Dr Nadine Lavan
Lecturer in Biological Psychology
Co-lead for EDI
School of Biological and Behavioural Sciences
Queen Mary University of London
Queen Mary University of London
Research
voice perception, identity perception, person perception, first impressions, face perception, emotion perception
Interests
When hearing a voice, listeners do not only perceive what is being said, but they can also glean informationabout who is talking: Is the person familiar? Are they female or male? Do they sound trustworthy? Voice research to date has focussed on how listeners understand what is being said, leaving core questions unanswered about how we perceive information about other people from their voices. My research is addressing these questions by investigating how listeners perceive, learn, and represent voice identities and other person characteristics (e.g., gender, age, personality traits). To do this, I use methods from experimental psychology and cognitive neuroscience, as well as acoustic signal processing approaches.
Publications
Publications of specific relevance to the Centre for Brain and Behaviour2024
Face and voice identity matching accuracy is not improved by multimodal identity informationSmith HMJ, Ritchie KL, Baguley TS and Lavan N
British Journal of Psychology, Wiley
17-12-2024
Idiosyncratic and shared contributions shape impressions from voices and facesLavan N and Sutherland C
Cognition, Elsevier vol. 251
18-07-2024
The time course of person perception from voices in the brainLavan N, Rinke P and Scharinger M
Proceedings of The National Academy of Sciences, National Academy of Sciences
18-06-2024
Mapping the differential impact of spontaneous and conversational laughter on brain and mind: an fMRI study in autismCai CQ, Lavan N, Chen SHY, Wang CZX, Ozturk OC, Chiu RMY, Gilbert SJ, White SJ and Scott SK
Cerebral Cortex, Oxford University Press (Oup) vol. 34 (5)
02-05-2024
Left-handed voices? Examining the perceptual learning of novel person characteristics from the voiceLavan N
Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology, Sage Publications vol. 77 (11), 2325-2338.
14-02-2024
Studying person perception from voices: Creating common ground by looking beyond accuracyLavan N
The Cognitive Psychology Bulletin, British Psychological Society vol. 1 (9), 40-44.
30-01-2024
2023
Neural representations of naturalistic person identities while watching a feature filmLally C, Lavan N, Garrido L, Tsantani M and McGettigan C
Imaging Neuroscience, Mit Press vol. 1, 1-19.
21-08-2023
Human talkers change their voices to elicit specific trait perceptsGuldner S, Lavan N, Lally C, Wittmann L, Nees F, Flor H and McGettigan C
Psychonomic Bulletin & Review, Springer Nature vol. 31 (1), 209-222.
28-07-2023
The Time Course of Person Perception From Voices: A Behavioral StudyLavan N
Psychological Science, Sage Publications vol. 34 (7), 771-783.
25-05-2023
Trait impressions from voices are formed rapidly within 400 ms of exposure.Mileva M and Lavan N
Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, American Psychological Association
06-02-2023
The effects of the presence of a face and direct eye gaze on voice identity learningLavan N, Bamaniya NR, Muse M, Price RLM and Mareschal I
British Journal of Psychology, Wiley vol. 114 (3), 537-549.
23-01-2023
A model for person perception from familiar and unfamiliar voicesLavan N and McGettigan C
Communications Psychology, Springer Nature vol. 1 (1)
01-01-2023
2022
Trait impressions from voices: Considering multiple ‘origin stories’ and the dynamic nature of trait-related cuesLavan N
British Journal of Psychology, Wiley
05-12-2022
How do we describe other people from voices and faces?Lavan N
Cognition, Elsevier vol. 230
07-10-2022
Does high variability training improve the learning of non-native phoneme contrasts over low variability training? A replicationBrekelmans G, Lavan N, Saito H, Clayards M and Wonnacott E
Journal of Memory and Language, Elsevier
16-07-2022
Direct eye gaze enhances the ventriloquism effectLavan N, Chan WY, Zhuang Y, Mareschal I and Shergill SS
Attention, Perception, & Psychophysics, Springer Nature vol. 84 (7), 2293-2302.
31-03-2022
Talker and accent familiarity yield advantages for voice identity perception: A voice sorting studyNjie S, Lavan N and McGettigan C
Memory and Cognition, Psychonomic Society
10-03-2022
The effect of familiarity on within-person age judgements from voicesLavan N
British Journal of Psychology vol. 113 (1), 287-299.
01-01-2022
2021
Voice modulation: from origin and mechanism to social impact.Leongómez JD, Pisanski K, Reby D, Sauter D, Lavan N, Perlman M and Varella Valentova J
Philosophical Transactions of The Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological Sciences, Royal Society, The vol. 376 (1840), 20200386-20200386.
20-12-2021
Singers show enhanced performance and neural representation of vocal imitation.Waters S, Kanber E, Lavan N, Belyk M, Carey D, Cartei V, Lally C, Miquel M and McGettigan C
Philosophical Transactions of The Royal Society B: Biological Sciences, Royal Society, The vol. 376 (1840), 20200399-20200399.
20-12-2021
Online Data Collection in Auditory Perception and Cognition Research: Recruitment, Testing, Data Quality and Ethical ConsiderationsEerola T, Armitage J, Lavan N and Knight S
Auditory Perception & Cognition, Informa Uk Limited, 1-30.
01-12-2021
Audiovisual identity perception from naturally‐varying stimuli is driven by visual informationLavan N, Collins MRN and Miah JFM
British Journal of Psychology, Wiley vol. 113 (1), 248-263.
06-09-2021
Familiarity and task context shape the use of acoustic information in voice identity perceptionLavan N, Kreitewolf J, Obleser J and McGettigan C
Cognition, Elsevier
20-07-2021
Unimodal and cross-modal identity judgements using an audio-visual sorting task: Evidence for independent processing of faces and voicesLavan N, Smith HMJ and McGettigan C
Memory & Cognition, Springer Nature vol. 50 (1), 216-231.
12-07-2021
Explaining face-voice matching decisions: The contribution of mouth movements, stimulus effects and response biasesLavan N, Smith H, Jiang L and McGettigan C
Attention, Perception, & Psychophysics, Springer Nature vol. 83 (5), 2205-2216.
01-04-2021
The influence of perceived vocal traits on trusting behaviours in an economic game.Knight S, Lavan N, Torre I and McGettigan C
Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology, Sage Publications, 17470218211010144-17470218211010144.
30-03-2021
Trait evaluations of faces and voices: Comparing within- and between-person variability.Lavan N, Mileva M, Burton AM, Young AW and McGettigan C
Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, American Psychological Association
18-03-2021
Highly Accurate and Robust Identity Perception From Personally Familiar VoicesKanber E, Lavan N and McGettigan C
Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, American Psychological Association
01-01-2021
2020
Perceptual prioritization of self‐associated voicesPayne B, Lavan N, Knight S and McGettigan C
British Journal of Psychology, Wiley vol. 112 (3), 585-610.
17-10-2020
Comparing unfamiliar voice and face identity perception using identity sorting tasks.Johnson J, McGettigan C and Lavan N
Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology, Sage Publications vol. 73 (10), 1537-1545.
01-10-2020
How does familiarity with a voice affect trait judgements?Lavan N, Mileva M and McGettigan C
British Journal of Psychology, Wiley
23-05-2020
2019
Neural representations of enhanced speech motor control in trained singersWaters S, Kanber E, Lavan N, Carey D, Cartei V, Lally C, Miquel M and McGettigan C
The Journal of The Acoustical Society of America vol. 146 (4), 2790-2790.
01-10-2019
How many voices did you hear? Natural variability disrupts identity perception from unfamiliar voices.Lavan N, Burston LFK and Garrido L
Br J Psychol vol. 110 (3), 576-593.
01-08-2019
'Please sort these voice recordings into 2 identities': Effects of task instructions on performance in voice sorting studies.Lavan N, Merriman SE, Ladwa P, Burston LFK, Knight S and McGettigan C
British Journal of Psychology, Wiley vol. 111 (3), 556-569.
22-07-2019
The effects of high variability training on voice identity learningLavan N, Knight S, Hazan V and McGettigan C
Cognition, Elsevier vol. 193
16-07-2019
Listeners form average-based representations of individual voice identitiesLavan N, Knight S and McGettigan C
Nature Communications, Springer Nature vol. 10 (1)
03-06-2019
Breaking voice identity perception: Expressive voices are more confusable for listeners.Lavan N, Burston LF, Ladwa P, Merriman SE, Knight S and McGettigan C
Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology, Sage Publications vol. 72 (9), 2240-2248.
21-03-2019
2018
Speaker Sex Perception from Spontaneous and Volitional Nonverbal Vocalizations.Lavan N, Domone A, Fisher B, Kenigzstein N, Scott SK and McGettigan C
Journal of Nonverbal Behavior, Springer (Part of Springer Nature) vol. 43 (1), 1-22.
20-10-2018
Flexible voices: Identity perception from variable vocal signalsLavan N, Burton AM, Scott SK and McGettigan C
Psychonomic Bulletin & Review, Springer Nature vol. 26 (1), 90-102.
25-06-2018
The social code of speech prosody must be specific and generalizableKnight S, Lavan N, Kanber E and McGettigan C
Proceedings of The National Academy of Sciences of The United States of America, Proceedings of The National Academy of Sciences vol. 115 (27), e6103-e6103.
13-06-2018
Impoverished encoding of speaker identity in spontaneous laughterLavan N, Short B, Wilding A and McGettigan C
Evolution and Human Behavior vol. 39 (1), 139-145.
01-01-2018
2017
Increased discriminability of authenticity from multimodal laughter is driven by auditory information.Lavan N and McGettigan C
Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology, Sage Publications vol. 70 (10), 2159-2168.
01-10-2017
Similar representations of emotions across faces and voices.Kuhn LK, Wydell T, Lavan N, McGettigan C and Garrido L
Emotion vol. 17 (6), 912-937.
01-09-2017
Commentary: Hearing faces and seeing voices: Amodal coding of person identity in the human brain.Lavan N
Frontiers in Neuroscience, Frontiers Media vol. 11, 303-303.
30-05-2017
2016
Neural correlates of the affective properties of spontaneous and volitional laughter typesLavan N, Rankin G, Lorking N, Scott S and McGettigan C
Neuropsychologia, Elsevier vol. 95, 30-39.
09-12-2016
Impaired generalization of speaker identity in the perception of familiar and unfamiliar voices.Lavan N, Scott SK and McGettigan C
Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, American Psychological Association vol. 145 (12), 1604-1614.
01-12-2016
Distinct neural systems recruited when speech production is modulated by different masking sounds.Meekings S, Evans S, Lavan N, Boebinger D, Krieger-Redwood K, Cooke M and Scott SK
Journal of The Acoustical Society of America, Aip Publishing Llc vol. 140 (1), 8-8.
05-07-2016
Cohesion and Joint Speech: Right Hemisphere Contributions to Synchronized Vocal ProductionJasmin KM, McGettigan C, Agnew ZK, Lavan N, Josephs O, Cummins F and Scott SK
Journal of Neuroscience, Society For Neuroscience vol. 36 (17), 4669-4680.
27-04-2016
2015
Laugh Like You Mean It: Authenticity Modulates Acoustic, Physiological and Perceptual Properties of LaughterLavan N, Scott SK and McGettigan C
Journal of Nonverbal Behavior, Springer Nature vol. 40 (2), 133-149.
19-12-2015
Feel the Noise: Relating Individual Differences in Auditory Imagery to the Structure and Function of Sensorimotor Systems.Lima CF, Lavan N, Evans S, Agnew Z, Halpern AR, Shanmugalingam P, Meekings S, Boebinger D, Ostarek M, McGettigan C, Warren JE and Scott SK
Cerebral Cortex, Oxford University Press (Oup) vol. 25 (11), 4638-4650.
19-06-2015
2014
The social life of laughterScott SK, Lavan N, Chen S and McGettigan C
Trends in Cognitive Sciences, Elsevier vol. 18 (12), 618-620.
22-10-2014
Neurocognitive Mechanisms for Vocal Emotions: Sounds, Meaning, ActionLavan N and Lima CF
Journal of Neuroscience, Society For Neuroscience vol. 34 (39), 12950-12952.
24-09-2014
I thought that I heard you laughing: Contextual facial expressions modulate the perception of authentic laughter and cryingLavan N, Lima CF, Harvey H, Scott SK and McGettigan C
Cognition & Emotion, Taylor & Francis vol. 29 (5), 935-944.
22-09-2014
Grants
Grants of specific relevance to the Centre for Brain and BehaviourVoCs - MSCA Doctoral Network (2023) LevanNadine Lavan
£267,922 EPSRC - EU Scheme
01-12-2024 - 30-11-2028
Sir Henry Wellcome Postdoctoral Fellowship, ‘Perceiving people from voices’ - Nadine LavanNadine Lavan
£308,606 Wellcome Trust
01-09-2020 - 30-11-2024