Ashley Symons

Ashley Symons is a Postdoctoral Researcher at Birkbeck, University of London, affiliated with the Department of Psychological Sciences and the Auditory, Language, Perception, Hearing and Attention Lab. Her work focuses on auditory perception, exploring how language experience and musical training shape auditory processing. She investigates targeted training to alleviate language learning challenges.

Education:

• PhD Psychology, University of Manchester (2014-2017)
• MSc Cognitive Neuroscience, University of York (2013-2014)
• BA Psychology, University of California Davis (2011-2013)

Research Interests: Individual differences in speech/sound perception, cross-modal recognition (e.g., faces vs. voices), and the impact of sensory experience on auditory systems. Recent work emphasizes training interventions for language learning difficulties.

Publications & Grants: Over 15 peer-reviewed articles, including studies on musical training’s effects on pitch perception and vocal identity recognition. Notable grants include the Research Innovation Fund (2022-2023) and the Reg & Molly Buck Award (2020-2021).

Labs & Collaborations: Active in the Auditory, Language, Perception, Hearing and Attention Lab, focusing on neural mechanisms of auditory processing and cross-modal perception.