About Mairead

I was awarded a first-class honours undergraduate degree in Psychology in 2017 from the University of Maynooth, Ireland.  My general research interests are in the area of cognitive neuroscience. Specifically, I am interested in language learning and how the human brain produce and perceive sounds. My undergraduate thesis, under the supervision of Dr. Richard Roche, utilized auditory and visual disinhibition tasks in adults musicians to improve pitch perception, by reopening critical-period-like learning.  I presented this research at the European Federation of Psychology Students Association Conference (2017), Northern Ireland British Psychological Society’s Annual Conference (2017) and at the Annual Psychological Society of Ireland Student Congress (2017).

Prior to joining the Whelan Lab, I have previously completed a research internship at the National Centre for Biomedical Engineering Science (NUIG) under the supervision of Dr Sarah Knight, and worked as a research assistant at the Department of Psychology (DCU) under the supervision of Dr. Loraine Boran and Dr. Richard Roche. The latter project, explored the role of executive function in dyslexia, ADHD and co-occurring dyslexia-ADHD and the utility of executive function training interventions for dyslexia.