Personal profile
Biography
Dr. Louise Ewing joined UEA in 2015. She gained her undergraduate degree, Masters (Educational and Developmental Psychology) and PhD in the School of Psychology at the University of Western Australia. Upon completion of her studies she took up a postdoctoral fellowship in the Person Perception Node of the Australian Research Council Centre of Excellence in Cognition and its Disorders. In 2014 she moved to the UK to take up a postdoctoral fellowship at Birkbeck, University of London investigating face-processing strategies in neurotypical children, adults and individuals with Williams syndrome.
In her research she uses behavioural techniques and electroencephalography to investigate the mechanisms of face and person perception – with a particular interest in how these skills develop in neurodiverse populations.
Indicative Publications
Mares, I*., Ewing, L*., Farran, E. K., Smith, F. W., & Smith, M. L. (2020). Developmental changes in the processing of faces as revealed by EEG decoding. NeuroImage, 211, 116660
Ewing, L., Karmiloff-Smith, A., Farran, E. K., & Smith, M. L. (2017). Distinct profiles of information-use characterize identity judgments in children and low-expertise adults. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception and Performance. 43(12), 1937 – 1943.
Ewing, L., Karmiloff-Smith, A., Farran, E. K., & Smith, M. L. (2017). Developmental changes in the critical information used for facial expression processing. Cognition, 166, 56-66.
Ewing, L., Caulfield, F., Read, A., & Rhodes, G. (2015). Perceived trustworthiness of faces drives trust behaviour in children. Developmental Science. 18 (2), 327-334
Key Research Interests
Dr Louise Ewing’s research is primarily concerned with the mechanisms driving the development of face expertise in neurodiverse populations. Current research topics include: the impact of strategic information use during face judgments (i.e., what is the most critical information for decisions about things like identity, expression, gender); the emergence of face-related social attributions in early childhood (e.g., evaluations of trustworthiness, attractiveness); individual differences in social motivation and the development of person perception expertise; neural correlates of specialist face processing.
Get in touch if you'd like to talk about working towards a PhD or would like to gain some research experience!
Teaching Interests
Lecturer: Introduction to Psychology (1st Year)
Lecturer: Psychology: Neurodevelopmental Conditions (3rd Year)
Project Supervisor: Research Project (3rd Year)
Project Supervisor: Dissertation (Masters)
Key Responsibilities
Equality, Diversity and Inclusion Director
Keywords
- Cognitive Development
- Face Perception
- Person Perception
- Social Cognition
- Neurodiversity
- Social Interactions
Collaborations and top research areas from the last five years
Projects
- 4 Finished
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Investigating the cognitive and neural underpinnings of occlusion ‘enhancement effects on first impressions
Ewing, L. (Principal Investigator)
Experimental Psychology Society
1/05/22 → 31/10/24
Project: Research
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The neurophysiological correlates of shared attention
Bayliss, A. (Principal Investigator) & Ewing, L. (Co-Investigator)
1/10/19 → 30/09/23
Project: Research
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Does Strategy Matter? Probing the functional consequences of individual differences in strategic information use during face identity judgments
Ewing, L. (Principal Investigator)
1/08/17 → 31/01/22
Project: Research
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The social side of face perception: insights from atypical development
Ewing, L. (Principal Investigator)
7/06/17 → 31/07/20
Project: Research
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The effect of interpersonal distance and background context on trait impressions
Veranic, K., Bayliss, A., Stephen, I. D., Zhao, M. & Ewing, L., Jun 2026, In: Acta Psychologica. 266, 106770.Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review
Open AccessFile5 Downloads (Pure) -
The Joint Attention Grouping Effect: Perceptual Binding of Observed Social Interactions
McDonough, K. L., Edwards, S. G., Ewing, L. & Bayliss, A. P., Mar 2026, In: Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology. 79, 4, p. 985-998 14 p.Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review
Open AccessFile1 Downloads (Pure) -
Breaking through suppression: Face expertise selectively modulates very early awareness of high level face properties
Papasavva, M., Ewing, L., Mares, I. & Smith, M. L., 3 May 2025, In: Neuropsychologia. 211, 109104.Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review
Open AccessFile -
Changes in interpersonal distance modulate social attention engagement: Evidence from EEG alpha band suppression
Veranic, K., Ewing, L., Sambrook, T., Watson, E. A. G., Zhao, M. & Bayliss, A. P., 2025, In: Social Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience. 20, 1, nsaf008.Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review
Open AccessFile6 Citations (Scopus)16 Downloads (Pure) -
Close encounters: Interpersonal proximity amplifies social appraisals
Veranic, K., Bayliss, A. P., Zhao, M., Stephen, I. D. & Ewing, L., Aug 2025, In: British Journal of Psychology. 116, 3, p. 594-616 23 p.Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review
Open AccessFile2 Citations (Scopus)11 Downloads (Pure)