We're looking for a Postdoc to join the Face Lab at UNSW Psychology! Ideal: someone with strong ML/deep learning expertise and an interest in how people perceive AI-generated faces. ๐ Sydney | Full-time, 18 months ๐ Apply by 3 Sept 2026 ๐ external-careers.jobs.unsw.edu.au/cw/en/job/54...
Dr James Dunn
Dr James Dunn
@jamesdunn.bsky.social
Cognitive Scientist๐จโ๐ฌ studying #facerecognition at UNSW. Are you a #SuperRecognizer? Find out at http://unswfacetest.com
204 followers282 following25 posts
The position is at UNSW (whitelab.psy.unsw.edu.au) but youโll join an interdisciplinary team spanning psychology, computer science & AI, across UNSW (David White, Gelareh Mohammadi & myself), ANU (Amy Dawel) and international collaborators including Clare Sutherland, Zak Witkower & Alice OโToole.
My new research found when trying to distinguish real faces from AI-generated ones, people with average face-recognition ability performed at chance, and while super-recognisers performed better than other participants, it was only by a slim margin. Read more ๐ www.unsw.edu.au/newsroom/new...
Link to full print: bpspsychub.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...
Dr James Dunn reposted
Bluesky is the new science Twitter, new study by @whysharksmatter.bsky.social and Julia Wester concludes! "Results show that for every reported professional benefit that scientists once gained from Twitter, scientists can now gain that benefit more effectively on Bluesky than on Twitter."
Dr James Dunn reposted
substack.com/@gavanmcnall... scathing piece on the state of research funding in Australia
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๐ง ๐ Dr Rachel Bennetts, our expert in face processing at Brunel psychology, shared her thoughts in @theguardian.com on a fascinating new study exploring what makes some people exceptional at recognising faces ๐ถโ๐ซ๏ธ ๐ ๐
Dr James Dunn reposted
Super-recognizers sample visual information of superior computational value for facial recognition royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/10.1098/... | #ProcB #Cognition #FaceRecognition
New research out today is written up in The Guardian! We show that the basis of super-recognisers advantage for face recognition is not just about looking everywhere โ itโs about looking smarter, at more useful information for identification. Read the full text here: doi.org/10.1098/rspb...
AI study gives insights into why super-recognisers excel at identifying faces
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A very nice write-up by UNSW of our recent joint meeting of the Australasian Society for Experimental Psychology and the Asia-Pacific Conference on Vision, which we hosted at UNSW www.unsw.edu.au/news/2025/07...
Proud to have been part of the small but mighty team behind this yearโs EPC/APCV with @sbmost.bsky.social, Branka Spehar & @popwatson.bsky.social. Pulling off a 400+ person event with just a few academics wasnโt easy, but we managed to do it while keeping that classic EPC warmth and supportiveness.
I had a blast but organising a conference is full on and it's hard to focus on anything else when the thing is running. Thankfully my co-hosts were excellent and the team made it happen. Branka Spehar, @sbmost.bsky.social @jamesdunn.bsky.social. You wear many hats in academia and now I need a rest
Dr James Dunn reposted
Great talk by @bethanygrowns.bsky.social looking at overlap between face super-recognizers and object super-matchers #epc2025 @expsyanz.bsky.social
Dr James Dunn reposted
Amy Dawel kicking off the #epc2025 Face Perception session off with great work looking at how difficult it is to identify AI-generated faces, especially across different races @expsyanz.bsky.social
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Great talk by @dongwonoh.bsky.social demonstrating improved detection of AI faces using different visual attention strategies #epc2025 @expsyanz.bsky.social
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Kateryna Marchenko showing perceptions of face pareidolia follows the classic three dot pattern in noise images #epc2025 @expsyanz.bsky.social
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Fantastic talk by David White showing that super-recognizers don't pay extra attention to all social cues (e.g. bodies), just to faces #ecp2025 @expsyanz.bsky.social
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And that's a wrap!! #epc2025 is in the books, with a lovely closing speech from @visnerd.bsky.social. SO many thanks to the organising committee for building such a successful conference ๐ We'll see you next year in Auckland ๐ณ๐ฟ
Dr James Dunn reposted
Dr James Dunn reposted
Great talk by Julia Haile showing that indirect eye gaze impacts the believability of expressions in both static and dynamic expressions #epc2025 @expsyanz.bsky.social
Dr James Dunn reposted
Dr James Dunn reposted
Dr James Dunn reposted
Hey ECRs at @expsyanz.bsky.social this week - if you're interested in object perception and/or neural decoding, come find me for a chat about an upcoming postdoc spot at the @marcsinstitute.bsky.social ๐
Dr James Dunn reposted
EPC President @sbmost.bsky.social officially opening the conference
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Fascinating talk by Ben Steward at #epc2025 looking at how emotional faces and bodies are weighted in judgements. @expsyanz.bsky.social
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Awesome talk at #epc2025 by @kyepalmer.bsky.social talking about how parents and children recognize each other's expressions. @expsyanz.bsky.social
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Super interesting talk by Imogen Holdsworth looking at whether AQ score influences children's emotion recognition! #epc2025 @expsyanz.bsky.social
Dr James Dunn reposted
A great talk by Ishi Jamdagni at @expsyanz.bsky.social - the main takeaway: participants' rate the cold-pressor task as less stressful than everyday stressors; ethics board might need to reconsider their assumptions around pain and stress!
Dr James Dunn reposted
Great #epc2025 talk by Toby Prike showing how misinformation is transmitted across people @expsyanz.bsky.social
Dr James Dunn reposted
Full room for symposium 'Reasoning from the opinion of others' @scondes.bsky.social @expsyanz.bsky.social
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Dan Carragher talking about how humans are the weak link in human/algorithm teaming when identifying faces ๐ #epc2025 @expsyanz.bsky.social
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@alicetowler.bsky.social showing double-digit improvement in face recognition using a short training based on expert information #epc2025 @expsyanz.bsky.social
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Great talk by @jamesdunn.bsky.social looking at how police officer's visual attention is related to memory in stressful situations #epc2025 @expsyanz.bsky.social
Dr James Dunn reposted
Australasian Experimental Psychology Conference/Asia-Pacific Conference on Vision kicks off tomorrow! We're all very excited. See the programme it looks fantastic drive.google.com/file/d/1d0KE... website: conference.unsw.edu.au/en/epc-apcv-... follow us here: @expsyanz.bsky.social
Dr James Dunn reposted
We're looking forward to seeing you this week at the joint meeting of the ๐๐ถ๐ด๐ต๐ณ๐ข๐ญ๐ข๐ด๐ช๐ข๐ฏ ๐๐ฐ๐ค๐ช๐ฆ๐ต๐บ ๐ง๐ฐ๐ณ ๐๐น๐ฑ๐ฆ๐ณ๐ช๐ฎ๐ฆ๐ฏ๐ต๐ข๐ญ ๐๐ด๐บ๐ค๐ฉ๐ฐ๐ญ๐ฐ๐จ๐บ and the ๐๐ด๐ช๐ข-๐๐ข๐ค๐ช๐ง๐ช๐ค ๐๐ฐ๐ฏ๐ง๐ฆ๐ณ๐ฆ๐ฏ๐ค๐ฆ ๐ฐ๐ฏ ๐๐ช๐ด๐ช๐ฐ๐ฏ! Don't forget to tag us on your conference-related Bluesky posts, so we can help you share with our wonderful community! ๐
๐จ UNSW Face Lab is hiring 3-year post-doc ๐จ Please repost and contact David White for informal enquiries external-careers.jobs.unsw.edu.au/cw/en/job/53...
Dr James Dunn reposted
Our latest study in JEPHPP explores how we detect #facepareidolia under different task demands. Results like these keep providing clues that we are equipped to build multiple representations in parallel to flexibly support a diverse range of behavioural goals. psycnet.apa.org/doi/10.1037/...
Excited to share that my research at UNSW Science is featured in a recent article by The Australian Financial Review highlighting innovative projects supported by the Australian Research Council and how more funding should be directed to early career researchers (which I agree wholeheartedly)
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Replying to @arc-tracker.bsky.social
A report on this๐ was written by Julie Hare today in the AFR๐
Dr James Dunn reposted
Hello, Psychonomics! Come share your work in Australia. I'm co-organizing the 2025 meeting of the Australasian Society for Experimental Psych, which will be joint with the Asia-Pacific Conference on Vision. A week later, Human Brain Mapping is in Brisbane. There's never been a better time! #psynom24
The Australasian Experimental Psychology Conference (EPC) and Asia Pacific Conference on Vision (APCV) are holding a joint meeting in 2025, to be held at UNSW in Sydney, from June 17-20. Abstract and symposium submissions are open! epc.psy.unsw.edu.au/index.html