Dr Anne AIMOLA DAVIES

BA (Hons), PGDipClinPsych, PhD, MAPS

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Research and Supervision Interests
Current Teaching
Research Students
Qualifications
Experience
Selected Publications
Current Grants

I am a cognitive scientist and a clinical neuropsychologist. My research interests are mainly in cognitive neuropsychology, specifically of visual selective attention. One way of investigating visual attention is to study individuals in whom attentional processes are impaired following brain injury, especially those suffering from unilateral neglect following a right-hemisphere stroke. These individuals may collide with objects on their left or leave the food on the left side of their plate. When dressing and grooming, they may not dress the left side of their body completely and they may leave the hair on the left side of their head uncombed. When asked to copy a picture, they may not only omit the left side of the scene but also omit the left side of an object that is presented within the right side of the scene. Drawing on the methods of cognitive psychology, cognitive neuropsychology, cognitive neuroscience, and clinical neuropsychology, my research includes work on :

• the neuroanatomical basis of neglect and anosognosia
• directional and non-directional aspects of attention
• hemispheric specialisation for local and global processing
• reference frames in object-centred neglect
• visual awareness and implicit processing in neglect
• the role of working memory impairments in anosognosia
• neurorehabilitation.

Current Students

• Rachel Lacey (PhD, with Prof. Byrne) - Thesis : Cognitive changes following adjuvant chemotherapy for breast cancer.
• Monica Skjerve (PhD) - Thesis : Investigation of visual and tactile neglect in viewer-, stimulus-, and object-centred reference frames.
• Michael Spratt (PhD) - Thesis : Framed in space? Object-based effects from a new visual attention paradigm.
• Rebekah White (DPhil) - Thesis: Somatic rubber hand paradigm: Investigation into sensory perception under conditions of self-touch.

• Laura Hughes (PhD 2005) - Thesis : Visual Perception, attention and action.
• Judy Buchholz (PhD 2008) - Thesis : Visual attentional processing in adults with dyslexia.
• Rebekah White (MPhil 2008) -Thesis: Expectation and perceptual load in the Inattentional Blindness phenomenon.
  

Academic Background

1999 : Ph.D. (Psychology), "Dark Side of the Moon: Studies in Unilateral Neglect", Auckland University

1999 : Post Graduate Degree in Clinical Psychology, Auckland University

Employment

2008 to 2012: University Research Fellow in Neuropsychology, University of Oxford

2001 continuing: Senior Lecturer, School of Psychology, The Australian National University

1997 to 2001 : Senior Lecturer, School of Psychology, University of Western Sydney

1994 to 1997 : Consultant Neuropsychologist, Acquired Brain Impairment Unit, New Zealand

1994 to 1997 : Senior Clinical Psychologist, Otara Neurorehabilitation Unit, New Zealand

1993 : Clinical Internship, Department of Neurology and Neurosurgery, Auckland Hospital, New Zealand

Visiting Research Appointments

January 2007 to present : Honorary Clinical Psychologist, John Radcliffe Hospital and the Oxford Centre for Enablement, Oxford

December 2004 to present: Honorary Psychologist Specialising in Neuropsychology, Canberra Hospital

January 2000 to present : Honorary Associate Member, Macquarie Centre for Cognitive Science

April to June 2006 : Visiting Fellow, McDonnell Centre for Cognitive Neuroscience, University of Oxford

December to March 2005 : Department of Psychology and Department of Philosophy, University of California, Los Angeles

July 2004 : Interdisciplinary Workshop in Perception and Action, Collegium Budapest

February to April 2004 : Cognitive Science Concentration, City University of New York Graduate Center, New York

September to December 2001 : Department of Psychology, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor

Psychologist Registration Board Memberships

• ACT (Australia) Psychologist Registration Board
• NSW (Australia) Psychologist Registration Board
• New Zealand Psychologist Registration Board

Professional Society Memberships

• Australian Psychological Society
• Australian College of Clinical Neuropsychologists
• New Zealand Psychological Society
• New Zealand College of Clinical Psychologists

Other Professional Memberships

• Association for the Scientific Study of Consciousness
• Australasian Society for Psychophysiology
• Cognitive Neuroscience Society
• International Neuropsychological Society

Book Chapters

Aimola Davies, A. M., & Davies, M. (2009). Explaining pathologies of belief. In M. Broome and L. Bortolotti (Eds.), Psychiatry as cognitive neuroscience: Philosophical perspectives (pp. 285-323). Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Aimola Davies, A. M., Davies, M., Ogden, J. A., Smithson, M., & White, R. C. (2009). Cognitive and motivational factors in anosognosia. In T. J. Bayne and J. Fernandez (Eds.), Delusions and self-deception: Affective influences on belief formation (pp. 187-225). Hove, East Sussex: Psychology Press.

Aimola Davies, A. M., White, R. C., & Davies, M. (2009). Assessment of anosognosia for motor impairments. In J. Gurd, U. Kischka, and J. C. Marshall (Eds.), Handbook of clinical neuropsychology. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Aimola Davies, A. M. (2004). Disorders of spatial orientation and awareness: Unilateral neglect. In J. Ponsford (Ed.), Cognitive and behavioural rehabilitation: From neurobiology to clinical practice (pp. 175-223). New York: Guilford Press.

Journal Articles

White, R. C., & Aimola Davies, A. M. (accepted 12th October 2009). Errors of somatosensory localisation in a patient with right-hemisphere stroke. Neurocase.

White, R. C., Aimola Davies, A. M., & Halleen, T. J. (accepted 11th August 2009). Tactile expectations and the perception of self-touch: An investigation using the rubber-hand paradigm. Consciousness and Cognition. 

White, R. C., Aimola Davies, A. M., Kischka, U., & Davies, M. (accepted 5th August 2009). Touch and feel? Using the rubber-hand paradigm to investigate self-touch enhancement in right-hemisphere stroke patients. Neuropsychologia.

White, R. C., & Aimola Davies, A. M. (2008). Attention set for number: Expectation and perceptual load in Inattentional Blindness. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception and Performance, 34, 1092-1107.

McKone, E., Aimola Davies, A. M., & Fernando, D. (2008). Blurry means good focus: Myopia and visual attention. Perception, 37, 1765-1768.

Hughes, L. E., Bates, T. C., & Aimola Davies, A. M. (2008). Dissociations in rod bisection: The effect of viewing conditions on perception and action. Cortex, 44, 1279-1287.

Buchholz, J., & Aimola Davies, A. M. (2008). Adults with dyslexia demonstrate attentional orienting deficits. Dyslexia, 14, 247-270.

Buchholz, J., & Aimola Davies, A. M. (2007). Attentional blink deficits shown in dyslexia depend on task demands. Vision Research, 47, 1292-1302.

Buchholz, J., & Aimola Davies, A. M. (2006). Do visual attentional factors contribute to phonological ability? Studies in adult dyslexia. Neurocase, 12, 111-121.

Bultitude, J. H., & Aimola Davies, A. M. (2006). Putting attention on the line: Investigating the activation-orientation hypothesis of pseudoneglect. Neuropsychologia, 44, 1849-1858.

Buchholz, J., & Aimola Davies, A. M. (2005). Adults with dyslexia demonstrate space-based and object-based covert attention deficits. Brain and Cognition, 57, 30-34.

Davies, M., Aimola Davies, A. M., & Coltheart, M. (2005). Anosognosia and the two-factor theory of delusions. Mind and Language, 20, 209-236.

Hughes, L. E., Bates, T. C., & Aimola Davies, A. M. (2005). The effects of local and global processing demands on perception and action. Brain and Cognition, 59, 71-81.

Hughes, L. E., Bates, T. C., & Aimola Davies, A. M. (2004). Grasping at sticks: Pseudoneglect for perception but not action. Experimental Brain Research, 157, 397-402.

Aimola Davies, A. M., Bates, T. C., Boycott, N., & Corballis, M. C. (2002). Effects of object asymmetry on visual attention. Brain and Cognition, 48, 457-462.

Aimola Davies, A. M., & Ogden, J. A. (2002). MRI brain scan analyses and neuropsychological profiles of nine patients with persistent unilateral neglect. Neuropsychologia, 40, 879-887.

Aimola Davies, A. M. (2000). Reducing neglect by introducing ipsilesional global cues. Brain and Cognition, 43, 328-332.

Published Conference Abstracts

Skjerve, M., Aimola Davies, A., & Smithson, M. (2009). Object-centred neglect in the visual and tactile modality. Australian Journal of Psychology, 60, Supplement 1,

Skjerve, M., Aimola Davies, A., & Smithson, M. (2008). Disambiguating viewer-, stimulus- and object- centred neglect:  A new cancellation task. Australian Journal of Psychology, 60, Supplement 1,

Buchholz, J., & Aimola Davies, A. (2007). An attentional orienting deficit in adults with dyslexia. Journal of the International Neuropsychological Society, 13, 72.

Buchholz, J., & Aimola Davies, A. (2007). An investigation of task constraints on attentional orienting in adults with dyslexia. Australian Journal of Psychology, 59, Supplement 1, 22.

McKone, E., Aimola Davies, A., Wickramariyaratne, T., & Leung, H. (2007). Attentional differences between Caucasians and East Asians on global-local Navons and part-whole face tasks. Australian Journal of Psychology, 59, Supplement 1, 47.

Spratt, M. D., & Aimola Davies, A. (2007). Framed in space? Object-based effects from the curvangle paradigm. Australian Journal of Psychology, 59, Supplement 1, 58.

White, R. C., & Aimola Davies, A. (2007). Expectations about number: Inattentional blindness and perceptual load. Australian Journal of Psychology, 59, Supplement 1, 63-4.

White, R. C., & Aimola Davies, A. (2006). Inattentional blindness: The great divide between observer expectations and attentional factors. Australian Journal of Psychology, 58, Supplement 1, 206-7.

Lacey, R. T., Aimola Davies, A., Byrne, D. G., Smithson, M. J., & Stuart-Harris, R. (2006). Cognitive function in women with early breast cancer receiving adjuvant chemotherapy. Psycho-Oncology, 15, S296.

Bultitude, J. H., & Aimola Davies, A. (2005). Putting attention on the line: Investigating the activation-orientation hypothesis of pseudoneglect. Journal of the International Neuropsychological Society, 11, Supplement 2, 2-3.

Krijnen, H., & Aimola Davies, A. (2005). Competing for attention: Investigating the egocentric reference frame. Australian Journal of Psychology, 57, Supplement 59.

Hughes, L. E., Bates, T. C., & Aimola Davies, A. (2005). Visual processing in neglect: Dissociations in performance. Brain and Cognition, 57, 281.

Hughes, L. E., Bates, T. C., & Aimola Davies, A. (2004). A dissociation between perception and action. Australian Journal of Psychology.

Ogden, J. A., & Aimola Davies, A. (2003). Anosognosia, personal neglect and recovery from hemiplegia. Journal of the International Neuropsychological Society, 9, 571.

Aimola Davies, A. (1999). Maintaining contralesional attention: The role of the rostral inferior parietal lobe in unilateral neglect. Australian Journal of Psychology, 51, Supplement 155.

Aimola Davies, A. (1999). Spatial and object shifts of attention: Case studies in unilateral neglect. Australian Journal of Psychology, 50, Supplement 57.

Aimola Davies, A.(1999). Unilateral neglect: The effects of ambiguity in the ipsilesional hemispace. Australian Journal of Psychology, 51, Supplement 35.

Aimola Davies, A., & Corballis, M. C. (1995). Effect of mental rotation on the reference frame underlying unilateral spatial neglect. Journal of the International Neuropsychological Society, 1, 326.

2009-2014 ARC Discovery Scheme - $495,000.

Title: Integrating holistic processing and face-space approaches to the perception of facial identity.

Investigators: E. McKone, M. Edwards, A. Aimola Davies

2009-2014 Wellcome Trust Biomedical Ethics Funding Committee - £821,874.

Title: Oxford Centre for Neuroethics.

Investigators: J. Savulescu, W. Sinnott-Armstrong, B. J. Sahakian, I. Tracey, A. Buchan, K. W. Fulford, N. Levy, N. Bostrom, H. R. Madder, A. Aimola Davies.

2000-2008 ARC Special Research Centre Scheme - $6,991,066.

Title: Centre for Cognitive Science and Cognitive Neuropsychology.

Investigators: M. Coltheart, M. Beckman, M. Davies, J. Harrington, V. Coltheart, S. Kinoshita, T. Bates, L. Nickels, C. Perry, K. Rastle, R. Langdon, S. Lupker, J. Ziegler, M. Corballis, A. Aimola Davies, N. Breen.