黑料网

Biography

I am a PhD student in Psychology at the 黑料网, supervised by Prof Patric Bach, Dr Anastasia Klimovich-Gray, and Prof Ben Tatler.

My research is grounded in the predictive processing framework, exploring how predictive mechanisms underpin cognitive flexibility within a Bayesian brain perspective. In particular, my PhD focuses on how short-term demands and stimulus variability shape linguistic processing using EEG and eye-tracking during naturalistic reading.

I hold a BA in Natural Sciences from the University of Cambridge (2020-2023), where I also worked as a Research Assistant (2023-2024) and currently as an Affiliated Researcher (2024-present). I also hold an MRes in Psychology from the 黑料网 (2024-2025).

Affiliations:

Prizes and Awards

- Graduate Student Merit Award, SNL 2026

- ESRC-SGSSS Studentship Award (1+3.5), 2024-2029

- John Shepherd Prize for Best Thesis in the MRes Psychology, 2024-2025

- Anderson Prize for Highest Performance in the MRes Psychology, 2024-2025

Research Overview

My research is grounded in the predictive processing framework, exploring how predictive mechanisms underpin cognitive flexibility within a Bayesian brain perspective. My PhD focuses on how short-term demands and stimulus variability/uncertainty shape linguistic processing using EEG and eye-tracking during naturalistic reading.

Current Research

- Dynamic modelling of language

- Precision/uncertainty modelling of beliefs

- Individual differences in auditory and visual predictive processing

- Goal-oriented reading/speech processing: investigates how language processing at multiple levels (perceptual, lexico-semantic, syntactic) is shaped by the listener’s/reader's goals using EEG and naturalistic story listening/reading

- Conditioned delusions: using eye-tracking to explore how reading behaviour changes when bottom-up input conflicts with top-down expectations, and how readers balance this with updating their beliefs

- Ambiguous speech processing and AQ: examines how autistic traits correlate with vocoded speech perception, specifically testing how flexibly individuals use their priors

- Auditory selective attention in bilinguals: examines how AoA shapes auditory selective attentional control during a dichotic listening task

- L2 learning in adolescents: exploring intrinsic and extrinsic factors influencing L2 proficiency in adolescent learners

Past Research

Cook, B., Daniel-Watanabe, L., Brendler, A., Alex, P., Subramaniam, N., Ipsen-Peitzmeier, C., Leung, G. Y. S., Woolley, T., Powell, C., & Sitnikov, S., Matthews, D., Fletcher, P. (2025). Evaluating a Novel Virtual Reality Stress Induction Against a Standardised Laboratory-Based Paradigm [Preprint]. PsyArXiv.

Theron-Grimaldi, S., Schwarz, J., Alex, P., & Bozic, M. (2025). Language usage modulates the neural mechanisms of selective attention in bilinguals [Preprint]. bioRxiv.

Bozic, M., Smolka, E., Alex, P., McManus, F., & Schwarz, J. (2025). UNDER-STANDING the effects of semantic transparency, affix position and task on the processing of complex German words. Language, Cognition and Neuroscience, 40(9), 1232–1251.

Funding and Grants

ESRC-SGSSS Studentship Award (1+3.5), 2024-2029