Professor Chris Davis

chris.davis@uws.edu.au
Room no: 1.1.57
Building: 1
Campus: UWS Bankstown (Bullecourt Ave, Milperra)
Phone no.: +61 2 9772 6855

Research Program Leader: Multisensory Processing

Biography

Professor Davis studies the information processing involved in human communication. His research approach emphasises (a) the nature of the linguistic input (including both written and spoken forms of language), (b) the neural mechanisms engaged when perceiving language, and (c) the effects of linguistic input and neural mechanisms on measurements of human behaviour. His research has been guided by three interrelated themes: 1. Multisensory processing: Davis's research investigates both the auditory and visual information involved in speech perception. The research interest can be summed up by the concept of interacting signals and the notion that the different types of signal all contribute to the interpretation of a message. 2. Human processing of linguistic complexity: Davis (along with colleagues) have been investigating the extent to which components of language processing can be probed when the contribution of task and decision elements have been minimized (chiefly by using masked priming techniques). 3. Cross-language and developmental comparisons: His work on language development utilizes a cross-linguistic, developmental paradigm to examine the processes by which children learn first spoken and then written language (or how adults may learn other languages).

Research Interests

  • 2010 - 2013 ARC Discovery Project: Unconscious processing: to what extent, how flexible and how smart? Davis, C & Kouider, S. $200K 

Qualifications and Honours

  • BSc (Hons)

  • PhD (Monash University)

Roles

  • Research Program Leader: Multisensory Processing

  • Executive member UWS Ethics Committee

  • Subject Editor, Speech Communication

Davis, C.

Publications

2012

  • Harry, B., Davis, C., & Kim, J. (2012). Subliminal access to abstract face representations does not rely on attention, Consciousness and Cognition, 21, 573–583. doi:10.1016/j.concog.2011.11.007
  • Cvejic, E., Kim, J., & Davis, C. (2012). Recognizing prosody across modalities, face areas and speakers: Examining perceivers' sensitivity to variable realizations of visual prosody, Cognition, 122, 442–453. doi:10.1016/j.cognition.2011.11.013
  • Harry, B., Davis, C., & Kim, J. (2012). Common and distinct mechanisms associated with view-specific and view-invariant recognition., Consciousness and cognition. doi:dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.concog.2012.03.011
  • Cvejic, E., Kim, J., & Davis, C. (2012). Effects of seeing the interlocutor on the production of prosodic contrasts, Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, 131, 1011-1014. doi:http://dx.doi.org/10.1121/1.3676605
  • Harry, B., Davis, C., & Kim, J. (2012). Exposure in central vision facilitates view invariant face recognition in the periphery, Journal of Vision, 12, article 13. doi:http://dx.doi.org/10.1167/12.2.13
  • Cutler, A., & Davis, C. (2012). An orthographic effect in phoneme processing, and its limitations, Frontiers in Psychology - Language Sciences, 3 (18), 1-18. doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2012.00018
  • Kim, J., & Davis, C. (2012). Perceiving emotion from a talker: How face and voice work together, Visual Cognition, 20 (8), 902-921. doi:10.1080/13506285.2012.713874

2011

  • Burnham, D., Kim, J., Davis, C., Ciocca, V., Schoknecht, C., & Kasisopa, B. (2011). Are tones phones?, Journal of Experimental Child Psychology, 108, 693–712. doi:10.1016/j.jecp.2010.07.008
  • Kim, J., Sironic, A., & Davis, C. (2011). Hearing speech in noise: Seeing a loud talker is better, Perception, 40, 853–862. doi:10.1068/p6941
  • Davis, C., & Kim, J. (2011). What's in a mask? Information masking with forward and backward visual masks, The Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology, 64, 1990–2002. doi:10.1080/17470218.2011.573150

2010

  • Davis, C., Sánchez-Casas, R., García-Albea, J., Guasch, M. P., Molero, M., & Ferré, P. (2010). Masked translation priming: Varying language experience and word type with Spanish-English bilinguals, Bilingualism: Language and Cognition, 13, 137–155.
  • Kim, J., & Davis, C. (2010). Knowing what to look for: Voice affects face race judgments, Visual Cognition, 18, 1017–1033.
  • Cvejic, E., Kim, J., & Davis, C. (2010). Prosody off the top of the head: Prosodic contrasts can be discriminated by head motion, Speech Communication, 52, 555–564.
  • Kim, J., Kroos, C., & Davis, C. (2010). Hearing a point-light talker: An auditory influence on a visual detection task, Perception, 39, 407–416.
  • Davis, C., Kim, J., & Barbaro, A. (2010). Masked speech priming: Neighbourhood size matters, Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, 127, 2110–2113.
© University of Western Sydney 2013