My research examines how prior knowledge and current goals shape our perception of the world. I am specifically interested in the neural activity which gives rise to visual perception, and how our predictions about the world are encoded in cortical areas. I am also interested in the lateralisation of such processes in the brain.  

I studied a BSc in Criminology and Psychology and an MSc in Cognitive Neuroscience at Swansea University, before moving to Bangor University to complete my PhD in Psychology. In 2025, I joined UEA as a Senior Research Associate in Cognitive Neuroscience.

My PhD work explored the extent to which top-down processes influence our perception of three-dimensional (3D) shape. Specifically, I used neuroscientific methods such as event-related potentials (ERPs) to demonstrate that top-down attention modulates neural processing related to 3D shape from shading. I also found that early and late neural processes related to 3D shape from shading appear to be lateralised to the right and left hemispheres, respectively. In a separate line of work, I employed psychophysical methods to show that our innate assumption that light comes from above provides a top-down constraint on the perception of illumination direction in visual scenes.

At UEA I am currently working with Dr. Fraser Smith and Dr. Stephanie Rossit on a project investigating the neural basis of multimodal material perception. As part of this, I am using fMRI and EEG in conjunction with machine learning models to explore where and when visual and tactile information about material properties is represented in the brain.

I have experience in teaching research methods and scientific writing at undergraduate level, and I am an associate fellow of HEA.