Overview

I am a Senior Lecturer in Cognitive Psychology and Co-Chair of the Research Ethics Committee in the Psychology Department at the University of Exeter, which is also where I completed my PhD (September 2013). 
           As a PhD student, I was awarded the Exeter Graduate Fellowship and was then awarded two Visiting Research Fellowships. The first fellowship was at the University of Barcelona in Spain (May - Sept 2012) and the second one to the Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience at the East China Normal University in Shanghai, China (May - July 2013). From October 2013 to August 2017, I worked as a Postdoctoral Fellow in the Department of Psychology, Neuroscience and Behaviour, at McMaster University in Canada. 
           In 2017, I returned to the University of Exeter after being awarded the European Union Horizon 2020, Marie Skłodowska-Curie Individual Fellowship. This two-year project (September 2017 - August 2019) focused on the mechanisms responsible for perceptual learning. By using a range of neuroscience techniques (tDCS, EEG, and fMRI) in conjunction with the behavioural designs provided by experimental psychology I investigated the neural basis for perceptual learning and the face inversion effect.  In 2018, I was awarded an ESRC New Investigator grant for a  project (June 2018 - March 2021) based on the use of tDCS to modulate an analogue of the composite face effect using prototype-defined sets of chequerboards. In 2018, I was also awarded the EPS Small Research Grant for a project (September 2018 - April 2019) focusing on prosopagnosia. In 2021, I was awarded the UKRI CoA grant to extend my work (April 2021 - September 2021) on using tDCS to modulate perceptual learning and face recognition skills. 

Qualifications

I studied (2005-08) at the University of Padua (Italy) for my bachelor's degree in psychology, during which time I obtained an Erasmus Scholarship to study at the University of Kent in the UK during my final year. After graduating from Padua, I returned to Kent to complete my MSc in Cognitive Psychology/ Neuropsychology (2008-09). In 2009, I joined the Psychology Department at the University of Exeter, to pursue my PhD in Cognitive Psychology.  My PhD was awarded in September 2013 and my thesis title was "The Face Inversion Effect and Perceptual Learning: Features and Configurations". 

Research group links

• Cognition

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Research

Research interests

My research interests broadly regard perceptual learning and face recognition. In the last few years, I have also been studying the effects of brain stimulation (tDCS) on cognitive performance. To further investigate the role of brain stimulation (i.e. tDCS) on performance I am currently also interested in applications of brain stimulation in combination with other techniques (e.g. tDCS/EEG, tDCS/fMRI, tDCS/Eye-Tracking).   

Research projects

Main Projects:

Project Title: Perceptual Learning.

This project aims to investigate the role of perceptual learning in determining one of the most robust cognitive phenomenon in the face recognition literature i.e. the face inversion effect (FIE). The FIE refers to a reduced performance when we try to recognise a familiar face presented upside down. Hence, I am investigating an analogue of the FIE for sets of artificial stimuli (chequerboards) that participants never seen before entering the lab. Furthermore, by using a range of neuroscience techniques (tDCS, EEG, fMRI) I am looking at the mechanisms underpinning the inversion effect for faces and for chequerboards. The results from this project will contribute to the perceptual learning and the face recognition literature.

Project Title: Using perceptual learning to understand and influence face recognition.

The human skill at recognising faces is often attributed to configural processing (i.e. relying on the small differences in the relationship between face components across the entire face). One of the most convincing demonstrations of this is the composite face effect. People are less accurate at recognising the top half of one face presented in composite with the bottom half of another face when the composite is upright and aligned than when the two halves are offset laterally (misalignment – a manipulation that disrupts configural processing). This effect suggests that when upright faces are processed, the internal features are so strongly integrated that it becomes difficult to separate the face into isolated components, leading the composite to be perceived as a "new" face. This project aims to extend this demonstration to sets of artificial stimuli (chequerboards) to investigate the role that perceptual learning has in determining the effect and the perceptual processes (configural vs featural) involved. Neuroscience techniques will be used to study the neuro correlates of the composite effect for faces and chequerboards.

Research networks

Cognition Research Group

Centre for Cognitive Control and Associative Learning (CCAL)

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Publications

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Teaching

Modules

2023/24

• PSY2304 - Biological Basis of Behaviour
• PSY3445 - Mechanisms of Face Recognition

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Supervision / Group

Research Fellows

Postgraduate researchers

Alumni

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Office Hours:

Office Hours in Term 
Monday 3 – 4 pm (Online) , Wednesday 11 - 12 pm (in person office room 230 WSL)

To schedule a meeting or for any other questions please email me at c.civile@exeter.ac.uk
 

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