BIOGRAPHY
I completed an BSc (Hons) in Animal Behaviour at Anglia Polytechnic, followed by MSc in Psychology here at Essex. I then worked in the department as an RA and a GTA before carrying out an MPhil in Behavioural and Neural Sciences up at St Andrews.
RESEARCH OVERVIEW
I am broadly interested in the evolutionary origins of behaviour and have been involved in research investigating optimal foraging behaviours in both horses and human infants. My PhD project will use eye-tracking techniques to investigate the phenomena of ‘cuteness’ in infant faces.
PRINCIPAL SUPERVISOR Tom Foulsham
RECENT PUBLICATIONS
Sprengelmeyer R, Lewis J, Hahn A, Perrett DI (2013) Aesthetic and Incentive Salience of Cute Infant Faces: Studies of Observer Sex, Oral Contraception and Menstrual Cycle. PLoS ONE 8(5): e65844. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0065844
Uller C, Urquhart C, Lewis J, Berntsen M (2013). Ten-month-old infants' reaching choices for 'more': the relationship between inter-stimulus distance and number. Frontiers in Psychology, 4
Uller C, and Lewis J (2009) Horses (Equus caballus) select the greater of two quantities in small numerical contrasts. Animal Cognition 12: 733–738.
Presentations
Lewis, J, Roberson, D & Foulsham , T. (2013). Craniofacial abnormalities divert attention away from the core features of the face during attractiveness judgments. Poster presented at the 36th ECVP meeting, Bremen, Aug 2013
Lewis, J, Roberson, D & Foulsham , T. (2013). Craniofacial abnormalities in high visual attention areas cause the greatest disruption to attractiveness ratings. Poster presented at the 5th Parental Brain meeting, Regensburg, July 2013.
Lewis, J (2013) The ahhh factor: How and why the infant face influences our behaviour. Talk given as part of the Café Scientifique series at The Minories, Colchester, Mar 2012.
Lewis, J, Foulsham, T & Roberson, D. (2012) Does the Left Hemi-Face Bias Cause a Greater Reduction in the Perceived Attractiveness of Infant Faces when an Abnormality is Located on the Left-Hand Side of the Face? Poster presented at the 17th AVA Christmas meeting, University College London, Dec 2012.
Lewis, J. (2012) What Evidence is there for the Kindchenschema? (2012) Talk given as part of the Autumn seminar series at the University of Essex.
Uller, C., Lewis, J. & Berntsen, M. (2011). The assessment of inter-stimulus distance in small visual sets and the implications for number representation in infancy. Poster presented at the Meeting of the Society for Research on Child Development, Montreal, April 2011.
Perrett, D., Wiffen, B., , Lobmaier, J., Lewis, J., Sprengelmeyer, R., Hahn, A., Hunter D., Stirrat., M, Dzhelyova, M., Xiao, D. (2010) Gender and Hormone effects on the perception of faces. Poster presented at the Thirty-third European Conference on Visual Perception , Lausanne, Switzerland, August 2010
Hahn, AC, Lewis, JK, Re, DE, Perrett, DI, Xiao, D. (2010) Impact of Attractiveness on the Motivation to View faces. Poster presented at the 22nd Annual meeting of the Human Evolution and Behaviour Society University of Oregon, Eugene, June 2010.
Lewis, J., Sprengelmeyer, R., & Perrett, D. (2010) Cuteness Predicts the Motivation to View Infant faces. Poster presented at the 4th Parental Brain Conference, Edinburgh, September 2010
Lewis, J., Sprengelmeyer, R., & Perrett, D. (2010) Cuteness Predicts the Motivation to View Infant faces. Poster presented at the 2nd SINAPSE Annual Scientific Meeting, Edinburgh, June 2010
Lewis, J. & Uller, C. (2008) Numerical Discrimination in Horses. Poster presented at the BPS Annual Conference Dublin, April 2008.
