Dr Daniel Carragher
Lecturer
School of Psychology
Faculty of Health and Medical Sciences
Eligible to supervise Masters and PhD - email supervisor to discuss availability.
Generally speaking, my research examines how we perceive human faces. I'm interested in how we recognise faces and emotional expressions, make first impressions from facial appearance, and perform identity matching tasks. My work also examines that factors that help or hinder performance on these types of tasks. Other research interests include the lateralisation of visuospatial attention, and ensemble coding.
My recent research interests centre around how we identify human faces. That is, if we are shown two faces, how are we able to tell whether they show the same person or two different people? This type of face matching task is surprisingly common in the real world, yet the average person is somewhat error prone when making these decisions. Recently, I have been investigating how humans perform these face matching tasks when assisted by facial recognition technology. I have also led a number of projects about how COVID-19 face masks affect identification accuracy of both humans and algorithms. My previous research has also included studying the first impressions we make from facial appearance, how we process complex visual scenes, and asymmetries in visuospatial attention.
Honours Projects 2025
I'll likely be offering several honours projects in 2025 that revolve around human performance on one-to-one face matching tasks when assisted by (simulated) facial recognition technologies. These tasks are common in every day life, such as when you are asked to show photo ID (e.g., a driver's licence) at a store or when travelling through airports. Yet humans often struggle to decide whether photo ID matches the person presenting it for inspection! You can find links to my most recent work in this area through the link to Google Scholar on my profile (below).
Please contact me via email for further information.
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Appointments
Date Position Institution name 2021 - ongoing Lecturer University of Adelaide 2020 - 2021 Post-doctoral Researcher University of Stirling 2019 - 2019 Post-doctoral Researcher Monash University 2019 - 2019 Casual Lecturer Flinders University 2016 - 2019 Casual Tutor Flinders University -
Education
Date Institution name Country Title 2015 - 2019 Flinders University Australia PhD 2011 - 2014 Flinders University Australia Bachelor of Psychology (hons) -
Research Interests
Computer Perception, Memory and Attention Computer-Human Interaction Experimental Psychology Forensic Psychology General Psychology & Cognitive Sciences Human Factors Psychology Psychology and Cognitive Sciences Sensory Processes, Perception and Performance Vision Science Neuroscience, Behaviour and Brain Health
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Journals
Year Citation 2024 Ritchie, K. L., Carragher, D. J., Davis, J. P., Read, K., Jenkins, R. E., Noyes, E., . . . Hancock, P. J. B. (2024). Face masks and fake masks: the effect of real and superimposed masks on face matching with super-recognisers, typical observers, and algorithms.. Cogn Res Princ Implic, 9(1), 5.
Scopus3 Europe PMC12024 Carragher, D. J., Sturman, D., & Hancock, P. J. B. (2024). Trust in automation and the accuracy of human–algorithm teams performing one-to-one face matching tasks. Cognitive Research: Principles and Implications, 9(1), 17 pages.
Scopus12024 Bartlett, M. L., Carragher, D. J., Hancock, P. J. B., & McCarley, J. S. (2024). Benchmarking automation-aided performance in a forensic face matching task. Applied Ergonomics, 121, 104364.
2024 Carragher, D. J., & Hancock, P. J. B. (2024). The Wisdom of the Crowd Can Unmask Faces. Applied Cognitive Psychology, 38(5), 10 pages.
2023 Carragher, D. J., & Hancock, P. J. B. (2023). Simulated automated facial recognition systems as decision-aids in forensic face matching tasks.. Journal of experimental psychology. General, 152(5), 1286-1304.
Scopus10 WoS2 Europe PMC12023 Carragher, D. J., & Hancock, P. (2023). The Wisdom of the Crowd Can Unmask Faces.
2023 Carragher, D. J., Sturman, D., & Hancock, P. (2023). Trust in Automation and the Accuracy of Human-Algorithm Teams Performing One-to-One Face Matching Tasks.
2022 Carragher, D. J., Towler, A., Mileva, V. R., White, D., & Hancock, P. J. B. (2022). Masked face identification is improved by diagnostic feature training. Cognitive Research: Principles and Implications, 7(1), 1-12.
Scopus13 WoS7 Europe PMC72022 Carragher, D. J. (2022). Examining the cheerleader effect. Nature Reviews Psychology, 1(6), 316.
Scopus1 WoS12021 Hsieh, J. Y. J., Gwinn, O. S., Brooks, K. R., Stephen, I. D., Carragher, D. J., & Nicholls, M. E. R. (2021). The “cheerleader effect” in facial and bodily attractiveness: A result of memory bias and not perceptual encoding. Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology, 74(5), 972-980.
Scopus8 WoS6 Europe PMC32021 Ciricugno, A., Bartlett, M. L., Gwinn, O. S., Carragher, D. J., & Nicholls, M. E. R. (2021). The effect of cognitive load on horizontal and vertical spatial asymmetries. Laterality, 26(6), 706-724.
Scopus7 WoS5 Europe PMC42021 Carragher, D. J., Towler, A., Mileva, V. R., White, D., & Hancock, P. (2021). Masked face identification is improved by diagnostic feature training.
2021 Carragher, D. J., Thomas, N. A., & Nicholls, M. E. R. (2021). The dissociable influence of social context on judgements of facial attractiveness and trustworthiness.. British journal of psychology (London, England : 1953), 112(4), 902-933.
Scopus14 WoS8 Europe PMC52020 Carragher, D. J., Thomas, N. A., Gwinn, O. S., & Nicholls, M. E. R. (2020). The cheerleader effect is robust to experimental manipulations of presentation time. Journal of Cognitive Psychology, 32(5-6), 553-561.
Scopus9 WoS72020 Carragher, D. J., & Hancock, P. J. B. (2020). Surgical face masks impair human face matching performance for familiar and unfamiliar faces.. Cognitive research: principles and implications, 5(1), 59.
Scopus114 WoS76 Europe PMC692020 Carragher, D. J., & Hancock, P. (2020). Surgical face masks impair human face matching performance for familiar and unfamiliar faces.
2019 Carragher, D. J., Thomas, N. A., Gwinn, O. S., & Nicholls, M. (2019). The cheerleader effect is robust to experimental manipulations of presentation time.
2019 Carragher, D. J., Thomas, N. A., Gwinn, O. S., & Nicholls, M. E. R. (2019). Limited evidence of hierarchical encoding in the cheerleader effect.. Scientific reports, 9(1), 9329.
Scopus16 WoS13 Europe PMC62018 Carragher, D. J., Lawrence, B. J., Thomas, N. A., & Nicholls, M. E. R. (2018). Visuospatial asymmetries do not modulate the cheerleader effect. Scientific Reports, 8(1), 2548.
Scopus19 WoS17 Europe PMC52018 Carragher, D. J., Thomas, N. A., & Nicholls, M. E. R. (2018). Is trustworthiness lateralized in the face? Evidence from a trust game. Laterality, 23(1), 20-38.
Scopus13 WoS11 Europe PMC6 -
Preprint
Year Citation 2024 Hua, A., & Carragher, D. J. (2024). Validating a New Trial Procedure for Assessing Human-Algorithm Teaming in One-to-One Face Matching Tasks.
DOI2023 Bartlett, M. L., Carragher, D. J., Hancock, P., & McCarley, J. (2023). Benchmarking Automation-Aided Performance in a Forensic Face Matching Task.
DOI
Building Research Leaders (2023) - University of Adelaide, Faculty of Health and Medical Sciences, School of Psychology.
Lecturer & Course Coordinator
2022-24 (Semester 1) - Advanced Career & Research Skills in Psychology A (PSYCHOL 3011A)
2022-24 (Semester 2) - Perception & Cognition (PSYCHOL 3023)
Course Coordinator
2022 (Semester 2) - Doing Research in Psychology Advanced (PSYCHOL 3020)
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Current Higher Degree by Research Supervision (University of Adelaide)
Date Role Research Topic Program Degree Type Student Load Student Name 2024 Principal Supervisor Individual Differences in Face Identification Strategies Doctor of Philosophy Doctorate Full Time Miss Alysha Jay Hua
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