Associate Professor Tamara Watson

Associate Professor Tamara Watson

Associate Professor in Cyber Security and Behaviour,
Criminology & Policing

Biography

My research aims to understand dynamic processing of sensory stimuli. Focusing on the visual system I am interested in how and why an unchanging stimulus can look different to us depending on the context within which it is presented. I use both human psychophysical and neuroimaging techniques in my research. I completed my PhD at the University of Sydney, School of Psychology and subsequently moved to Rutgers University, Center for Molecular and Behavioral Neuroscience (New Jersey, USA) to complete a Human Frontiers Science Program Post Doctoral Fellowship. In 2009 I returned to the Brain and Mind Research Institute at the University of Sydney where I expanded my research focus to investigate perceptual changes that occur during psychosis. I joined the University of Western Sydney as a research lecturer in May 2010.

This information has been contributed by Associate Professor Watson.

Qualifications

  • PhD University of Sydney

Organisational Unit (School / Division)

  • Criminology & Policing

Contact

Email: T.Watson@westernsydney.edu.au
Phone: (02) 9772 6006
Mobile:
Location: EI.G.07
Parramatta

PLEASE NOTE: obtaining information from this Directory must be for the legitimate purposes of doing business with and within Western Sydney University, and must not be used for unsolicited bulk e-mailing (spamming) or similar purposes.

Publications

Journal Articles

  • Mahajan, Y., Ching, A., Watson, T., Kim, J. and Davis, C. (2022), 'Effect of sustained selective attention on steady-state visual evoked potentials', Experimental Brain Research, vol 240, no 1 , pp 249 - 261.
  • Kirchner, J., Watson, T. and Lappe, M. (2022), 'Real-time MRI reveals unique insight into the full kinematics of eye movements', eNeuro, vol 9, no 1 .
  • Kirchner, J., Watson, T., Busch, N. and Lappe, M. (2022), 'Timing and kinematics of horizontal within-blink saccades measured by EOG', Journal of Neurophysiology, vol 127, no 6 , pp 1655 - 1668.
  • Garcia Garcia, M., Rifai, K., Wahl, S. and Watson, T. (2021), 'Adaptation to geometrically skewed moving images : an asymmetrical effect on the double-drift illusion', Vision Research, vol 179 , pp 75 - 84.
  • Stein, N., Niehorster, D., Watson, T., Steinicke, F., Rifai, K., Wahl, S. and Lappe, M. (2021), 'A comparison of eye tracking latencies among several commercial head-mounted displays', i-Perception, vol 12, no 1 .
  • Lencer, R., Meyhofer, I., Triebsch, J., Rolfes, K., Lappe, M. and Watson, T. (2021), 'Saccadic suppression in schizophrenia', Scientific Reports, vol 11, no 1 .
  • Caruana, N., Stein, T., Watson, T., Williams, N. and Seymour, K. (2019), 'Intact prioritisation of unconscious face processing in schizophrenia', Cognitive Neuropsychiatry, vol 24, no 2 , pp 135 - 151.
  • Schweitzer, R., Watson, T., Watson, J. and Rolfs, M. (2019), 'The joy of retinal painting : a build-it-yourself device for intrasaccadic presentations', Perception, vol 48, no 10 , pp 1020 - 1025.
  • Watson, T. and Lappe, M. (2019), 'Fixation related shifts of perceptual localization counter to saccade direction', Journal of Vision, vol 19, no 13 .
  • Balsdon, T., Schweitzer, R., Watson, T. and Rolfs, M. (2018), 'All is not lost : post-saccadic contributions to the perceptual omission of intra-saccadic streaks', Consciousness and Cognition, vol 64 , pp 19 - 31.
  • Mifsud, N., Beesley, T., Watson, T., Elijah, R., Sharp, T. and Whitford, T. (2018), 'Attenuation of visual evoked responses to hand and saccade-initiated flashes', Cognition, vol 179 , pp 14 - 22.
  • Clifford, C., Watson, T. and White, D. (2018), 'Two sources of bias explain errors in facial age estimation', Royal Society Open Science, vol 5, no 10 .
  • Watson, T., Otsuka, Y. and Clifford, C. (2016), 'Who are you expecting? : biases in face perception reveal prior expectations for sex and age', Journal of Vision, vol 16, no 3 .
  • Mifsud, N., Beesley, T., Watson, T. and Whitford, T. (2016), 'Attenuation of auditory evoked potentials for hand and eye-initiated sounds', Biological Psychology, vol 120 , pp 61 - 68.
  • Chen, N., Clarke, P., Watson, T., MacLeod, C. and Guastella, A. (2015), 'Attentional bias modification facilitates attentional control mechanisms : evidence from eye tracking', Biological Psychology, vol 104 , pp 139 - 146.
  • Haladjian, H., Wufong, E. and Watson, T. (2015), 'Spatial compression : dissociable effects at the time of saccades and blinks', Journal of Vision, vol 15, no 9 .
  • Clifford, C., Mareschal, I., Otsuka, Y. and Watson, T. (2015), 'A Bayesian approach to person perception', Consciousness and Cognition, vol 36 , pp 406 - 413.
  • Watson, T. and Robbins, R. (2014), 'The nature of holistic processing in face and object recognition : current opinions', Frontiers in Psychology, vol 5, no 3 , pp 1 - 2.
  • Chen, N., Clarke, P., Watson, T., MacLeod, C. and Guastella, A. (2014), 'Biased saccadic responses to emotional stimuli in anxiety : an antisaccade study', PLoS One, vol 9, no 2 .
  • Maloney, R., Watson, T. and Clifford, C. (2014), 'Determinants of motion response anisotropies in human early visual cortex : the role of configuration and eccentricity', NeuroImage, vol 100, no Suppl. C , pp 564 - 579.
  • Watson, T., Robbins, R. and Best, C. (2014), 'Infant perceptual development for faces and spoken words : an integrated approach', Developmental Psychobiology, vol 56, no 7 , pp 1454 - 1481.
  • Watson, T. (2013), 'Implications of holistic face processing in autism and schizophrenia', Frontiers in Psychology, vol 4 , pp 1 - 11.
  • Maloney, R., Watson, T. and Clifford, C. (2013), 'Human cortical and behavioral sensitivity to patterns of complex motion at eccentricity', Journal of Neurophysiology, vol 110, no 11 , pp 2545 - 2556.
  • Kaur, M., Lagopoulos, J., Ward, P., Watson, T., Naismith, S., Hickie, I. and Hermens, D. (2012), 'Mismatch negativity/P3a complex in young people with psychiatric disorders : a cluster analysis', PLoS One, vol 7, no 12 .
  • Watson, T. and Krekelberg, B. (2011), 'An Equivalent Noise Investigation of Saccadic Suppression', Journal of Neuroscience, vol 31, no 17 , pp 6535 - 6541.
  • Van Der Linde, I. and Watson, T. (2010), 'A combinatorial study of pose effects in unfamiliar face recognition', Vision Research, vol 50, no 5 , pp 522 - 533.
  • Rhodes, G., Watson, T., Jeffery, L. and Clifford, C. (2010), 'Perceptual adaptation helps us identify faces', Vision Research, vol 53 , pp 963 - 968.
  • Watson, T. and Krekelberg, B. (2009), 'The relationship between saccadic suppression and perceptual stability', Current Biology, vol 19, no 12 , pp 1040 - 1043.
  • Watson, T. and Clifford, C. (2006), 'Orientation-dependence of the orientation contingent face aftereffect', Vision Research, vol 46 , pp 3422 - 3429.
  • Watson, T., Hill, H., Johnston, A. and Troje, N. (2005), 'Motion as a cue for viewpoint invariance.', Visual Cognition, vol 12 , pp 1291 - 1308.

Psychology- visual perception,cognition, eye movements and perception, face recognition.

This information has been contributed by Associate Professor Watson.

Current Projects

Title: PLATYPUS - PLAsticiTY of Perceptual space Under Sensorimotor interactions [via Munster University, Germany - no funding to WSU]
Funder:
  • European Commission
Western Researchers: Tamara Watson and Gabrielle Weidemann
Years: 2017-07-01 - 2023-04-30
ID: P00023401
Title: Frontiers Technology Clinical Academic Group: disruptive innovation in healthcare
Funder:
  • Maridulu Budyari Gumal
Western Researchers: Kate Stevens, Paul Breen, Gaetano Gargiulo, Sandra Garrido, Gough Lui, Don Wright, Gabrielle Weidemann and Tamara Watson
Years: 2019-01-01 - 2023-03-31
ID: P00025405

Previous Projects

Title: Who Are You Expecting? Uncertainty and Bias in High-Level Vision [via UNSW]
Funder:
  • Australian Research Council (ACRG)
Western Researchers: Tamara Watson
Years: 2015-01-30 - 2019-01-29
ID: P00022483
Title: Flower Power: Natural Form, Aesthetics and the Human Brain
Funder:
  • Australian Research Council (ACRG)
Western Researchers: Tamara Watson
Years: 2017-06-30 - 2022-12-31
ID: P00023270
Title: Identifying the basis for perceptual stability and perceptual omission during saccadic eye movements
Funder:
  • Australian Research Council (ACRG)
Western Researchers: Tamara Watson
Years: 2011-01-01 - 2014-06-30
ID: P00018169
Title: Steady vision: The role of discontinuity and disruption
Funder:
  • German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD)
  • University of Western Sydney
Western Researchers: Tamara Watson
Years: 2016-01-01 - 2017-12-31
ID: P00023139
Title: Auditory facilitation of visual search; a steay state visual evoked potential investigation of neural mechanisms.
Funder:
  • University of Western Sydney
Western Researchers: Tamara Watson and John Cass
Years: 2011-11-09 - 2012-11-08
ID: P00020509

Supervision

Associate Professor Watson is available to be a principal supervisor for doctoral projects

Current Supervision

Thesis Title: Combinational (EEG/fMRI) neurophysiological recordings of early visual processing in clinical populations.
Field of Research:

Western Sydney University

Locked Bag 1797
Penrith NSW 2751

Tel: +61 2 9852 5222

ABN 53 014 069 881
CRICOS Provider No: 00917k