Michelle To

Dr. Michelle To is a Senior Lecturer in the Department of Psychology at Lancaster University's Fylde College. With a strong background in experimental psychology, her academic journey includes a PhD and MPhil from the University of Cambridge, along with dual BSc degrees in Psychology (First Class Honours) and Physiology and Mathematics from McGill University.

Dr. To's research focuses on how the sensory system processes complex natural stimuli including photographs, movies, music, and language. Her primary interests encompass natural stimuli perception, feature integration, cross-modal integration, and visual perception in the far and extreme periphery. Her recent work has extensively examined infant visual perception, particularly how infants process visual information at the edges of their visual fields and how they integrate sensory information during early development.

Analysis of Dr. To's 15 most recent publications reveals a clear trajectory from fundamental visual perception research toward developmental applications, particularly in infant vision. Her early work established computational models of visual processing, while her more recent publications apply these principles to understand developmental visual capabilities. The research demonstrates consistent methodological rigor, often combining computational modeling with empirical testing using natural stimuli.

Dr. To actively contributes to academic training through courses including PSYC214: Statistics, PSYC377: Psychology of Art, and PSYC401: Analysing and Interpreting Psychological Data I, demonstrating her commitment to statistical and methodological education in psychology.

Her current research projects include the BabyMotion project (2025-2027) investigating how infants develop the ability to perceive human motion, a project on modeling stress effects on visual perception (2018), and previous involvement in the RCUK-SUP initiative (2013-2016) focused on inspiring the next generation of researchers.

Dr. To supervises postgraduate research students and employs advanced methodologies including eye-tracking and functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) to investigate the neural basis of visual perception and its development.