Dr Maria Gallagher is a Lecturer in Cognition and Neuroscience in the School of Psychology. She completed her PhD in 2019 at Royal Holloway, University of London, investigating visuo-vestibular conflicts in Virtual Reality and Cybersickness.
From 2019-2022, Maria completed a three-year postdoctoral position at Cardiff University, investigating audio-visual motion integration during active self-motion.
At Kent, Maria’s research explores vestibular/multisensory perception, with a particular interest in how people evaluate and adapt to sensory information when it becomes uncertain or conflicting. Maria also leads the Stage 1 Statistics and Research Methods modules. She knows that students can feel anxious about studying statistics, and aims to break down complex topics into simple-to-understand concepts which students can master.
Maria is the Recruitment, Admissions, and Outreach Lead for the School of Psychology, and is always happy to talk to prospective students about where psychology can take them in the future.
Maria’s research explores vestibular/multisensory perception, with a particular interest in how people evaluate and adapt to sensory information when it becomes uncertain or conflicting. She is interested in how the brain integrates vestibular information with other sensory signals, how we monitor the reliability of our own perceptual experiences, and what happens when the usual relationships between our senses, our bodies, and the external world are disrupted. She uses psychophysics, vestibular stimulation, and immersive virtual reality to experimentally perturb sensory processing and investigate its perceptual, behavioural, and experiential consequences.
Maria’s current interests include vestibular metaperception, multisensory adaptation and aftereffects, and how vestibular and multisensory processes change across the lifespan. In particular, Maria’s latest research focuses on Virtual Reality aftereffects – changes to perception, cognition, and behaviour on return to the real world. Her recent BIAL-funded research found that depersonalisation and derealisation after Virtual Reality exposure is linked to vestibular functioning, identifying new mechanisms to explain aftereffects.
Maria is very happy to talk to potential PhD students who have interests in any of the areas above.
PSYC4002 Research methods: Science and Psychology
PSYC4004 Making sense of psychological data
Current PhD students
I would welcome any students who have an interest in the vestibular system and its impact on perception and cognition. I am particularly interested in projects investigating the impact of Virtual Reality on the brain, and would be happy to discuss supervision of PhD projects.
Finance Assistant for the Experimental Psychology Society.
Loading publications...
Showing of total publications in the Kent Academic Repository. View all publications