Dr Nicole Nelson
Senior Lecturer
School of Psychology
College of Education, Behavioural and Social Sciences
Current studies available for child participants can be found here: https://linktr.ee/developwelllab
My Research
Dr Nicole Nelson examines how children and adults learn about and understand emotional expressions and other non-verbal information. Her research examines how we integrate facial, postural, and vocal expression cues, how children attend to and learn about new emotions and non-verbal information, and what our emotional expressions look like during daily interactions. Dr Nelson received her PhD from Boston College, was an NSF-funded Postdoctoral Fellow at Brock University in Canada, and after several years at the University of Queensland, in 2021 she joined the School of Psychology at the University of Adelaide.
| Date | Position | Institution name |
|---|---|---|
| 2023 - ongoing | Senior Lecturer | University of Adelaide |
| 2021 - 2022 | Lecturer | University of Adelaide |
| 2021 - ongoing | Honorary Research Senior Fellow | University of Queensland |
| 2014 - 2020 | Lecturer | University of Queensland |
| 2012 - 2014 | Postdoctoral Follow | Brock University |
| Date | Institution name | Country | Title |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2012 | Boston College | United States | PhD |
| 2003 | University of Washington | United States | Bachelor of Science |
| Year | Citation |
|---|---|
| 2025 | Vidas, D., Nelson, N. L., & Dingle, G. A. (2025). Efficacy of the Tuned In music emotion regulation program in international university students. Psychology and Health, 40(1), 105-125. Scopus8 WoS6 Europe PMC5 |
| 2025 | Fong, F. T. K., Thong, C., & Nelson, N. L. (2025). Children use process of elimination to associate a novel expression with a novel cause. Journal of Experimental Child Psychology, 253, 106205. |
| 2025 | Jones, A. K., Nelson, N. L., Gautam, S., & Redshaw, J. (2025). Children infer counterfactual information from others’ facial expressions. Journal of Experimental Child Psychology, 259, 106306. |
| 2025 | Vidas, D., Nelson, N. L., & Dingle, G. A. (2025). From Mozart to Fleetwood Mac: music listening is not detrimental to reading comprehension in university students.. Cogn Emot, 1-10. |
| 2025 | Karakale, Ö., Nelson, N., Gredelj, A., Ryan, K. J., & Bayindir, A. (2025). Prior contextual information and autistic traits influence eye gaze behaviour and emotional valence ratings for facial expressions.. Sci Rep, 15(1), 27574. |
| 2024 | Dixson, B. J. W., Nelson, N. L., Moses, E., Lee, A. J., & Pegna, A. J. (2024). Perceptions of facial trustworthiness and dominance modulate early neural responses to male facial sexual dimorphism. Evolution and Human Behavior, 45(6), 11 pages. Scopus5 WoS5 |
| 2024 | Moses, E., Nelson, N., Taubert, J., & Pegna, A. J. (2024). Oxytocin differentially modulates the early neural responses to faces and non-social stimuli.. Soc Cogn Affect Neurosci, 19(1), 10 pages. Scopus4 WoS5 Europe PMC4 |
| 2023 | Pegna, A. J., Framorando, D., Yu, Z., Buhmann, Z., Nelson, N., & Dixson, B. J. W. (2023). Hierarchical status is rapidly assessed from behaviourally dominant faces.. Cognitive, affective & behavioral neuroscience, 23(5), 1267-1280. Scopus7 WoS4 Europe PMC2 |
| 2023 | Van Der Zant, T., Vanman, E., & Nelson, N. (2023). Familiarity with individuals' genuine dynamic expressive behaviour increases accuracy of emotional arousal judgements. AFFECTIVE SCIENCE, 4(1), 1 page. |
| 2022 | Dixson, B. J. W., Spiers, T., Miller, P. A., Sidari, M. J., Nelson, N. L., & Craig, B. M. (2022). Facial hair may slow detection of happy facial expressions in the face in the crowd paradigm. Scientific Reports, 12(1), 13 pages. Scopus13 WoS9 Europe PMC6 |
| 2022 | Vidas, D., Nelson, N. L., & Dingle, G. A. (2022). Music listening as a coping resource in domestic and international university students. Psychology of Music, 50(6), 030573562110669. Scopus10 WoS11 |
| 2022 | West, M. J., Angwin, A. J., Copland, D. A., Arnott, W. L., & Nelson, N. L. (2022). Effects of emotional cues on novel word learning in typically developing children in relation to broader autism traits. Journal of Child Language, 49(3), 503-521. Scopus3 WoS3 Europe PMC1 |
| 2021 | Vidas, D., Larwood, J. L., Nelson, N. L., & Dingle, G. A. (2021). Music Listening as a Strategy for Managing COVID-19 Stress in First-Year University Students. Frontiers in Psychology, 12, 9 pages. Scopus67 WoS55 Europe PMC21 |
| 2021 | Nguyen, T. T., & Nelson, N. L. (2021). Winners and losers: Recognition of spontaneous emotional expressions increases across childhood. Journal of Experimental Child Psychology, 209, 1-11. Scopus4 WoS4 Europe PMC2 |
| 2021 | Van Der Zant, T., Reid, J., Mondloch, C. J., & Nelson, N. L. (2021). The influence of postural emotion cues on implicit trait judgements. Motivation and Emotion, 45(5), 641-648. Scopus2 WoS2 |
| 2021 | Van Der Zant, T., & Nelson, N. L. (2021). Motion Increases Recognition of Naturalistic Postures but not Facial Expressions. Journal of Nonverbal Behavior, 45(4), 587-600. Scopus9 WoS8 |
| 2021 | Butler, J. R., & Nelson, N. L. (2021). Children overclaim more knowledge than adults do, but for different reasons. Journal of Experimental Child Psychology, 201, 104969. Scopus7 WoS8 Europe PMC1 |
| 2020 | Kapitány, R., Nelson, N., Burdett, E. R. R., & Goldstein, T. R. (2020). The child’s pantheon: Children’s hierarchical belief structure in real and non-real figures. PLoS ONE, 15(6), e0234142. Scopus12 WoS10 Europe PMC2 |
| 2020 | Fong, F. T. K., Mondloch, C. J., & Nelson, N. L. (2020). Interactive situations reveal more about children's emotional knowledge. Journal of Experimental Child Psychology, 198, 104879. Scopus9 WoS8 Europe PMC3 |
| 2020 | Barker, M. S., Nelson, N. L., & Robinson, G. A. (2020). Idea formulation for spoken language production: the interface of cognition and language. Journal of the International Neuropsychological Society, 26(2), 226-240. Scopus31 WoS31 Europe PMC24 |
| 2020 | Vidas, D., Calligeros, R., Nelson, N. L., & Dingle, G. A. (2020). Development of emotion recognition in popular music and vocal bursts. Cognition and Emotion, 34(5), 906-919. Scopus6 WoS6 Europe PMC5 |
| 2020 | West, M. J., Angwin, A. J., Copland, D. A., Arnott, W. L., & Nelson, N. L. (2020). Cross-modal emotion recognition and autism-like traits in typically developing children. Journal of Experimental Child Psychology, 191, 104737-1-104737-13. Scopus7 WoS7 Europe PMC2 |
| 2020 | Barker, M. S., Bidstrup, E. M., Robinson, G. A., & Nelson, N. L. (2020). “Grumpy” or “furious”? arousal of emotion labels influences judgments of facial expressions. PLOS ONE, 15(7), e0235390. Scopus10 WoS11 Europe PMC5 |
| 2019 | Nelson, N. L., & Mondloch, C. J. (2019). Children's perception of emotions in the context of live interactions: Eye movements and emotion judgements. Behavioural Processes, 164, 193-200. Scopus14 WoS11 Europe PMC5 |
| 2019 | Dixson, B. J. W., Kennedy-Costantini, S., Lee, A. J., & Nelson, N. L. (2019). Mothers are sensitive to men's beards as a potential cue of paternal investment. Hormones and Behavior, 113, 55-66. Scopus34 WoS31 Europe PMC13 |
| 2019 | Craig, B. M., Nelson, N. L., & Dixson, B. J. W. (2019). Sexual Selection, Agonistic Signaling, and the Effect of Beards on Recognition of Men’s Anger Displays. Psychological Science, 30(5), 728-738. Scopus48 WoS45 Europe PMC18 |
| 2019 | Mondloch, C. J., Gerada, A., Proietti, V., & Nelson, N. L. (2019). The influence of subtle facial expressions on children's first impressions of trustworthiness and dominance is not adult-like. Journal of Experimental Child Psychology, 180, 19-38. Scopus22 WoS21 Europe PMC10 |
| 2019 | Coy, A. L., Nelson, N. L., & Mondloch, C. J. (2019). No experimental evidence for emotion-specific gaze cueing in a threat context. Cognition and Emotion, 33(6), 1144-1154. Scopus7 Europe PMC3 |
| 2019 | Nelson, N. L., Kennedy-Costantini, S., Lee, A. J., & Dixson, B. J. W. (2019). Children's judgements of facial hair are influenced by biological development and experience. Evolution and Human Behavior, 40(6), 551-556. Scopus8 WoS14 |
| 2018 | Nelson, N. L., Nowicki, E., Diemer, M. C., Sangster, K., Cheng, C., & Russell, J. A. (2018). Children can create a new emotion category through a process of elimination. Cognitive Development, 47, 117-123. Scopus13 WoS11 |
| 2018 | Vidas, D., Dingle, G. A., & Nelson, N. L. (2018). Children’s recognition of emotion in music and speech. Music and Science, 1, 205920431876265. Scopus29 |
| 2018 | West, M. J., Copland, D. A., Arnott, W. L., Nelson, N. L., & Angwin, A. J. (2018). Effects of prosodic and semantic cues on facial emotion recognition in relation to autism-like traits. Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders, 48(8), 2611-2618. Scopus16 WoS14 Europe PMC10 |
| 2018 | Barker, M. S., Nelson, N. L., O'Sullivan, J. D., Adam, R., & Robinson, G. A. (2018). Energization and spoken language production: evidence from progressive supranuclear palsy. Neuropsychologia, 119, 349-362. Scopus25 WoS24 Europe PMC19 |
| 2018 | Nelson, N. L., & Mondloch, C. J. (2018). Children’s visual attention to emotional expressions varies with stimulus movement. Journal of Experimental Child Psychology, 172, 13-24. Scopus14 WoS11 Europe PMC5 |
| 2017 | Nelson, N. L., & Mondloch, C. J. (2017). Adults’ and children’s perception of facial expressions is influenced by body postures even for dynamic stimuli. Visual Cognition, 25(4-6), 563-574. Scopus35 WoS32 |
| 2017 | West, M. J., Copland, D. A., Arnott, W. L., Nelson, N. L., & Angwin, A. J. (2017). Effects of emotional prosody on novel word learning in relation to autism-like traits. Motivation and Emotion, 41(6), 749-759. Scopus8 WoS7 |
| 2016 | Nelson, N. L., & Russell, J. A. (2016). Building emotion categories: Children use a process of elimination when they encounter novel expressions. Journal of Experimental Child Psychology, 151, 120-130. Scopus29 WoS25 Europe PMC16 |
| 2016 | Nelson, N. L., & Russell, J. A. (2016). A facial expression of pax: Assessing children’s “recognition” of emotion from faces. Journal of Experimental Child Psychology, 141, 49-64. Scopus37 WoS33 Europe PMC15 |
| 2015 | Nelson, N. L., & Russell, J. A. (2015). Children distinguish between positive pride and hubris.. Developmental Psychology, 51(11), 1609-1614. Scopus7 WoS5 Europe PMC3 |
| 2014 | Nelson, N. L., & Russell, J. A. (2014). Dynamic facial expressions allow differentiation of displays intended to convey positive and hubristic pride.. Emotion, 14(5), 857-864. Scopus27 WoS23 Europe PMC8 |
| 2013 | Mondloch, C. J., Nelson, N. L., & Horner, M. (2013). Asymmetries of Influence: Differential Effects of Body Postures on Perceptions of Emotional Facial Expressions. Plos One, 8(9), 16 pages. Scopus36 WoS36 Europe PMC17 |
| 2013 | Nelson, N. L., Hudspeth, K., & Russell, J. A. (2013). A story superiority effect for disgust, fear, embarrassment, and pride. British Journal of Developmental Psychology, 31(3), 334-348. Scopus18 WoS13 Europe PMC5 |
| 2013 | Nelson, N. L., & Russell, J. A. (2013). Universality revisited. Emotion Review, 5(1), 8-15. Scopus204 WoS179 |
| 2012 | Nelson, N. L., & Russell, J. A. (2012). Children's understanding of nonverbal expressions of pride. Journal of Experimental Child Psychology, 111(3), 379-385. Scopus21 WoS20 Europe PMC4 |
| 2011 | Nelson, N. L., & Russell, J. A. (2011). Preschoolers' use of dynamic facial, bodily, and vocal cues to emotion. Journal of Experimental Child Psychology, 110(1), 52-61. Scopus114 WoS102 Europe PMC56 |
| 2011 | Nelson, N. L., & Russell, J. A. (2011). Putting motion in emotion: Do dynamic presentations increase preschooler's recognition of emotion?. Cognitive Development, 26(3), 248-259. Scopus27 WoS24 |
| 2011 | Nelson, N. L., & Russell, J. A. (2011). When Dynamic, the Head and Face Alone Can Express Pride. Emotion, 11(4), 990-993. Scopus16 WoS16 Europe PMC5 |
| Year | Citation |
|---|---|
| 2022 | Nelson, N., & Widen, S. (2022). Differentiation and Language Acquisition in Children’s Understanding of Emotion. In D. Dukes, A. Samson, & E. Walle (Eds.), The Oxford Handbook of Emotional Development (pp. 174-187). Oxford University Press. DOI Scopus3 |
| Year | Citation |
|---|---|
| 2014 | Mondloch, C. J., & Nelson, N. L. (2014). Looking for Emotion Cues: Allocation of Attention Varies With Age, Emotion, and Whether Stimuli Are Static or Dynamic. In CANADIAN JOURNAL OF EXPERIMENTAL PSYCHOLOGY-REVUE CANADIENNE DE PSYCHOLOGIE EXPERIMENTALE Vol. 68 (pp. 305). CANADIAN PSYCHOLOGICAL ASSOC. |
| Year | Citation |
|---|---|
| 2025 | Holdsworth, I., Taylor, A., & Nelson, N. (2025). Children's Emotional Expression Recognition and Production: Effects of Autistic, Socially Anxious, and Alexithymic Traits. Poster session presented at the meeting of Oral Presentations, Australasian Experimental Psychology Conference (EPC) and Asia Pacific Conference on Vision (APCV) 2025. Sydney, New South Wales. |
| 2024 | Holdsworth, I., Palmer, K., Rayner, C., Tuza, A., Van Der Zant, T., & Nelson, N. (2024). Characteristics of Adults' Facial Expressions As Seen By Infants. Poster session presented at the meeting of Experimental Psychology Conference 2024. Adelaide, South Australia. |
| 2022 | Van Der Zant, T., Holdsworth, I., Palmer, K., Rayner, C., Tuza, A., & Nelson, N. (2022). Emotional Expressions in Infant's Environment. Poster session presented at the meeting of Oral Presentations, Society of Australasian Social Psychologists Conference 2022. Adelaide, South Australia. |
| Year | Citation |
|---|---|
| 2026 | Palmer, K., Van Der Zant, T., Holdsworth, I., Rayner, C., Tuza, A., & Nelson, N. (2026). Infants’ Everyday Exposure to Caregiver Facial Expressions: Evidence from Naturalistic Head-Mounted Camera Data. DOI |
| 2026 | Jones, A., Ng, Q. M., McAuliffe, K., Nelson, N. L., Redshaw, J., & Gautam, S. (2026). Choices that make others sad or happy: Children’s interpersonal regret and relief. DOI |
| 2026 | Van Der Zant, T., Vanman, E. J., & Nelson, N. L. (2026). Emotional women? Testing gender effects on emotion expression and recognition with genuine and dynamic emotion expressions. DOI |
| 2026 | Carragher, D. J., Rowberry, A., Salvatore, E., Dixson, B., Thorley, C., & Nelson, N. L. (2026). Stimulus Facial Hair Impairs Unfamiliar Face Matching Performance. DOI |
| 2024 | Nelson, N., Mondloch, C., & Dixson, B. (2024). Facial hair is increasingly associated with dominance, but not trustworthiness in childhood. DOI |
Funding
Career funding total = $287,319 AUD
| Year | Grant | Amount | |
| 2019 | Nelson, N.L., Pegna, A., & Dixson, B.J.W. Title: Neural and Visual Correlates of Emotion Recognition in Faces and Bodies. Strategic Funds Seeding Grant, University of Queensland. | $8000 AUD | |
| 2017 | Robinson, G.A., Matthews, N., & Nelson, N.L. Title: Mapping Parallels in Language and Emotional Communication Deficits in Healthy and Pathological Ageing. Strategic Funds Seeding Grant, University of Queensland. | $9200 AUD | |
| 2016 | Robinson, G.A., ...Nelson, N.L., & Vanman, E. Title: A brain physiology laboratory for neuropsychological research in the new Queensland Neuropsychology Research Centre. Major Equipment Initiative Grant, University of Queensland. | $109,606 AUD | |
| 2015 |
Nelson, N.L. …et al Title: Integrating Measures of Emotion: Facial Expressions, EEG, and EMG using iMotions software Research Equipment Initiative, University of Queensland |
$28,400 AUD | |
| 2012 - 2014 | Nelson, N.L. Title: Children's Understanding of Cues to Emotion: Attentional Mechanisms and Social Interactions. International Research Fellowship Program Award, National Science Foundation. | $88,984 USD |
Teaching
| Course Title and Role | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
|
Foundations of Health and Lifespan Psychology (PSYCHOL 1006) Lecturer & Course Coordinator |
Sem. 2, 2022 - | |||
|
Health and Lifespan Developmental Psychology (PSYCHOL 3021) Lecturer & Course Coordinator |
Sem. 2, 2021 - | |||
|
Skills and Applications (PSYCHOL 1006) Lecturer & Course Coordinator |
Sem. 2, 2021 |
| Date | Role | Research Topic | Program | Degree Type | Student Load | Student Name |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2024 | Co-Supervisor | Individual Differences in Face Identification Strategies | Doctor of Philosophy | Doctorate | Full Time | Miss Alysha Jay Hua |
| 2024 | Co-Supervisor | The effectiveness of virtual reality on cognitive load and schema acquisition of STEM students | Doctor of Philosophy | Doctorate | Full Time | Ms Jaclyn Crystal Steffan |
| 2024 | Co-Supervisor | Individual Differences in Face Identification Strategies | - | Doctorate | Full Time | Miss Alysha Jay Hua |
| 2024 | Co-Supervisor | The effectiveness of virtual reality on cognitive load and schema acquisition of STEM students | - | Doctorate | Full Time | Ms Jackie Steffan |
| 2023 | Principal Supervisor | Naturalistic emotion reasoning in childhood: the role of parents on children’s ability to understand and use emotions to interact with others | Doctor of Philosophy | Doctorate | Full Time | Mr Kye Jayden Palmer |
| 2023 | Principal Supervisor | Naturalistic emotion reasoning in childhood: the role of parents on childrens ability to understand and use emotions to interact with others | - | Doctorate | Full Time | Kye Palmer |
| 2021 | Co-Supervisor | Trait and Situational Predictors of Interpersonal Objectification in Male and Female Perpetrators | Doctor of Philosophy | Doctorate | Full Time | Miss Danielle Grace Tetley |
| 2021 | Co-Supervisor | Trait and Situational Predictors of Interpersonal Objectification in Male and Female Perpetrators | - | Doctorate | Full Time | Miss Danielle Grace Tetley |
| Date | Role | Research Topic | Location | Program | Supervision Type | Student Load | Student Name |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2023 - 2024 | Principal Supervisor | Trait Judgments Based on Multimodal Expressions: A Child’s Perspective | Adelaide University | Master of Clinical Psychology | Master | Full Time | Georgia Speelmeyer |
| 2021 - ongoing | Co-Supervisor | The Functions of Counterfactual Thinking in Children | University of Queensland | Doctor of Philosophy | Doctorate | Full Time | Alicia Jones |
| 2020 - 2026 | Co-Supervisor | Effects of oxytocin on the temporal dynamics of emotion processing | University of Queensland | Doctor of Philosophy | Doctorate | Part Time | Benjamin Muehlebach |
| 2020 - 2024 | Co-Supervisor | Investigating the role of the amygdala in the early processing of emotional faces and threat related stimuli | University of Queensland | Doctor of Philosophy | Doctorate | Part Time | Eleanor Moses |
| 2020 - 2023 | Co-Supervisor | The (in)consequence of perceived control and integral affect for information processing style | University of Queensland | Doctor of Philosophy | Doctorate | Full Time | Naomi Holt |
| 2019 - 2023 | Co-Supervisor | The benefits of music use for international students studying in Australia | University of Queensland | Doctor of Philosophy | Doctorate | Full Time | Dianna Vidas |
| 2019 - 2023 | Principal Supervisor | Emotion expression and perception: what do we show, and do we know? | University of Queensland | Doctor of Philosophy | Doctorate | Full Time | Tamara Van Der Zant |
| 2019 - 2020 | Principal Supervisor | Children’s Judgments of Masculine Facial Cues to Trustworthiness, Dominance, and Competence | University of Queensland | Master of Counselling | Master | Full Time | Joshua Santin |
| 2019 - 2020 | Principal Supervisor | Children’s Visual Attention to Violence | University of Queensland | Master of Counselling | Master | Full Time | Caitlin Millwood |
| 2017 - 2022 | Co-Supervisor | When to work: The influence of enrichment, boundaries, and recovery on working parents and their children | University of Queensland | Doctor of Philosophy | Doctorate | Full Time | Alexandra Gibbs |
| 2015 - 2018 | Co-Supervisor | The Role of Attention and Emotion in Message Formulation | University of Queensland | Doctor of Philosophy | Doctorate | Full Time | Megan Barker |
| 2015 - 2018 | Co-Supervisor | Emotion Processing and the Broader Autism Phenotype | University of Queensland | Doctor of Philosophy | Doctorate | Full Time | Melina West |
| 2014 - 2017 | Co-Supervisor | Associations between Peer Cooperation and Mind Understanding Among Preschoolers: The effects of Play Context and Culture | University of Queensland | Doctor of Philosophy | Doctorate | Full Time | Evren Etel |
| Date | Role | Committee | Institution | Country |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2021 - ongoing | Member | HM&S Ethics Committee Low Risk Review | University of Adelaide | Australia |
| 2018 - 2020 | Member | Higher Degree Research Committee | University of Queensland, School of Psychology | Australia |
| 2017 - 2018 | Member | Ethics Committee (Low and Negligible Risk) | University of Queensland, Faculty of Health and Behavioral Sciences | Australia |
| Date | Title | Type | Institution | Country |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2021 - 2022 | Action Editor | Journal Review | Australian Journal of Psychology | Australia |
Connect With Me
External Profiles
