My Expertise
Face recognition
Super-recognisers
Keywords
Biography
James Dunn is a Postdoctoral research associate in the School of Psychology at UNSW Sydney. Current areas of interest include face and person recognition, forensic science and individual differences with both applied and theory-inspired research using behavioural methods, machine learning and eye-tracking.
Previous and current research projects: person-in-crowd identification, the strategies supporting superior face identification accuracy,...view more
James Dunn is a Postdoctoral research associate in the School of Psychology at UNSW Sydney. Current areas of interest include face and person recognition, forensic science and individual differences with both applied and theory-inspired research using behavioural methods, machine learning and eye-tracking.
Previous and current research projects: person-in-crowd identification, the strategies supporting superior face identification accuracy, and contextual influences on face identification.
My Qualifications
BSc(Adv) (Psyc), UNSW Sydney, Sydney (2012)
Ph.D., UNSW Sydney, Sydney (2018)
My Awards
UNSW Science Early Career Academic Award - 2021
UNSW Science ECAN Seeding Grant - 2020
UNSW Science PhD Writing Scholarship - 2018
Outstanding Research Student Award - 2017
UNSW Science Postgraduate Research Competition School of Psychology Prize - 2016
UNSW Science Postgraduate Research Competition Competition Winner - 2015
My Research Activities
Dunn, J. D., Varela, V. P. L., Nicholls, V. I., Papinutto, M., White, D., & Miellet, S. (2022). Visual information sampling in super-recognizers. Psychological Science. 1-16. https://doi.org/10.1177/09567976221096320
Growns, B., Dunn, J. D., Mattijssen, E., Quigley-McBride, A., & Towler, A. (2022). Match me if you can: Evidence for a domain-general visual comparison ability. Psychonomic Bulletin & Review. https://doi.org/10.3758/s13423-021-02044-2
Towler, A., Dunn, J. D., Martínez, S. C., Moreton, R., Eklöfd, F., Ruifrok, A., Kemp, R. I., & White, D. (2021). Diverse routes to expertise in facial recognition. PsyArXiv (Preprint). https://doi.org/10.31234/osf.io/fmzn
Dunn, J. D., Kemp, R. I., & White, D. (2021). Top-down influences on working memory representations of faces: Evidence from dual-target visual search. Q J Exp Psychol (Hove), 74(8), 1368-1377. https://doi.org/10.1177/17470218211014357
Dunn, J. D., Summersby, S., Towler, A., Davis, J. P., & White, D. (2020). UNSW Face Test: A screening tool for super-recognizers. PLoS One, 15(11), e0241747. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0241747
Dunn, J. D., Ritchie, K. L., Kemp, R. I., & White, D. (2019). Familiarity does not inhibit image-specific encoding of faces. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception and Performance, 45(7), 841-854. doi:10.1037/xhp0000625
Towler, A, Kemp, R. I., Burton, A. M., Dunn, J.D., Wayne, T., Moreton, R., White, D. (2019). Do professional facial image comparison training courses work? PLoS One, 14(2), e0211037. https://doi.org/ 10.1371/journal.pone.0211037
Towler, A., Kemp, R. I., Bruce, V., Burton, A. M., Dunn, J. D., & White, D. (2019). Are face recognition abilities in humans and sheep really ‘comparable’? R. Soc. open sci., 6, 180772. doi:http://dx.doi.org/10.1098/rsos.180772
Dunn, J. D., Kemp, R. I., & White, D. (2018). Search templates that incorporate within-face variation improve visual search for faces. Cognitive Research: Principles and Implications, 3(37), 1-11. doi:10.1186/s41235-018-0128-1
White, D., Dunn, J. D., Schmid, A. C., & Kemp, R. I. (2015). Error Rates in Users of Automatic Face Recognition Software. PLoS One, 10(10), e0139827. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0139827
My Research Supervision
Areas of supervision
Perceptual and cognitive processes that underlie face identification and expertise. Including person-in-crowd identification, the strategies supporting superior face identification accuracy, and contextual influences on face identification.
Currently supervising
Anita Trinh (PhD)
My Engagement
Radio National Breakfast Show (AU) - Are you a super-recogniser?
Super-recognisers on "The Project" (Channel 10, AU; 24 Nov 2020)
All of the Mind Podcast - Super-voice-recognisers
Take the UNSW Face Test to find out if you are a 'super-recogniser'.
ORCID as entered in ROS
https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6964-909X
Videos
For his research the human ability to recognise familiar and unfamiliar faces in different situations, which could have implications for identity checks.
This presentation was a winner in the 'Science and Society' category at the UNSW Science 1 minute thesis competition in 2015.
