pronouncing and comprehending a given word when one encounters it. Q: Professor Liu ， you have been the first professor of psychology since the department of psychology was established in the 1982/83 academic year. Could you tell us briefly the development of the department in the last several years ， as well as its current state? A: Psychology is a popular subject of study in the universities of the United States, and there university departments of psychology are often large departments. In comparison, the department of psychology at CUHK only takes in 20 to 22 students a year but we manage to teach some 200 to 300 minor students. There is also a good number of second and third year students each year seeking to change to study psychology as their major. We also established our master courses during the period, and will indeed be running a master course in clinical psychology from this year in conjunction with the department of psychiatry. It is our hope that a doctorate course can be offered in the next two or three years. I believe the future development of the department should be directed towards strengthening the work of the graduate programmes. Q: Could you enlighten us why there is such a tremendous interest in psychology, and what purpose does it serve to students taking psychology as a minor subject in their degree programme? A: Psychology is essentially a study of behaviour and mental processes, and as such it should be of interest to any person who really wish to understand the behaviour of others as well as the mental processes of one's own self. 6