School of Psychology

Research Summary

Faces are highly important in human communication and interaction. My research explores various issues surrounding the psychology of seeing a face. These issues include: how we can distinguish between different faces so easily; how we perceive emotional expressions; how we detect faces are present in a scene, and what happens when face recognition goes wrong such as in Capgras delusion. I have also researched the effects of cosmetic therapies. The techniques I employ include: behaviour experimentation; patient studies; neural network and computational modelling, and brain imaging. In addition, my research also explores methodological issues in other areas of cognitive psychology.

Teaching Summary

I teach research methods at Level 1 covering issues related to experimental design (PS1015) and at level 2 covering multiple regression methods (PS2006). At Level 3, I teach topics relating to face processing on PS3311.

I run a level 2 practical on facial feedback supporting PS2007 and tutorials on social psychology, cognitive psychology and abnormal psychology. I supervise a wide range of final year projects many relating to the psychology of the face.

I am course coordinator for the Psychology Free Standing Modules.

Selected Publications (2008 onwards)

Hills, P.J. & Lewis, M.B. (in press). Aftereffects for face attributes with different natural variability: Children are more adaptable than adults. Cognitive Development.

Hills, P.J. & Lewis, M.B. (in press). Reducing the own-race bias in face recognition by attentional shift using fixation crosses preceding the lower half of a face. Visual Cognition.

Hills, P.J., Elward, R. & Lewis, M.B. (in press). The many loci of face identity after effects. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception and Performance,

Lewis, M.B. (2010). Why are mixed-race people perceived as more attractive? Perception, 69, 136 – 138. [pdf]

Ross, D.J. Hancock, P. & Lewis, M.B. (2010) Changing Faces: Direction is Important. Visual Cognition, 18,  67-81. [pdf]

Hills, P.J., & Lewis, M.B. (2009). A spatial frequency account of the detriment that local processing of Navon letters has on face recognition. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception and Performance, 35, 1427-1442. [pdf]

Lewis, M.B., Seeley, J. & Miles, C. (2009). Processing Navon letters can make wine taste different. Perception, 38, 1341-1346. [pdf]

Lewis, M.B., Mills, C., Hills, P.J. & Weston, N. (2009). Navon letters affect face learning and face retrieval. Experimental Psychology, 56, 258-264. [pdf]

Lewis, M.B. & Bowler, P.J. (2009). Botulinum toxin cosmetic therapy correlates with a more positive mood. Journal of Cosmetic Dermatology. 8, 24-26. [pdf]

Hills, P.J. & Lewis, M.B. & Honey, R.C. (2008). Stereotype priming in face recognition: Interactions between semantic and visual information in face encoding. Cognition, 108, 185-200. [pdf]

Hills, P.J., Elward, R. & Lewis, M.B. (2008). Identity adaptation is mediated and moderated by visualisation ability. Perception, 37, 1241-1257. [pdf]

Hills, P.J. & Lewis, M.B. (2008). Testing Alternatives to Navon letters to induce transfer-inappropriate processing shift in face recognition. European Journal of Cognitive Psychology, 20, 561-576. [pdf]