Professor Fiona Newell
Professor of Experimental Psychology, Psychology
Professor of Experimental Psychology, Trinity Inst. of Neurosciences (TCIN)
Biography
My main research objective is to elucidate the cortical and behavioural processes involved in high-level human perception across the main sensory systems. This interest is motivated by the fact that perception is not a fixed concept since it is significantly modulated by information from other senses and other contextual factors such as past experience, internal predictions, on-going motor behaviour and the working range of the sensory system. Furthermore, Perception is the basis of Cognition, and an understanding of the mechanisms behind how we perceive provides a better route to understanding other high-level human functions. To date, my team and I have begun to shed light on some of the behavioural principles of how the senses interact with one another to form a unified perception of our world. The current challenge is to provide a better understanding of the cortical and genetic mechanisms behind these principles. To this end my team are conducting a series of studies investigating cortical correlates of multisensory perception using neuroimaging (i.e. fMRI and EEG) technology and, in collaboration with colleagues the Smurfit Institute of Genetics at TCD we are investating behavioural and neural correlates of synaesthesia. Lately, I have begun to develop my research towards a better understanding of multisensory processing in the normal, damaged and ageing brain through collaborations with colleagues in the School of Medicine, TCD. Finally, in collaboration with colleagues in Computer Science and Mechanical Engineering, we are currently investigating how virtual displays of crowd scenes can be improved by multisensory stimulation.
Publications and Further Research Outputs
Peer-Reviewed Publications
Holmes, C.A. and Cooney, S.M. and Dempsey, P. and Newell, F.N., Developmental changes in the visual, haptic, and bimodal perception of geometric angles, Journal of Experimental Child Psychology, 241, (105870), 2024
Oâ Dowd, A. and Hirst, R.J. and Setti, A. and Kenny, R.A. and Newell, F.N., Is a Sex Difference in Audioâ"Visual Temporal Precision Consistent Across Age Groups? An Update on Hernández et al. (2019), Psychology and Aging, 2024
O'Dowd A., O'Connor D.M.A., Hirst R.J., Setti A., Kenny R.A., Newell F.N., Nutrition is associated with differences in multisensory integration in healthy older adults, Nutritional Neuroscience, 2024
Oâ Dowd, A. and Hirst, R.J. and Seveso, M.A. and McKenna, E.M. and Newell, F.N., Generalisation to novel exemplars of learned shape categories based on visual and auditory spatial cues does not benefit from multisensory information, Psychonomic Bulletin and Review, 2024
O'Dowd A., Hirst R.J., Setti A., Kenny R.A., Newell F.N., Individual differences in seated resting heart rate are associated with multisensory perceptual function in older adults, Psychophysiology, 61, (1), 2024
Ziat, M. and Pacic, K. and Buentello, I. and Varney, J. and Newell, F.N., Tactile perception of randomness: Effect of varying stimulus size and participants age, i-Perception, 14, (6), 2023
Newell, F.N. and McKenna, E. and Seveso, M.A. and Devine, I. and Alahmad, F. and Hirst, R.J. and O'Dowd, A., Multisensory perception constrains the formation of object categories: A review of evidence from sensory-driven and predictive processes on categorical decisions, Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences, 378, (1886), 2023
O'Dowd A., Hirst R.J., Setti A., Kenny R.A., Newell F.N., Older adults with slow sit to stand times show reduced temporal precision of audio"visual integration, Experimental Brain Research, 241, (6), 2023, p1633 - 1642, p1633-1642
Cuturi, L.F. and Cooney, S. and Cappagli, G. and Newell, F.N. and Gori, M., Primary Schoolers' Response to a Multisensory Serious Game on Cartesian Plane Coordinates in Immersive Virtual Reality, Cyberpsychology, Behavior, and Social Networking, 26, (8), 2023, p648-656
O'Dowd A., Hirst R.J., Setti A., Donoghue O.A., Kenny R.A., Newell F.N., The temporal precision of audiovisual integration is associated with longitudinal fall incidents but not sensorimotor fall risk in older adults, Scientific Reports, 13, (1), 2023
Azizi Z., Hirst R.J., Newell F.N., Kenny R.A., Setti A., Audio-visual integration is more precise in older adults with a high level of long-term physical activity, PLoS ONE, 18, (10 October), 2023
Setti A, and Hernandez B, and Hirst R.J., Donoghue OA, Kenny R.A., and Newell F.N., Susceptibility to the sound-induced flash illusion is associated with gait speed in a large sample of middle-aged and older adults, Experimental Gerontology, 174, (112113), 2023
Azizi Z, Hirst RJ, O' Dowd A, McCrory C, Kenny RA, Newell FN, Setti A., Evidence for an association between allostatic load and multisensory integration in middle-aged and older adults., Archives of gerontology and geriatrics, 116, 2023, p105155
Gori, M. and Price, S. and Newell, F.N. and Berthouze, N. and Volpe, G., Multisensory Perception and Learning: Linking Pedagogy, Psychophysics, and Human-Computer Interaction, Multisensory Research, 2022
O' Dowd, A. and Cooney, S.M. and Newell, F.N., Self-reported vividness of tactile imagery for object properties and body regions: An exploratory study, Consciousness and Cognition, 103, (103376), 2022
Merriman, N.A. and Roudaia, E. and OndÅ ej, J. and Romagnoli, M. and Orvieto, I. and Oâ Sullivan, C. and Newell, F.N., â CityQuest,â A Custom-Designed Serious Game, Enhances Spatial Memory Performance in Older Adults, Frontiers in Aging Neuroscience, 14, (806418), 2022
Cunningham J, O'Dowd A, Broglio S, Newell FN, Kelly A, Joyce O, Januszewski J, Wilson F, Multisensory perception is not influenced by previous concussion history in retired rugby union players, Brain Injury, 2022
McGovern, D.P. and Burns, S. and Hirst, R.J. and Newell, F.N., Perceptual training narrows the temporal binding window of audiovisual integration in both younger and older adults, Neuropsychologia, 173, (108309), 2022
O' Dowd, A. and Hirst, R.J. and Setti, A. and Kenny, R.A. and Newell, F.N., Self-Reported Sensory Decline in Older Adults Is Longitudinally Associated with Both Modality-General and Modality-Specific Factors, Innovation in Aging, 6, (7), 2022
O'Dowd, A. and Cooney, S.M. and Sorgini, F. and O' Rourke, E. and Reilly, R.B. and Newell, F.N. and Hirst, R.J., The development of visuotactile congruency effects for sequences of events, Journal of experimental child psychology, 207, 2021, p105094
Nuala Brady, Kate Darmody, Fiona Newell, Sarah Maeve Cooney, Holistic processing of words and faces in dyslexia, PLoS One, 16, (12), 2021, pe0259986
Cooney S.M., Holmes C.A., Newell F.N., Children's spatial"numerical associations on horizontal, vertical, and sagittal axes, Journal of Experimental Child Psychology, 209, 2021
Hirst, R.J. and Whelan, R. and Boyle, R. and Setti, A. and Knight, S. and O'Connor, J. and Williamson, W. and McMorrow, J. and Fagan, A.J. and Meaney, J.F. and Kenny, R.A. and De Looze, C. and Newell, F.N., Gray matter volume in the right angular gyrus is associated with differential patterns of multisensory integration with aging, Neurobiology of Aging, 100, 2021, p83-90
Stoycheva, P. and KauramÀki, J. and Newell, F.N. and Tiippana, K., Haptic recognition memory and lateralisation for verbal and nonverbal shapes, Memory, 29, (8), 2021, p1043-1057
Hirst, R.J. and Cassarino, M. and Kenny, R.A. and Newell, F.N. and Setti, A., Urban and rural environments differentially shape multisensory perception in ageing, Aging, Neuropsychology, and Cognition, 2021
Brady, N. and Darmody, K. and Newell, F.N. and Cooney, S.M., Holistic processing of faces and words predicts reading accuracy and speed in dyslexic readers, PLoS ONE, 16, (12 December), 2021
O'Dowd, A; Sorgini, F; Newell, F.N., Seeing an image of the hand affects performance on a crossmodal congruency task for sequences of events, Consciousness and Cognition, 2020
Hirst RJ, Setti A, De Looze C, Akuffo KO, Peto T, Kenny RA, Newell FN., The effect of eye disease, cataract surgery and hearing aid use on multisensory integration in ageing., Cortex; a journal devoted to the study of the nervous system and behavior, 133, 2020, p161-176
Stoycheva, P.L. and KauramÀki, J. and Newell, F.N. and Tiippana, K., Laterality effects in the haptic discrimination of verbal and non-verbal shapes, Laterality, 25, (6), 2020, p654-674
Hirst, R.J. and McGovern, D.P. and Setti, A. and Shams, L. and Newell, F.N., What you see is what you hear: Twenty years of research using the Sound-Induced Flash Illusion, Neuroscience and Biobehavioral Reviews, 118, 2020, p759-774
Ho, P.K. and Newell, F.N., Changes in perceptual category affects serial dependence in judgements of attractiveness, Visual Cognition, 28, (10), 2020, p557-580
O"Dowd, A., Newell, F.N., The rubber hand illusion is influenced by self-recognition, Neuroscience Letters, 720, 2020, p134756
Ho, PK; Newell, FN, Turning Heads: The Effects of Face View and Eye Gaze Direction on the Perceived Attractiveness of Expressive Faces, Perception, 2020
Hirst, Rebecca J., Setti, Annalisa, Kenny, Rose A., Newell, Fiona N., Age-related sensory decline mediates the Sound-Induced Flash Illusion: Evidence for reliability weighting models of multisensory perception, Scientific Reports, 9, (1), 2019
O'Dowd, Alan, Cooney, Sarah M., McGovern, David P., Newell, Fiona N., Do synaesthesia and mental imagery tap into similar cross-modal processes?, Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences, 374, (1787), 2019, p20180359
Belinda Hernández, Annalisa Setti, Rose Anne Kenny, Fiona N Newell, Individual differences in ageing, cognitive status, and sex on susceptibility to the sound-induced flash illusion: A large-scale study., American Psychological Association, 34, (7), 2019, p978
Belinda Hernández, Annalisa Setti, Rose Anne Kenny, and Fiona N. Newell, Inefficient audio-visual integration is associated with ageing, cognitive status and sex, 2019
Joyce O, Hopkins D, McCollum A, Newell F, Wilson F, Kelly A, Sports concussion and brain health. The need for objective tests of pathological brain indices, Journal of Neurotrauma, 37th Annual National Neurotrauma Symposium, Pittsburgh, USA, June 29- July 3rd , 36, (13), Mary Ann Liebert Inc, 2019, ppAO3-08
Ho, P.K. and Woods, A. and Newell, F.N., Temporal shifts in eye gaze and facial expressions independently contribute to the perceived attractiveness of unfamiliar faces, Visual Cognition, 26, (10), 2018, p831-852
Roudaia, E., Calabro, FJ., Vaina, LM., Newell, FN., Aging impairs audiovisual facilitation of object motion within self-motion, Multisensory Research, 31, (1), 2018, p251 - 272
O'Callaghan, G., O'Dowd, A., Stapleton, J., Merriman,NA., Roudaia, E. & Newell, FN., Changes in Regional Brain Grey-Matter Volume Following Successful Completion of a Sensori-Motor Intervention Targeted at Healthy and Fall-Prone Older Adults, Multisensory Research, 31, (1), 2018, p317 - 344
O'Callaghan G, O'Dowd A, Simões-Franklin C, Stapleton J, Newell FN., Tactile-to-Visual Cross-Modal Transfer of Texture Categorisation Following Training: An fMRI Study., Frontiers in Integrative Neuroscience, 2018, p12 - 24
Francesca Sorgini, Luca Massari, Jessica D'Abbraccio, Eduardo Palermo, Arianna Menciassi, Petar Petrovic, Alberto Mazzoni, Maria Chiara Carrozza, Fiona N. Newell, Calogero M. Oddo, Neuromorphic vibrotactile stimulation of fingertips for encoding object stiffness in telepresence sensory substitution and augmentation applications, Sensors, 18, (261), 2018, p1 - 18
Merriman, N.A. and Roudaia, E. and Romagnoli, M. and Orvieto, I. and Newell, F.N., Acceptability of a custom-designed game, CityQuest, aimed at improving balance confidence and spatial cognition in fall-prone and healthy older adults, Behaviour and Information Technology, 37, (6), 2018, p538-557
Niamh A. Merriman, Jan Ondrej, Alicia Rybicki, Eugenie Roudaia, Carol O'Sullivan and Fiona N. Newell, Crowded environments reduce spatial memory in older but not younger adults, Psychological Research, 82, 2018, p407 - 428
Bülthoff I, Newell F.N, Crossmodal priming of unfamiliar faces supports early interactions between voices and faces in person perception, Visual Cognition , 2017, p1-19
McGovern DP, Walsh K, Bell J, Newell FN, Individual differences in context-dependent effects reveal common mechanisms underlying the direction aftereffect and direction repulsion, Vision Research, 141, 2017, p109 - 116
Special Issue of Multisensory Research: Synaesthesia and Crossmodal Perception, 30, 3-5, (2017), 195 - 460p, Newell, FN., Amedi, A., & Mitchell, KJ., [eds.]
Newell, FN., Introduction to the Special Issue on Synaesthesia and Crossmodal Perception, Multisensory Reserch, 30, (3), 2017, p195 - 197
Kiiski HS, Cullen B, Clavin SL, Newell FN, Perceptual and social attributes underlining age-related preferences for faces, Frontiers in Human Neuroscience, 2016
Merriman, Niamh A; Ondrej, Jan; Roudaia, Eugenie; O'Sullivan, Carol; Newell, Fiona N; , Familiar environments enhance object and spatial memory in both younger and older adults, Experimental Brain Research, 234, (6), 2016, p1555-1574
McGovern DP, Roudaia E, Newell FN, Roach NW, Perceptual learning shapes multisensory causal inference via two distinct mechanisms, Scientific Reports, 6, (24673), 2016, p1 - 11
Newell FN, Mitchell KJ., Multisensory integration and cross-modal learning in synaesthesia: A unifying model., Neuropsychologia, 88, 2016, p140 - 150
McGovern, DP; Astle, AT; Clavin, SL; Newell, FN, Task-specific transfer of perceptual learning across sensory modalities., Current Biology, 26, (1), 2016, p20 - 21
Maguinness, C., Newell, F.N., Non-rigid, but not rigid, motion interferes with the processing of structural face information in developmental prosopagnosia, Neuropsychologia, 70, 2015, p281-295
Bulthoff I., Newell F.N., Distinctive voices enhance the visual recognition of unfamiliar faces , Cognition , 137 , ( ), 2015, p9 - 21
Whyatt C, Merriman NA, Young WR, Newell FN, Craig C., A Wii Bit of Fun: A Novel Platform to Deliver Effective Balance Training to Older Adults., Games for Health Journal, 4, (6), 2015, p423 - 433
Barrett, M.M., Newell, F.N., Task-specific, age related effects in the cross-modal identification and localisation of objects, Multisensory Research, 28, (1-2), 2015, p111-151
Merriman, N.A., Whyatt, C., Setti, A., Craig, C., Newell, F.N., Successful balance training is associated with improved multisensory function in fall-prone older adults, Computers in Human Behavior, 45, 2015, p192-203
H Kiiski, L Hoyet, AT Woods, C O'Sullivan, FN Newell, Strutting Hero, Sneaking Villain: Utilizing Body Motion Cues to Predict the Intentions of Others, ACM Transactions on Applied Perception, 13, (1), 2015, p1 - 21
McGovern DP, Roudaia E, Stapleton J, McGinnity TM, Newell FN, The sound-induced flash illusion reveals dissociable age-related effects in multisensory integration., Frontiers in aging neuroscience, 6, 2014, p250
Stapleton, J., Setti, A., Doheny, E. P., Kenny, R. A., & Newell, F. N. , A standing posture is associated with increased susceptibility to the sound-induced flash illusion in fall-prone older adults. , Experimental brain research, 232, (3), 2014, p423 - 434
Setti, A. Stapleton, J. Leahy, D. Kenny, RA & Newell, FN. , Improving the efficiency of multisensory integration in older adults: audio-visual temporal discrimination training reduces the susceptibility to the sound-induced flash illusion. , Neuropsychologia, 61, (1), 2014, p259-268-
Roudaia, E., Hoyet, L., McGovern, D., O'Sullivan, C., Newell, F.N. , Effects of ageing and sound on perceived timing of human interactions, Proceedings - SAP 2013: ACM Symposium on Applied Perception, SAP 2013: ACM Symposium on Applied Perception, 2013, pp123
Roudaia E., Gallego J., Nolan H., Fearon C., Newell F., Reilly RB, Sensorimotor synchronization to auditory and visual cues in ageing and Parkinson's disease, EU Cost Action TIMELY, February, 2013
Setti A, Burke KE, Kenny R, Newell FN. , Susceptibility to a multisensory speech illusion in older persons is driven by perceptual processes., Frontiers in Psychology: Language Sciences. , 4, (575), 2013
Recognizing others: Adaptive changes to person recognition throughout the lifespan in, editor(s)Bennett L. Schwartz, Mark L. Howe, Michael P. Toglia, Henry Otgaar , What is adaptive about adaptive memory?, UK, Oxford University Press, 2013, pp231 - 257, [Maguinness C, Newell FN]
O'Hanlon E, Newell FN, Mitchell KJ, Combined structural and functional imaging reveals cortical deactivations in grapheme-color synaesthesia., Frontiers in psychology, 4, 2013, p755
O'Hanlon, E., Newell, FN., Mitchell, K. , Combined structural and functional imaging reveals cortical deactivations in grapheme-colour synaesthesia. , Frontiers in Cognitive Science, 4, (755), 2013, pPMC3812565
Synaesthesia, meaning, and multi-lingual speakers in, editor(s)Julia Simner and Edward Hubbard , Oxford Handbook of Synaesthesia, Oxford, UK, Oxford University Press, 2013, pp181 - 204, [Newell, F.N.]
Pasqualotto A, Finucane CM, Newell FN, Ambient visual information confers a context-specific, long-term benefit on memory for haptic scenes., Cognition, 128, (3), 2013, p363-379
Chan, JS & Newell, FN, The effect of non-informative spatial sounds on haptic scene recognition, International Journal of Autonomous and Adaptive Communications Systems, 6, (4), 2013, p342 - 365
Barrett, M.M., Doheny, E.P., Setti, A., Maguinness, C., Foran, T.G., Kenny, R.A. & Newell, F.N., Reduced vision selectively impairs spatial updating in fall prone older adults, Multisensory Research, 1, (1), 2013, p69 - 94
Kiiski, H., Hoyet, L., Cullen, B., O'Sullivan, C., Newell, F.N, Perception and prediction of social intentions from human body motion, Proceedings - SAP 2013: ACM Symposium on Applied Perception, ACM Symposium on Applied Perception, Dublin; Ireland, 22-23 August, 2013, pp134-
McHugh, J.E., Kearney, G., Rice, H., Newell, F.N, The sound of the crowd: auditory information modulates the perceived emotion of a crowd based on bodily expressions., Emotion (Washington, D.C.), 12, (1), 2012, p120-131
Barrett, M., Cullen, B., Maguinness, C., Merriman, N. Roudaia, E., Stapleton, J. Stienen, BMC & Newell, FN, A glance back on 50 years of research in perception, Irish Journal of Psychology, 33, (2-3), 2012, p65-71
Emma J. Rose, Ciara Greene, Sinead Kelly, Derek W. Morris, Ian H. Robertson, Ciara Fahey, Sarah Jacobson, John O'Doherty, Fiona N. Newell, Jane McGrath, Arun Bodke, Hugh Garavan, Thomas Frodl, Michael Gill, Aiden P. Corvin, Gary Donohoe, The NOS1 variant rs6490121 is associated with variation in prefrontal function and gray matter density in healthy individuals, NeuroImage, 60, (1), 2012, p614-622
Rose EJ, Morris DW, Fahey C, Robertson IH, Greene C, O'Doherty J, Newell FN, Garavan H, McGrath J, Bokde A, Tropea D, Gill M, Corvin AP, Donohoe G., The effect of the neurogranin schizophrenia risk variant rs12807809 on brain structure and function., Twin Research and Human Genetics, 15, (3), 2012, p296 - 303
Pomianowska I, Germeys F, Verfaillie K, Newell FN., The role of social cues in the deployment of spatial attention: head-body relationships automatically activate directional spatial codes in a Simon task., Frontiers in Integrative Neuroscience, 6, (4), 2012, p1 - 7
O'Mahony, C. & Newell, F.N., Integration of faces and voices, but not faces and names, in familiar person recognition, British Journal of Psychology, 103, (1), 2012, p73 - 82
Chan, JS., Maguinness, C., Lisiecka, D. Setti, A. & Newell, FN, Evidence for crossmodal interactions across depth on target localisation performance in a spatial array, Perception, 41, 2012, p757 - 773
Newell, FN, Setti, A. Foran, T., Burke, K., & Kenny, RA, Reduced vision impairs spatial cognition in fall-prone older adults, INSIGHT: Research and Practice in Visual Impairment and Blindness, 4, (3), 2011, p103 - 111
Simoes-Franklin, C., Whitaker, T.A. & Newell, FN, Active and passive touch differentially activate somatosensory cortex in texture perception, Human Brain Mapping, 32, (7), 2011, p1067-1080
Setti A, Finnigan S, Sobolewski R, McLaren L, Robertson IH, Reilly RB, Kenny RA, Newell FN, Audiovisual temporal discrimination is less efficient with aging: an event-related potential study., Neuroreport, 22, (11), 2011, p554-8
Setti, A., Finnigan, S., Sobolewski, R., McLaren, L., Robertson, I.H., Reilly, R.B., Anne Kenny, R., Newell, F.N., Audiovisual temporal discrimination is less efficient with aging: an event-related potential study, NeuroReport , 22, (11), 2011, p554-558
Maguinness C, Setti A, Burke KE, Kenny RA, Newell FN, The Effect of Combined Sensory and Semantic Components on Audio-Visual Speech Perception in Older Adults, Frontiers in Aging Neuroscience, 3, (19), 2011
Setti, A., Burke, K.E., Kenny, RA., & Newell, F.N., Is inefficient multisensory processing associated with falls in older people?, Experimental Brain Research., 209, (3), 2011, p375-384
Alais, D., Newell, F.N. & Mamassian, P., Multisensory processing in review: From physiology to behaviour, Seeing & Perceiving, 23, (1), 2010, p3 - 38
Chan, J.S., Simoes-Franklin, C., Garavan, H. & Newell, F.N., Static images of novel, moveable objects learned through touch activate visual area hMT+, Neuroimage, 49, 2010, p1708 - 1716
Visuo-haptic perception of objects and scenes in, editor(s)Marcus J. Naumer & Jochen Kaiser , Multisensory object perception in the primate brain, Springer, 2010, [Newell, F.N.]
McHugh, J.E., McDonnell, R., O'Sullivan, C. & Newell, F.N., Perceiving emotion in crowds: the role of dynamic body postures on the perception of emotion in crowded scenes, Experimental Brain Research., 204, (3), 2010, p361 - 372
Bargary, G, Barnett, KJ, Mitchell, KJ, Newell, FN, Colored-speech synaesthesia is triggered by multisensory, not unisensory, perception., Psychological Science, 20, (5), 2009, p529 - 533
McDonnell, R., Joerg, S., McHugh, J., Newell, F.N. & O'Sullivan, C., Investigating the role of body shape on the perception of emotion, ACM: Transactions on Applied Perception, 6, (3), 2009, p14 - 25
Woods, A.T., Newell, F.N., Canonical views in haptic object perception, Perception, 37, (12), 2009, p1867 - 1878
Barnett KJ, Feeney, J., Gormley, M & Newell FN, An exploratory study of linguistic-colour associations across languages in multilingual synaesthetes, Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology, 62, (7), 2009, p1343 - 1355
Kenny, RA., Dishongh, T., Newell, F.N. & Ni Scanail, C., Research to reduce falls in older people: the TRIL centre, Geriatric Medicine, 39, (6), 2009, p326 - 327
Casey, S, Mernagh, M. & Newell, FN., Are attractive facial characteristics peculiar to the sex of a face?, Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology, 62, (5), 2009, p833 - 843
Setti, A. & Newell FN, The effect of body and part-based motion on the recognition of unfamiliar objects, Visual Cognition, 18, (3), 2009, p456 - 480
Chan, JS & Newell, FN, Behavioural evidence for task-dependent, 'what' versus 'where' processing within and across modalities, Perception & Psychophysics, 70, (1), 2008, p36 - 49
Whitaker TA, Simoes-Franklin C, Newell FN., Vision and touch: independent or integrated systems for the perception of texture?, Brain Research, 1242, (C), 2008, p59 - 72
Barnett, KJ, Finucane, C, Asher, JE, Bargary, G, Corvin, AP, Newell, FN, Mitchell, KJ, Familial patterns and the origins of individual differences in synaesthesia., Cognition, 106, (2), 2008, p871-893
Barnett KJ, & Newell FN, Synaesthesia is associated with enhanced visual imagery, Consciousness and Cognition, 3, 2008, p1032 - 1039
Barnett, KJ, Foxe, JJ, Molholm, S, Kelly, SP, Shalgi, S, Mitchell, KJ, Newell, FN, Differences in early sensory-perceptual processing in synesthesia: a visual evoked potential study., NeuroImage, 43, (3), 2008, p605-613
Barnett KJ, Newell FN, Finucane C, Corvin AP, Mitchell KJ., Familial patterns and the origins of individual differences in synaesthesia, Cognition, 106, (2), 2008, p871 - 893
Rachel McDonnell, Sophie Jörg, Joanna McHugh, Fiona Newell and Carol O'Sullivan, Evaluating the emotional content of human motions on real and virtual characters, ACM SIGGRAPH Symposium on Applied Perception in Graphics and Visualization (APGV'08), Los Angeles, August, edited by S. Creem-Regehr and K. Myszkowski , ACM Press, 2008, pp67-74
Roberts, G.M.P., Newell, F., Simoes-Franklin, C., & Garavan, H. , Menstrual cycle phase modulates cognitive control over male but not female stimuli, Brain Research , 1224, 2008, p79 - 87
Whitaker, T.A., Simões-Franklin, C., Newell, F.N. , The natural truth: The contribution of vision and touch in the categorisation of "naturalness", Lecture Notes in Computer Science (including subseries Lecture Notes in Artificial Intelligence and Lecture Notes in Bioinformatics) , 6th International Conference on Haptics: Perception, Devices and Scenarios, EuroHaptics 2008, Madrid, 10-14 June, 5024, (2008), 2008, pp319-324
Newell, FN, Shams, L., New insights into multisensory perception, Perception, 36, (10), 2007, p1415 - 1418
Rachel McDonnell, Fiona Newell, Carol O'Sullivan, Smooth Movers: Perceptually Guided Human Motion Simulation, Eurographics/ ACM SIGGRAPH Symposium on Computer Animation, San Diego, U.S., August, 2007, edited by D. Metaxas and J. Popovic , ACM Press, 2007, pp259 - 269
Casey, S., Newell, F.N. , Are representations of unfamiliar faces independent of encoding modality?, Neuropsychologia, 45, (3-4), 2007, p506 - 513
Special Issue of Perception: Advances in Multisensory Perception, 36, 10, (2007), Newell, FN & Shams, L, [eds.], Guest Editors
Ernst, MO, Lange, C. & Newell, FN, Multisensory Recognition of Actively Explored Objects, Canadian Journal of Experimental Psychology, 61, (3), 2007, p242 - 253
Chan JS, Maucher T, Schemmel J, Kilroy, D, Newell FN, Meier KH., The Virtual Haptic Display: A device for exploring 2-D virtual shapes in the tactile modality, Behavior Research Methods, Instruments, & Computers, 39, (4), 2007, p802 - 810
Pasqualotto, A., Finucane, C., Newell, F.N., The role of visual experience on the representation and updating of novel haptic scenes, Brain and Cognition, 65, (2), 2007, p184 - 194
Rachel McDonnell, Sophie Joerg, Jessica Hodgins, Fiona Newell, Carol O'Sullivan, Virtual Shapers & Movers: Form and Motion affect Sex Perception, ACM International Conference Proceeding Series, APGV'07: ACM SIGGRAPH Symposium on Applied Perception in Graphics and Visualization, Tuebingen, Germany, 25-27 May, 253, 2007, pp7 - 10
Bulthoff, I., & Newell, F.N., The role of familiarity in the recognition of static and dynamic objects., Progress in Brain Research, 154, 2006, p315 - 325
Pasqualotto, A., Finucane, C.M., Newell, F.N., Erratum: Visual and haptic representations of scenes are updated with observer movement (Experimental Brain Research (2005) DOI: 10.1007/s00221-005- 2388-5), 2005, - 592
Newell, F.N., Sheppard, D.M., Edelman, S., Shapiro, K.L., The interaction of shape- and location-based priming in object categorisation: evidence for a hybrid "what+where" representation stage., Vision Research, 45, (16), 2005, p2065 - 2080
Newell, F.N., Woods, A.T., Mernagh, M., Bülthoff, H.H., Visual, haptic and cross modal recognition of scenes., Experimental Brain Research., 161, (2), 2005, p233 - 242
Casey, S., Newell, F.N. , The role of short and long term familiarity on visual and haptic face recognition., Experimental Brain Research., 166, (3-4), 2005, p583 - 591
Pasqualotto, A., Finucane, C., Newell, F.N., Visual and haptic scenes are updated with observer motion., Experimental Brain Research., 166, (3-4), 2005, p481 - 488
Cross modal scene and object perception. in, editor(s)Heller, M., Ballesteros, S. , Touch, Blindness and Neuroscience., Madrid, Spain, UNED, 2004, pp261 - 270, [Newell, F.N.]
Bülthoff, I., Newell, FN. , Categorical perception of sex occurs in familiar but not unfamiliar faces, Visual Cognition., 11, (7), 2004, p823 - 855
Woods, A.T., Newell, F.N., Visual, haptic and cross-modal recognition of objects and scenes., Journal of Physiology (Paris)., 98, 2004, p147 - 159
Newell FN, Wallraven C, Huber S, The role of characteristic motion in object categorization, Journal of Vision, 4, (2), 2004, p118 - 129
Cross modal object recognition. in, editor(s)Calvert, G., Spence, C., Stein, B. , The Handbook of Multisensory Processes, MA, USA, MIT Press, 2004, pp123 - 140, [Newell, F.N.]
Peskin, M., Newell, F.N., Familiarity breeds attraction: Effects of exposure on the attractiveness of typical and distinctive faces, Perception, 33, (2), 2004, p147-157
Newell, F.N., Brown, V., Findlay, J.M. , Is object search mediated by object-based or image-based representations?, Spatial Vision, 17, (4-5), 2004, p511 - 542
Woods, A.T., O'Modhrain, S., Newell, F.N. , The effect of temporal delay and spatial differences between objects on crossmodal recognition., Cognitive, Affective and Behavioural Neuroscience, 4, (2), 2004, p260 - 269
Bülthoff, I., Newell, F.N., Interaction between vision and speech in face recognition, Journal of Vision, 3, (9), 2003, p825a
Newell, F.N., Bülthoff, H.H, Perceptual categorisation of familiar objects, Cognition, 85, (2), 2002, p113 - 143
Newell, F.N., Bülthoff, H.H., Categorical perception of familiar objects, Cognition, 85, (25), 2002, p113-143
Newell, F.N., Ernst, M.O., Tjan, B.J., Bülthoff, H.H., Viewpoint dependence in visual and haptic object recognition, Psychological Science, 12, 2001, p37 - 42
Buelthoff, I.and Newell, F.N, Gender, average heads and categorical perception, Journal of Vision, 1, (3), 2001, p281a
Duncan, J., Seitz, R., Kolodny, J., Bor, D., Ahmed, A., Newell, F.N., Emslie, H., A neural basis for general intelligence, Science, 289, (5478), 2000, p457 - 460
Newell, F.N., Chiroro, P., Valentine, T., Recognising Unfamiliar Faces: The Effects of Distinctiveness and View, Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology, 52, (2), 1999, p509 - 534
Newell, F.N., Stimulus context and view dependence in object recognition, Perception, 27, (1), 1998, p47 - 68
Newell, F.N., Findlay, J.M., Visual search for rotated three-dimensional objects, Perception, 26, (10), 1997, p1231 - 1257
Perceptual Cues and Object Recognition in, editor(s)Carr, K., England, A. , Simulated and Virtual Realities, London, Taylor and Francis, 1995, pp42 - 50, [Findlay, J.M., Newell, F.N.]
Newell, F.N., Findlay, J.M., Viewpoint Invariance in Object Recognition., Irish Journal of Psychology, 13, (4), 1992, p494 - 507
Non-Peer-Reviewed Publications
McHugh, J.E., McDonnell, R., Chan, J.S. & Newell, F.N., The Multisensory Perception of Emotions in Real and Virtual Humans, British Psychological Society Annual Conference 2008, Dublin, April 2008, 2008
McHugh, J.E. & Newell, F.N. , Mixed emotions: audition can modulate the visual perception of the emotion of a crowd, International Multisensory Research Forum, CCNY, New York, June 2009
Research Expertise
Description
Multisensory perception; Synaesthesia; Object recognition; Scene recognition; Face perception and facial attractiveness; Perception in visual impaired individuals; Dynamic object recognition; Visual, haptic and auditory perception; Perception of crowds; Perception of emotion; Ageing and multisensory perception.Projects
- Title
- weDraw
- Summary
- The weDRAW project comes from the renewed neuroscientific understanding of the role of communication between sensory modalities during development: specific sensory systems have specific roles to learn specific concepts. Starting from these results, in weDRAW we will develop an multisensory technology and three serious games that will exploit the best modality for learning arithmetic and geometrical concepts. In particular weDRAW: - will provide the elements to the teacher to determine which is the best modality (visual, audio or haptic) to teach each specific concepts to the students; - will provide the technology to exploit the best sensory signal; - will permit to teach different concepts together. This will be possible by using a multisensory approach, that will open a new teaching/learning channel, personalized for each student, based on multisensory interactive technology (i.e., audio, tactile, motor and visual), including a serious game platform. - will show that it is possible to learn arithmetical concepts from multisensory rhythm exploration and music and geometrical concepts from body movement and multisensory drawing. - will permit a "deeper learning of Science and Mathematics combined with Arts" improving creative capacities of learners. Besides application to typical children, a major goal and output of this project consists of applying the proposed multisensory approach and technologies to two specific populations: visually impaired and dyslexic children. In particular, dyslexic children have problems with rhythm, whereas visually impaired children have problems with space and geometry. With weDRAW we expect to improve the spatial and temporal impairments of these two groups of children braking down social barriers.
- Funding Agency
- European Commission; Research and Innovation Action
- Date From
- 1 Jan., 2017
- Date To
- 31 Dec, 2018
- Title
- CityQuest: a serious game to enhance cognition and improve balance control
- Summary
- The aim of the proposal is to develop a prototype game, CityQuest, designed to improve balance control and spatial cognition in older adults. The game will target a growing health issue in the older population, namely the risk of falls and cognitive decline, with estimates that 30% of the older population are affected. The prototype game will be tested for potential commercialisation as a downloadable video-game or app, which is interfaced with the latest VR technology such as Oculus Rift, that can be accessed by health professionals in the clinic or older adults and their families at home.
- Funding Agency
- Science Foundation Ireland
- Date From
- 1 jan 2016
- Date To
- 31 mar 2017
- Title
- Socialising Agents: endowing virtual agents with multisensory social skills to increase appeal and user engagement
- Summary
- There is an increasing demand for more realism in virtual characters, particularly with virtual agents in games designed to interact with the user and in entertainment designed to evoke intense emotions. However, computer graphics experts have little understanding of what underlies our preferences for certain perceptual features over others (such as facial expressions, voice intonations or bodily gestures). In a novel inter-disciplinary project combining computer graphics and social cognitive neuroscience, we will apply principles of human perceptual processing to endow virtual agents with maximum social appeal.
- Funding Agency
- Science Foundation Ireland
- Date From
- July, 2011
- Date To
- June, 2015
- Title
- VERVE
- Summary
- VERVE is a research project that aims to develop new technologies to support the treatment of people who are at risk of social exclusion, either because of fear and apathy associated with ageing, or because of a neurological disorder.
- Funding Agency
- EU
- Date From
- 2011
- Date To
- 2014
- Title
- The development of a novel, low-cost intervention games system designed to improve physical and mental well being in older adults
- Summary
- Barriers to healthy ageing include declines in both physical (e.g. postural control) and mental processes (e.g. cognitive decline). As these processes are interconnected one of the main objectives of this project is to develop intervention programmes that train the body and the brain at the same time and are adapted to the needs of older adults. In this collaborative project between QUB and TCD we will create games that profile balance control (QUB expertise), dual tasking, selective attention and sensory integration (TCD expertise). The objective is to create a holistic approach that will result in a new, fun and engaging way for older adults to master new gaming based skills that will improve physical and mental well being.
- Funding Agency
- CARDI: Centre for ageing research and development in Ireland
- Date From
- March, 2011
- Date To
- October, 2011
- Title
- TRIL: Technology Research for Independent Living
- Summary
- The Technology Research for Independent Living (TRIL) project is a large-scale collaboration between Intel Corporation, GE and research teams at UCD, TCD, NUI Galway and St James's Hospital, Dublin. This multi-disciplinary research centre focuses on discovering how technology can be used to facilitate older people living independent lives in the location of their choice.
- Funding Agency
- Intel Corps., GE and Industrial Development Agency
- Date From
- Dec, 2008
- Date To
- Dec, 2011
- Title
- Cross-Border Research and Development Funding Programme
- Summary
- Collaborative project between ISCS in Ulster University and Trinity College Institute of Neuroscience to conduct neuroimaging on older adults
- Funding Agency
- DEL-NI:
- Date From
- July, 2011
- Date To
- June 2014
- Title
- Metropolis: Supercrowds for Multisensory Urban Simulations
- Summary
- This is a novel interdisciplinary project combining computer graphics, sound engineering and cognitive neuroscience research, in which we apply principles of human multisensory perception to create realistic, scalable and large-scale simulations of crowds.
- Funding Agency
- Science Foundation Ireland
- Date From
- Jan, 2007
- Date To
- June, 2011
- Title
- MONAT: measurement of naturalness
- Summary
- We instinctively know whether something is natural, or a synthetic mimic. But the key factors responsible for this perception have yet to be identified: this is the primary objective of this project. The perception of naturalness is dominated, in most cases, by visual appearance and touch. Basic visual sensory information, such as colour and gloss, and other visual triggers, such as shape and size is often sufficient to differentiate between natural and synthetic materials. Touching the material serves to reinforce the initial visual perception: here tactile information from cutaneous pressure sensitive and thermal sensory transducers, as well as kinesthetic data, provides the requisite sensory input. This project aims to understand how these sensory data streams are processed by the relevant neural networks and how they contribute to the cognitive processes associated with the perception of naturalness.
- Funding Agency
- EU 6th Framework
- Date From
- Sept, 2006
- Date To
- Aug, 2009
Recognition
Awards and Honours
Best Reported Impact, Science Foundation Ireland
Fulbright Scholar
Fellow, Trinity College Dublin
'Addison Wheeler' Research Fellow in Life Sciences, University of Durham
Memberships
Member of IEEE Robotics
Experimental Psychological Society, UK
Psychonomics Society, USA
British Neuroscience Association
European Society for Cognitive Psychology