Associate Professor Anne Aimola Davies
Areas of expertise
- Biological Psychology (Neuropsychology, Psychopharmacology, Physiological Psychology) 170101
- Sensory Processes, Perception And Performance 170112
- Health, Clinical And Counselling Psychology 170106
Available student projects
My research interests are in cognitive neuropsychology, specifically of visual and somatosensory attention, and belief formation. These aspects of cognition can be investigated by studying individuals following right-hemisphere stroke, especially those suffering from unilateral neglect, sensory loss, or anosognosia for motor impairments, and/or by studying neurologically healthy individuals. For example, the neuropsychological condition of unilateral neglect may be regarded as a pathological form of inattentional blindness, a phenomenon in which neurologically healthy participants fail to notice, respond to, or report something even though it is presented in full view. Drawing on the methods of cognitive neuropsychology, clinical neuropsychology and cognitive neuroscience, my research includes work on:
- inattentional blindness
- directional and non-directional aspects of attention
- visual awareness and overt/covert attention in neglect
- viewer-, stimulus- and object-centered reference frames in neglect
- hemispheric specialisation in global and local processing
- expectation as a factor in self-touch enhancement following sensory loss
- anosognosia, and the role of impairments of executive function
- neuroanatomical basis of neglect and anosognosia
- neurorehabilitation.
Current student projects
PhD Students
Leslie Andrews (ANU, due to submit 2026) –
Haiwen Chen (ANU, due to submit 2025) – Global-local processing and visual illusions.
Suzanne Chu (ANU, due to submit 2026) –
Jhana de Silva (ANU, due to submit 2024) – Body-awareness and the mechanisms involved in the self-other distinction.
Xuanning He (ANU, due to submit 2025) – An investigation of the relationship between cognitive lifestyle complexity and later-life changes in executive function: A multidirectional approach.
Xuan Di (ANU, due to submit 2024) –
Zhihan Liu (ANU, due to submit 2024) – Escaping blindness: An investigation of factors that reduce inattentional blindness.
Michael Spratt (ANU, Submitted) – Selective visual attention: Evaluating the relatioship between variables that elicit the object effect and the oblique effect.
Yizhou Wu (ANU, due to submit 2026) –
Past student projects
PhD/DPhil Students
Laura Hughes (Macquarie University, 2005) – Visual perception, attention and action.
Judy Buchholz (ANU, 2008) – Visual attentional processes in adults with dyslexia.
Rebekah White (University of Oxford, 2011) – When I touch my hand it touches me back: An investigation of the illusion of self-touch.
Monica Skjerve (ANU, 2012) – An investigation of viewer-, stimulus-, and object-centred neglect in the visual and tactile modalities.
Rachel Lacey (ANU, 2013) – Lifting the fog on ‘chemobrain': A prospective cohort study of chemotherapy-related cognitive changes in women with early breast cancer.
Janette Chow (University of Oxford, 2015) – Language mediated visual attention in 2-year old infants (Joint Supervisor with Professor Kim Plunkett).
Matthew Tompkins (University of Oxford, 2018) – Observations on invisibility: An investigation of the role of expectation and attentional set on visual awareness.
Jolene Cox (ANU, 2022) – Building blocks: Studies in visual statistical learning.
Research Masters Students
Rebekah White (ANU, 2008) – Expectation and perceptual load in the inattentional blindness phenomenon.
Matthew Tompkins (University of Oxford, 2012) – What drives inattentional blindness? An investigation of categorical attentional set and the semantic-congruency effect.
Clinical Masters Students
Caroline Chauvet (UWS, 1998) – Depressive realism, personality, and procedural learning.
Monica Kaoutal (UWS, 1998) – The relationship between identity styles/ethnic identity and general well-being in university students.
Sonia Zadro (UWS, 1998) – What to do when cognitive-behavioural treatment for obsessive-compulsive disorder fails to make a difference: Prescribe the symptom?
Cathy Egan (UWS, 1999) – Therapeutic alliances in brief therapy.
Michael Gock (UWS, 1999) – Expectation, imaginative suggestibility and the miracle question.
Lucy Sorbello (UWS, 1999) – Miracle question: The role of hope in brief therapy.
Anna Bednarek (UWS, 2002) – The relationship between laterality and hierarchical coding in object-based processing.
Joanne Del Riccio (UWS, 2002) – Attentional biases in letter identification and parity judgements: Implications for object-centred neglect.
Monica Skjerve (ANU, 2004) – The effect of object orientation on the allocation of visual attention in neurologically healthy individuals.
Caitlin McGill (ANU, 2015) – Implicit awareness, reasoning and assessment within the two-factor model of anosognosia for hemiplegia.
Kelly Battocchio (ANU, 2022) – Attention to social threat: Exploring attentional biases in social anxiety using an inattentional blindness paradigm.
Honours Students
Noël Wight-Boycott (UWS, 1999) – The effects of object asymmetry on visual attention in neurologically healthy participants.
Kathleen Stark (UWS, 2002) – The efficacy of part salience on directing attention towards an object: A study of object-centred reference frames.
Kelly Wainwright (ANU, 2002) – Determining the preattentive just noticeable difference for motion direction (Joint Supervisor with Professor Mark Edwards).
Rachel Aalders (ANU, 2003) – Hemispheric specialisation for processing global-local objects: The effects of post-stimulus masking and target-letter symmetry.
Janet Bultitude (ANU, 2004) – Putting attention on the line: Investigating the action-orientation hypothesis of pseudoneglect.
Anna Dolgaleva (ANU, 2004) – The effects of sex, symmetry, and stimulus category on hemispheric specialisation for the global-local paradigm.
Hannah Krijnen (ANU, 2004) – Competing for attention: Investigating egocentric reference frames.
Michael Spratt (ANU, 2005) – Framed in space? Object effects in a visual attention paradigm.
Hildie Leung (ANU, 2006) – Hemispheric differences in global-local processing: The effects of stimulus category and culture.
Rebekah White (ANU, 2006) – Bridging the great divide: Expectations and attention in the inattentional blindness phenomenon.
Aaron Tan (ANU, 2007) – Inattentional blindness: Setting attention across multiple dimensions.
Terri Halleen (ANU, 2008) – My finger is a brush! Tactile expectations and the rubber hand illusion.
Stephen Waterman (University of Oxford, 2009) – Implicit attentional set in a dynamic inattentional blindness paradigm.
Samantha Mansell (University of Oxford, 2011) – When we can’t see the ZOO for the animals: The A to Z of inattentional blindness.
Ava Forkert (University of Oxford, 2012) – It’s a bird, it’s an animal, it’s undetected: A semantic congruency effect for inattentional blindness.
Eloise Page (University of Oxford, 2012) – A spoke in the wheels for ‘attentional set’ theory?: Importance of features as a mediator of inattentional blindness.
Huili Koh (ANU, 2013) – You see TIGER and I see ?? but will we see FARM (??)? An investigation of inattentional blindness from a cultural perspective.
Meghan Smith (ANU, 2013) – The rubber hand illusion: Orientation and spatial limitations.
Laura Birchall (ANU, 2014) – Switching sides: Hemispheric asymmetries for global and local processing of letters, objects and non-verubalisable stimuli.
Megan Fraser (ANU, 2014) – Looking on the right side: Disambiguating viewer-, stimulus, and object-centred pseuodneglect under visual working memory load.
Heo Min Quan (ANU, 2014) – Effects of culture on global versus local processing.
Julian Wong (ANU, 2014) – Exploring cultural differences in inattentional blindness: Specificity of attentional set and a new categorisation model
Jhana de Silva (ANU, 2015) – The mirror rubber-hand illusion and vision-touch synaesthesia: Alterations in body awareness.
Sebastian Tsui (ANU, 2015) – Hemispheric asymmetry: The effects of stimulus category and race.
Kelly Battocchio (ANU, 2016) – The role of expectation and perceptual similarity outisde of semantic category.
Aflaha Khan (ANU, 2016) – Looking up: Investigating pseudoneglect under high visual working memory load.
Li Low (ANU, 2016) – Effects of bilingualism on interference resistance, conflict monitoring, and hemispheric asymmetry in global-local processing.
Jingyuan (Wendy) Pan (ANU, 2016) – Effect of semantic relatedness in global-local processing of hierarchichal Chinese characters.
Simone Ray (ANU, 2016) – Looking at the finer details in later life: Hemispheric asymmetry and age-related changes in attentional processing.
Vern May Law (ANU, 2018) – Chinese-character-based Navon figures: Effects of semantic relatedness on global-local processing.
Chenlu Cai (ANU, 2018) – Putting attention under load: Effects of working memory load on attentional asymmetries.
Natalina Laria (ANU, 2018) – Influence of bilingualism on interference resistance and age-related changes in global-local processing.
Tameeka Thorley (ANU, 2018) – Processing the unexpected: The influence of grasping action on inattentional blindness.
Kristie Lam (ANU, 2019) – Does character matter: Chinese proficiency, race, and cultural influences on global-local processing.
Zhihan (Tammy) Liu (ANU, 2019) – Attentional set in inattentional blindness: What you set is what best facilitates task performance.
Lachlan Charaneka (ANU, 2020) – Why you see the car but not what it’s parked in: Exploring taxonomic and thematic relations within inattentional blindness.
Haiwen Chen (ANU, 2020) – Age-related changes in hemispheric asymmetry for global-local processing: Effects of stimulus category.
Suzanne Chu (ANU, 2021) – When the wrench turns a few heads: Semantic relatedness and expectation in inattentional blindness.
Xingcheng He (ANU, 2021) – Thematic relations and visual awareness: The effects of functional relationships in a dynamic inattentional blindness paradigm.
Yizhou Wu (ANU, 2021) – Animacy and attentional processes: The effects of animacy and selective attention on visual statistical learning.
Jenson Barker (ANU, 2022) – An investigation into the influence of visual
appearance in the rubber hand illusion.
Jared Hearn (ANU, 2022) – Where to look: The role of location expectations in inattentional blindness.
Library Dissertation Students
Francesca Nagle (University of Oxford, 2009) – Is there such a phenomenon as object-centred neglect?
Emily Purser (University of Oxford, 2010) – Going out on a limb: Supernumerary phantom limbs: A new model and the phenomenon explained.
Charlotte Jug (University of Oxford, 2011) – Role of the insula in anosognosia for hemiplegia.
Summer Research Scholarships
Janet Bultitude (ANU, Summer 2003) – Prism adaptation.
Rebekah White (ANU, Summer 2005) – Anosognosia for motor impairments: Motivational factors?
Vanessa Carr (University of Oxford, Summer 2011) – Cognitive impairments in patients with anosognosia for motor impairments.
Two-Year Academic Foundation Research Training Post for Medical Students
Dr George Hadjipavlou (University of Oxford, 2010) – Inattentional Blindness: Does looking help?
Oxford International Visiting Student Program
Jennifer Weinberg (University of Oxford, 2012) – Eliciting the illusion of self-touch in anatomically implausible conditions.
Publications
- de Silva, J, Chen, H, Isaac, S et al. 2021, 'Effects of Symmetry and Apparent Distance in a Parasagittal-Mirror Variant of the Rubber Hand Illusion Paradigm', Frontiers in Human Neuroscience, vol. 15, pp. 1-10.
- Cox, J & Aimola Davies, A 2020, 'Keeping an eye on visual search patterns in visuospatial neglect: A systematic review', Neuropsychologia, vol. 146, pp. 1-21.
- Miller, T, Chong, T, Aimola Davies, A et al. 2020, 'Human hippocampal CA3 damage disrupts both recent and remote episodic memories', eLife, vol. 9, no. e41836, pp. 1-47.
- Chow, J, Aimola Davies, A, Fuentes, L et al. 2019, 'The vocabulary spurt predicts the emergence of backward semantic inhibition in 18-month-old toddlers', Developmental Science, vol. 22, no. 2, pp. 1-9.
- White, R, Davies, M & Aimola Davies, A 2018, 'Inattentional blindness on the full-attention trial: Are we throwing out the baby with the bathwater?', Consciousness and Cognition, vol. 59, pp. 64-77.
- White, R & Aimola Davies, A 2017, 'Asynchrony in the rubber hand paradigm: Unexpected illusions following stroke', Cortex, vol. 93, pp. 224-226.
- Miller, TD, Chong, TTJ, Aimola Davies, AM, Ng, TWC, Johnson, MR, Irani, SR, >Vincent, A, Husain, M, Jacob, S, Maddison, P, Kennard, C, Gowland, P, & Rosenthal, C 2017, 'Focal CA3 hippocampal subfield atrophy following LGI1 VGKC-complex antibody limbic encephalitis', Brain, vol. 140, no. 5, pp. 1212-1219.
- Chow, J, Aimola Davies, AM, & Plunkett, K 2017, 'Spoken-word recognition in 2-year-olds: The tug of war between phonological and semantic activation', Journal of Memory and Language, vol. 93, no.-, pp. 104-134.
- Chow, J, Aimola Davies, AM, Fuentes, L, & Plunkett, K 2016, 'Backward semantic inhibition in toddlers', Psychological Science, vol. 27, no. 12, pp. 1312-1320.
- Tompkins, M, Woods, A, & Aimola Davies, AM 2016, 'The phantom vanish magic trick: Investigating the disappearance of a non-existent object in a dynamic scene', Frontiers in Psychology, vol. 7, no. -, pp. 1-15.
- White, RC, & Aimola Davies, AM 2015, 'The no-touch rubber hand paradigm and mirror-touch sensation: Support for the self-other theory of mirror-touch synesthesia', Cognitive Neuroscience, vol. 6, no. 2-3, pp.146-147.
- White, R, Weinberg, J & Aimola Davies, A 2015, 'The nonvisual illusion of self-touch: Misaligned hands and anatomical implausibility', Perception, vol. 44, no. 4, pp. 436-445.
- Aimola Davies, AM, & White, RC 2013, 'A sensational illusion: Vision-touch synaesthesia and the rubber hand paradigm', Cortex, vol. 49, no. 3, pp. 806-818. llll
- Aimola Davies, AM, Waterman, S, White, RC, & Davies, M 2013, 'When you fail to see what you were told to look for: Inattentional blindness and task instructions', Consciousness and Cognition, vol. 22, no. 1, pp. 221-230.
- Aimola Davies, AM, White, RC, & Davies, M 2013, 'Spatial limits on the nonvisual self-touch illusion and the visual rubber hand illusion: Subjective experience of the illusion and proprioceptive drift', Consciousness and Cognition, vol. 22, no. 2, pp. 613-636.
- Bultitude, J, List, A, & Aimola Davies, AM 2013, 'Prism adaptation does not alter object-based attention in healthy participants', F1000 Research, vol. 1, pp. 1-16.
- McKone, E, Aimola Davies, AM, Darke, H, Crookes, K, Wickramariyaratne, T, Zappia, S, Fiorentini, C, Favelle, S, Broughton, M, & Fernando, D 2013, 'Importance of the inverted control in measuring holistic face processing with the composite effect and part-whole effect', Frontiers in Psychology, vol. 4, no. Article 33, pp. 1-21.
- Rosenthal, O, Davies, M, Aimola Davies, AM, & Humphreys, G 2013, 'A role of 3-D surface-from-motion cues in motion-induced blindness', Perception, vol. 42, no. 1, pp. 1353-1361.
- White, RC, & Aimola Davies, AM 2013, 'A new method for assessing self-touch enhancement of the foot in stroke patients with mobility problems', Perception, vol. 42, no. 4, pp. 473-476.
- White, RC, & Aimola Davies, AM 2013, 'Anti-extinction in the tactile modality', Perception, vol. 42, no. 6, pp. 669-671.
- Aimola Davies, AM, & White, RC 2012, 'Specular vision-touch synaesthesia: Two reference frames', Perception, vol. 41, no. 7, pp. 871-874.
- Aimola Davies, AM, & White, RC 2011, 'Touching my face with my supernumerary hand: A cheeky illusion', Perception, vol. 40, no. 10, pp. 1245-1247.
- Smithson, M, Davies, M, & Aimola Davies, AM 2011, 'Exploiting test structure: Case series, case-control comparison, and testing for dissociation', Cognitive Neuropsychology, vol. 28, no. 1, pp. 44-64.
- White, RC, & Aimola Davies, AM 2011, 'Touching my left elbow: The anatomical structure of the body affects the illusion of self-touch', Perception, vol. 40, no. 1, pp. 95-98.
- White, RC, Aimola Davies, AM, & Davies, M 2011, 'Two hands are better than one: A new assessment method and a new interpretation of the non-visual illusion of self-touch', Consciousness and Cognition, vol. 20, no. 3, pp. 956-964.
- Aimola Davies, AM, & Davies, M 2009, 'Explaining pathologies of belief', in Matthew R. Broome and Lisa Bortolotti (ed.), Psychiatry as cognitive neuroscience: Philosophical perspectives, Oxford University Press, USA, pp. 285-323.
- Aimola Davies, AM, White, RC, & Davies, M 2010, 'Assessment of anosognosia for motor impairments', in J. M. Gurd, U. Kischka, and J. C. Marshall (ed.), Handbook of Clinical Neuropsychology (2nd ed), Oxford University Press, Oxford, pp. 436-468.
- Aimola Davies, AM, White, RC, Thew, G, Aimola, NMV, & Davies, M 2010, 'Visual capture of action, experience of ownership, and the illusion of self-touch: A new rubber hand paradigm', Perception, vol. 39, pp. 830-838.
- McKone, E, Aimola Davies, AM, et al 2010, 'Asia has the global advantage: Race and visual attention', Vision Research, vol. 50, no. 16, pp. 1540-1549.
- White, RC, Aimola Davies, AM, & Kischka, U 2010, 'Errors of somatosensory localisation in a patient with right-hemisphere stroke', Neurocase, vol. 16, no. 3, pp. 238-258.
- White, RC, Aimola Davies, AM, Halleen, T, & Davies, M 2010, 'Tactile expectations and the perception of self-touch: An investigation using the rubber hand paradigm', Consciousness and Cognition, vol. 19, pp. 505-519.
- White, RC, Aimola Davies, AM, Kischka, U, & Davies, M 2010, 'Touch and feel? Using the rubber hand paradigm to investigate self-touch enhancement in right-hemisphere stroke patients', Neuropsychologia, vol. 48, pp. 26-37.
- Aimola Davies, AM, Davies, M, Ogden, J, Smithson, M, & White, RC 2009, 'Cognitive and Motivational Factors in Anosognosia', in Tim Bayne and Jordi Fernandez (ed.), Delusion and Self-Deception: affective and motivational influences on belief formation, Psychology Press, Taylor & Francis, USA, pp. 187-225.
- Buchholz, J, & Aimola Davies, AM 2008, 'Adults with dyslexia demonstrate attentional orienting deficits', Dyslexia, vol. 14, pp. 247-270.
- Hughes, L, Bates, T, & Aimola Davies, AM 2008, 'Dissociations in rod bisection: The effect of viewing conditions on perception and action', Cortex, vol. 44, pp. 1279-1287.
- McKone, E, Aimola Davies, AM, & Fernando, D 2008, 'Blurry means good focus: Myopia and visual attention', Perception, vol. 37, no. 11, pp. 1765-1768.
- White, RC, & Aimola Davies, AM 2008, 'Attention Set for Number: Expectation and Perceptual Load in Inattentional Blindness', Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception and Performance, vol. 34, no. 5, pp. 1092-1107.
- Buchholz, J, & Aimola Davies, AM 2007, 'Attentional blink deficits observed in dyslexia depend on task demands', Vision Research, vol. 47, pp. 1292-1302.
- Buchholz, J, & Aimola Davies, AM 2006, 'Do visual attentional factors contribute to phonological ability? Studies in adult dyslexia', Neurocase, vol. 12, pp. 111-121.
- Bultitude, J, & Aimola Davies, AM 2006, 'Putting attention on the line: Investigating the activation-orientation hypothesis of pseudoneglect', Neuropsychologia, vol. 44, pp. 1849-1858.
- Buchholz, J, & Aimola Davies, AM 2005, 'Adults with dyslexia demonstrate space-based and object-based covert attention deficits: Shifting attention to the periphery and shifting attention between objects in the left visual field', Brain and Cognition, vol. 57, pp. 30-34.
- Davies, M, Aimola Davies, AM, & Coltheart, M 2005, 'Anosognosia and the two-factor theory of delusions', Mind and Language, vol. 20, no. 2, pp. 209-236.
- Hughes, L, Bates, T, & Aimola Davies, AM 2005, 'The effects of local and global processing demands on perception and action', Brain and Cognition, vol. 59, pp. 71-81.
- Aimola Davies, AM 2004, 'Disorders of Spatial Orientation and Awareness: unilateral neglect', in Jennie Ponsford (ed.), Cognitive and Behavioural Rehabilitation: From Neurobiology to Clinical Practice, Guilford Press, New York, pp. 175-223.
- Hughes, L, Bates, T, & Aimola Davies, AM 2004, 'Grasping at sticks: pseudoneglect for perception but not action', Experimental Brain Research, vol. 157, pp. 397-402.
- Aimola Davies, AM, & Ogden, J 2002, 'MRI brain scan analyses and neuropsychological profiles of nine patients with persisting unilateral neglect', Neuropsychologia, vol. 40, no. 7, pp. 879-887.
- Aimola Davies, AM, Bates, T, Boycott, N, & Corballis, M 2002, 'Effects of object symmetry on visual attention', Brain and Cognition, vol. 48, no. 2-3, pp. 456-462.
