Postgraduate students
PhD
JD Bowman
Email jd.bowman@otago.ac.nz
Thesis title: Controversial Topics at the University of Otago
JD is a PhD Candidate for Psychology and in training to become a Clinical Psychologist at the University of Otago. His research is currently focused toward assessing the 'free speech climate' on university campuses in New Zealand. When he is not researching and writing, JD enjoys making music, going skiing, and of course, obsessing over the finer details of the greatest game on Earth, cricket.
Kaleb Cant
Email canka168@student.otago.ac.nz
Kia Ora, I am a PhD candidate at the University of Otago. Originally from Oamaru, I moved to Dunedin in 2021 to begin my degree in psychology. Since then, I have completed both my Bachelor's and Bachelor's with honours.
My research interests are: Virtual Reality and its applications in psychology; the relationships between people and place; and the effects of displacement. This year I am focusing on the Albany Street recording study, particularly investigating how experiencing a reconstructed place in virtual reality influences attachment, with prior connection as a factor in their ability to re-attach.
Ryan Hartman
Email ryan.hartman@otago.ac.nz
Thesis title: Implications of Mind-Body Dualism
Jane Hooton
Email jane.hooton@otago.ac.nz
Thesis title: Mind After Death: How Suicide Shapes Attributions of Postmortem Agency and Experience
Jane Hooton is a PhD candidate in Psychology at the University of Otago and is supervised by Professor Halberstadt and Professor Jesse Bering. Her research examines how the manner of death – particularly suicide – shapes people’s attributions of ongoing mind, agency, and presence to the deceased. Drawing on social cognition, death anxiety, intuitive dualism, and Theory of Mind, her work explores the psychological processes underlying these judgments and their implications for continuing bonds and bereavement.
Hashini Madarasinge
Email hashini.madarasinge@postgrad.otago.ac.nz
Thesis title: The Relationship Between Individualism, Collectivism and Visual Perspective Taking
I am a PhD student from Italy specialising in cross-cultural research, with a focus on exploring the relationship between Individualism/Collectivism and visual perspective-taking (a key aspect of the Theory of Mind) across diverse populations.
Cassie Ransom
Email cassie.ransom@otago.ac.nz
Thesis title: Investigating Privacy Motives
I am interested in understanding what drives peoples' privacy concerns - that is, what people are trying to protect when they talk about 'privacy'. I am in my third year of my PhD on the psychology of privacy. In my spare time, I enjoy painting, furniture restoration, cooking, and drinking coffee with friends.
Master's
Sofia Hammer
Email hamso500@student.otago.ac.nz
Thesis title: Reducing Social Media’s Effects on Male Body Image Through a Functionality-Focused Approach
I am a fifth-year student currently pursuing a one-year master's by thesis, following the completion of my Bachelor of Science in Psychology with a minor in Management and my Bachelor of Science with Honours in 2024. My research focuses on mitigating the impact of social media on body image, particularly in males, as I am passionate about addressing underrepresented groups in psychological research. Outside of academia, I enjoy fishing, diving, and anything related to the ocean. I also have a deep appreciation for art and music, including playing the guitar.
Honours
Peter Dann
Email danpe299@student.otago.ac.nz
Thesis title: Perceptions of Chatbot Personas
Yani Du Plessis
Email dupya362@student.otago.ac.nz
Thesis title: Crowded Memory: Average Perception of Group Faces
I am a fifth-year Psychology student currently completing my Honours degree. Coming originally from South Africa, I enjoy exploring the natural beauty of Aotearoa New Zealand and spending my free time with friends, family, and my community.
For my Honours research, I am investigating how groups of faces are represented in memory as an average face, a process known as ensemble coding. Specifically, how ensemble coding is influenced by the Cross Race Effect (the tendency to remember ingroup faces better than outgroup faces) and how this, in turn, affects face memory.
Isla Fowler
Email fowis345@student.otago.ac.nz
Thesis title: Sensitised or Lagged: Cannabis and Social Threat Sensitivity
Stella Mooney
Email moost694@student.otago.ac.nz
Thesis title: The Attractiveness of Blurred Faces
Kia ora, I'm originally from Tāmaki Makaurau and have been living in Ōtepoti for the last 4 years completing my undergraduate and Honours degrees in Psychology. My research focuses on face perception and memory.
This year I am investigating the attractiveness judgements that we make of faces we can't see very well, and whether these judgements differ depending on whether we know the person or not. This project draws on the partial information/less is more effect, which suggests that visually unclear faces may be rated as more attractive than clearly visible ones. The less is more effect challenges established theories of perceptual fluency and the way that we make attractiveness judgements.
Ava O'Dwyer
Email odwav925@student.otago.ac.nz
Thesis title: Attractiveness of Occluded Faces: In-group and Out-group Differences
Jessica Slimin
Email slije080@student.otago.ac.nz
Thesis title: Olfactory Mental Imagery
I am completing my Neuroscience Honours both with Professor Halberstadt in the Social Cognition Lab and Mei Peng in the Sense Lab to allow me to combine my passions for nutrition and psychology. I am looking at the fascinating world of mental imagery and whether the mental imagery of smells can reproduce a physiological reinstatement similar to that experienced with perception. This could have larger implications for understanding individuals’ eating behaviours and tendencies.
Co-supervisor: Professor Mei Peng, Associate Professor, Psychology Department
Undergraduate students
- Sebastian Jehle
Email jehse648@student.otago.ac.nz
Thesis title: How Individual Attitudes Influence Message Believability