Publications
face perception
Taubert, J., Wardle, S. G., Patterson, A., & Baker, C. (2024) Beyond faces: The contribution of the amygdala to visual processing in the macaque brain. Cerebral Cortex, 34, bhae24. [link]
Wardle, S. G., Ewing, L., Malcolm, G. L., Paranjape, S., & Baker, C. I. (2023). Children perceive illusory faces in objects as male more often than female. Cognition, 235, 105398. [link]
[OSF: data & materials]
Taubert, J., Wardle, S. G., Tardiff, C.T., Patterson, A., Yu, David. & Baker, C. (2022). Clutter substantially reduces selectivity for peripheral faces in the macaque brain. Journal of Neuroscience, 42, 6739-6750. [link]
Taubert, J., Wardle, S. G., Tardiff, C.T., Koele, E.A., Kumar, S. Messinger, A. & Ungerleider, L. (2022). The cortical and subcortical correlates of face detection in the macaque brain. Social Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience, nsac031. [link]
*Wardle, S. G., *Paranjape, S., Taubert, J. & Baker, C. I. (2022) Illusory faces are more likely to be perceived as male than female. PNAS, 119(5), e2117413119. [link]
Data: [OSF: data & materials]
Commentary: [TICS Spotlight]
Media: [Scientific American] [The New York Times] [Forbes] [The Times (UK)] [ABC (Australia)] [Science News]
Alais, D., Xu, Y., *Wardle, S. G. & *Taubert, J. (2021). A shared mechanism for facial expression in human faces and face pareidolia. Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences. 288: 20210966. [link]
Keys, R., Taubert, J. & Wardle, S. G. (2021). A visual search advantage for illusory faces in objects. Attention, Perception & Psychophysics, 1-12. [link]
[OSF: data & materials]
Wardle, S. G., Taubert, J., Teichmann, L., & Baker, C. I. (2020). Rapid and dynamic processing of face pareidolia in the human brain. Nature Communications, 11, 4518. [link]
[OSF: data & materials]
Taubert, J., Wardle, S. G., & Unerleider L. G. (2020). What does a “face cell” want? Progress in Neurobiology, 195, 101880. [link]
Taubert, J., Flessert, M., Wardle, S.G., Basile, B.M., Murphy, A.P., Murray, E.A. & Ungerleider, L.G. (2018) Amygdala lesions eliminate viewing preferences for faces in rhesus monkeys. PNAS, 115 (31), 8043-8048. [link]
Taubert, J., Wardle, S.G., Flessert, M., Leopold, D.A., & Ungerleider, L.G. (2017) Face pareidolia in the rhesus monkey. Current Biology, 27(16), 2505-2509. [link]
object recognition
Wardle, S. G., Rispoli, B., Roopchansingh, V., & Baker, C. I. (2025). Brief encounters with real objects modulate the medial parietal but not occipitotemporal cortex. Journal of Neuroscience, 45, e0834252025. [link]
Ritchie, J. B., Wardle, S. G. , Vaziri-Pashkam, M., Kravitz, D. J., & Baker, C. (2025) Rethinking category- selectivity in human visual cortex. Cognitive Neuroscience, 1-28. [link]
Contini, E., *Goddard, E. & *Wardle, S. G. (2021). Reaction times predict dynamic brain representations measured with MEG for only some object categorization tasks. Neuropsychologia, 151, 107687. [link]
[OSF: data & materials]
Wardle, S. G. & Baker, C. I. (2020). Recent advances in understanding object recognition in the human brain: deep neural networks, temporal dynamics, and context. F1000Research, 9(F1000 Faculty Rev): 590. [link]
Grootswagers, T., Ritchie, J. B., Wardle, S. G., Heathcote, A., & Carlson, T. A. (2017). Asymmetric compression of representational space for object animacy categorization under degraded viewing conditions. Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience, 29(12), 1995-2010. [link]
Contini, E., *Wardle, S.G., & *Carlson, T.A. (2017). Decoding the time-course of object recognition in the human brain: From visual features to categorical decisions. Neuropsychologia, 105, 165-176. [link]
Wardle, S.G. & Ritchie, J.B. (2014) Can object category-selectivity in the ventral visual pathway be explained by sensitivity to low-level image properties? The Journal of Neuroscience, 34(45), 14817- 14819. [link]
memory & imagery
Kreichman, O., Brook, L., Wardle, S. G., & Gilaie-Dotan, S. (2025) Illusory faces are remembered more than human faces. PsyArXiv. [link]
*Corriveau, A., *Kidder, A., Teichmann, L., Wardle, S. G. & Baker, C. (2023) Sustained neural representations of personally familiar people and places during cued recall. Cortex, 158, 71-82. [link]
[OSF: data & materials]
neuroimaging methods
Huber, L., Stirnberg, L., Morgan, A.T., Feinberg, D., Ehses, P., Knudsen, L., Gulban, O.F., Koiso, K., Gephart, I., Swegle, S., Wardle, S. G., Persichetti, A., Beckett, A., Stöcker, T., Boulant, N., Poser, B., & Bandettini, P. (2025) Short-term gradient imperfections in high-resolution EPI lead to Fuzzy Ripple artifacts. Magnetic Resonance in Medicine. 1-17. [link]
Wardle, S.G., Ritchie, J.B., *Seymour, K., & *Carlson, T.A. (2017). Edge-related activity is not necessary to explain orientation decoding in human visual cortex. The Journal of Neuroscience, 37(5), 1187-1196. [link]
Grootswagers, T., Wardle, S.G., & Carlson, T.A. (2017) Decoding dynamic brain patterns from evoked responses: A tutorial on multivariate pattern analysis applied to time-series neuroimaging data. Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience, 29(4), 677-697. [link]
Wardle, S.G., Kriegeskorte, N., Grootswagers, T., Khaligh-Razavi, S.-M., & Carlson, T.A. (2016) Perceptual similarity of visual patterns predicts dynamic neural activation patterns measured with MEG. NeuroImage, 132, 59-70. [link]
Carlson, T.A. & Wardle, S.G. (2015) Sensible decoding. NeuroImage, 110, 217-218. [link]
3D depth perception
Wardle, S.G. & Gillam, B.J. (2016) Gradients of relative disparity underlie the perceived slant of stereoscopic surfaces. Journal of Vision, 16(5):16, 1-13. [link]
Wardle, S.G., Palmisano, S. & Gillam, B.J. (2014) Monocular and binocular edges enhance the perception of stereoscopic slant. Vision Research, 100, 113-123. [link]
Wardle, S.G. & Gillam, B.J. (2013) Color constrains depth in da Vinci stereopsis for camouflage but not occlusion. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception & Performance, 39, 1525-1540. [link]
Wardle, S.G. & Gillam, B.J. (2013) Phantom surfaces in da Vinci stereopsis. Journal of Vision, 13(2):16, 1-14. [link]
Wardle, S.G. & Alais, D. (2013) Evidence for speed sensitivity to motion in depth from binocular cues. Journal of Vision, 13(1):17, 1-16. [link]
Wardle, S.G., Bex, P.J., Cass, J., & Alais, D. (2012) Stereoacuity in the periphery is limited by internal noise. Journal of Vision, 12(6):12, 1-12. [link]
Wardle, S.G., Cass, J., Brooks, K.R., & Alais, D. (2010) Breaking camouflage: Binocular disparity reduces contrast masking in natural images. Journal of Vision, 10(14):38, 1-12. [link]
visual illusions, expertise & learning
Carrigan, A., Wardle, S. G., & Rich, A. (2019) Do target detection and target localization always go together? Extracting information from briefly presented displays. Attention, Perception, & Psychophysics, 1-15. [link]
Carrigan, A., Wardle, S. G., & Rich, A. (2018). Finding cancer in mammograms: if you know it’s there, do you know where? Cognitive Research: Principles and Implications, 3:10, 1-14. [link]
Wardle, S.G. & Carlson, T.A. (2015) Zen mountains: An illusion of perceptual transparency. i-Perception, 6(2), 108-110. [link]
Gillam, B.J., Wardle, S.G., & Vecellio, E. (2014) Orientation contrast and entropy contrast in the genesis of subjective contours along thin lines. Perception, 43(1), 7-22. [link]
Gillam, B.J. & Wardle, S.G. (2013) A mid-level explanation for the venetian blind effect. Frontiers in Psychology, 4:908. [link]
Mitchell, C. J., Wardle, S.G., Lovibond, P.F., Weidemann, G., & Chang, B.P.I. (2010) Do reaction times in the Perruchet effect reflect variations in the strength of an associative link? Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory & Cognition, 36, 567-572. [link]