Professor Chris Davis

• Areas of Research / Teaching Expertise
• Grants / Current Projects
• Publications
• Contact Details

Biography

Davis's interest is in studying the information processing involved in human communication. His aim is to explore such processing at the level of the embodied, active human participant. 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 quantifiable measurements of human behaviour. To this end his research has been guided by three interrelated themes: 1. 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 components have been minimized (chiefly by using masked priming techniques). 2. Multimodal processing. Davis's research investigates both the auditory and visual information involved in speech perception. The research interest, here, 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. 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).

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Areas of Research / Teaching Expertise

Cognitive Science
Psycholinguistics
Experimental Psychology

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Grants / Current Projects

2006-2010 ARC DP: "Establishing how head and face movement properties contribute to the perception of speech and identity" Davis; Kim; Sams.

2008. "Beyond the Uncanny Valley: establishing a rich statistically robust face dataset for new generation Thinking Heads". Kuratate & Davis.

2007. "Disrupting visual awareness using the new Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation (TMS)". UWS internal grant. Davis & Kim.

2007 UWS IRIS: Davis et al "Talking and Thinking Internationally: Building international links by developing an ARC/MH& MRC thinking systems project"
UWS Research Infrastructure Fund: Davis et al "Dynamic Auditory-Visual Human".

2004-2006 ARC Discovery Grant. "Using written language to probe speech recognition models". Davis; Cutler.

2005. ARC Network: "Enabling Human Communication" (Now HSCNet).

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Publications

Davis, C., Sánchez-Casas, R. M., Garcí­a-Albea, J. E., Guasch, M., Molero, M., & Ferré, P. (in press). Masked translation priming: Varying language experience and word type with Spanish-English bilinguals. Bilingualism: Language and Cognition.

Kinoshita, S., Castles, A., & Davis, C. (in press). The role of neighborhood density and position of transposition in transposed-letter priming. Language and Cognitive Processes.

Davis, C., Kislyuk, D., Kim, J., & Sams, M. (2008). The effect of viewing speech on auditory speech processing is different in the left and right hemispheres. Brain Research, 1242, 151-161.

McKay, A., Davis, C., Savage, G., & Castles, A. (2008). Semantic involvement in reading aloud: Evidence from a nonword training study. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition, 34, 1495-1517.

Kim, J., Davis, C., & Cutler, A. (2008). Perceptual tests of rhythmic similarity: II. Syllable rhythm. Language and Speech, 51, 342-358.

Davis, C., Kim, J., & Forster, K.I. (2008). Being forward not backward: Lexical limits to masked priming. Cognition, 10, 673-684.

Taft, M., Castles, A., Davis, C., Lazendic, G., & Nguyen-Hoan, M. (2008). Automatic activation of orthography in spoken word recognition: Pseudohomograph priming. Journal of Memory and Language, 58, 366-379.

McKague, M., Davis, C., Pratt, C., & Johnston, M.B. (2008). The role of feedback from phonology to orthography in orthographic learning: An extension of item-based accounts. Journal of Research in Reading, 31, 55-76.

Castles, A., Davis, C., Cavalot, P., & Forster, K. I . (2007). Tracking the acquisition of orthographic skills in developing readers: Masked priming effects. Journal of Experimental Child Psychology, 97, 165-182.

McKay, A., Castles, A., Davis, C., & Savage, G. (2007). The impact of progressive semantic loss on reading aloud. Cognitive Neuropsychology, 24, 162-186.

Davis, C. & Kim, J (2006). Audio-visual speech perception off the top of the head. Cognition. 100, B21-31.

Warner, N., Kim, J., Davis, C., & Cutler, A. (2005). Use of complex phonological patterns in speech processing: Evidence from Korean. Journal of Linguistics, 41, 353-387.

Kim, J. & Davis, C. (2004). Investigating the audio-visual speech detection.Speech Communication, 44, 19-30. Kim, J., Davis, C. & Krins, P. (2004). Amodal processing of visual speech as revealed by priming. Cognition, 93, B39-B47.

Davis, C. & Kim, J. (2004). Audio-visual interactions with intact clearly audible speech. Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology, 57, 1103-1121.

Kim, J., Davis, C., Burnham, D., & Luksaneeyanawin, S. (2004). The effect of script on poor reader's sensitivity to dynamic visual stimuli. Brain and Language, 91, 326-335.

Kim, J. & Davis, C. (2004). Characteristics of poor readers of Korean Hangul: Auditory, visual and phonological processing. Reading and Writing, 17, 153-185.

Kim, J., Taft, M., & Davis, C. (2004). Orthographic and phonological links in the lexicon: When lexical and sublexical information conflict. Reading and Writing, 17, 187-218.

Kim, J. & Davis, C. (2003). Task effects in masked cross-script translation and phonological priming. Journal of Memory and Language, 49, 484-499.

Book Chapters

Kim, J. & Davis, C. (in press). Developmental reading disorders in Korean. In C. Lee, Y. Kim & G. Simpson (Eds.), Handbook of East Asian Psycholinguistics. Cambridge University Press.

Davis, C. & Kim, J (2006). Changing circumstance: How flexible is lexical access? In S. Andrews. From Inkmarks to Ideas. Psychology Press. Chapter 9, pp. 207-228.

Kim, J. & Davis, C. (2006). Literacy acquisition in Korean Hangul. In R.M. Joshi & P.G. Aaron (Eds.), Handbook of Orthography and Literacy. Part1. Chapter 22 Lawrence Erlbaum.

Davis, C., Kim, J., & Sá¡nchez-Casas, R. (2003). Masked priming across languages: An insight into bilingual lexical processing. In S. Kinoshita & S. Lupker (Eds.), Masked Priming: State of the Art (pp. 309-322).

Castles, A., Davis, C., & Forster, K. I. (2003). Word recognition development in children: Insights from masked priming

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