Professor Andrew J. Bremner DPhil

Professor Andrew J. Bremner

School of Psychology
Professor of Developmental Psychology
Head of Education

Contact details

Address
School of Psychology
University of Birmingham
Edgbaston
Birmingham
B15 2TT
UK

Professor Andy Bremner is a developmental psychologist with expertise in multisensory perceptual development and the development of touch perception. He has particularly focused on examining how infants come to perceive their own bodies and their relation to the external world around them.

Qualifications

  • BA (Hons.) Experimental Psychology, Keble College, University of Oxford
  • DPhil Experimental Psychology, Christ Church, University of Oxford

Biography

Andy Bremner took his BA in Experimental Psychology at the University of Oxford where he then went on to research for a DPhil with Prof. Peter Bryant, FRS. Andy worked on two postdoctoral appointments, firstly with Prof. Denis Mareschal at the Centre for Brain and Cognitive Development, Birkbeck, University of London, and later with Prof. Axel Cleeremans at the Universite Libre de Bruxelles. In 2005 Andy took up an academic post at Goldsmiths, University of London where he was latterly Professor and Head of Psychology. In 2018, Andy moved to the School of Psychology, University of Birmingham where he is using a range of behavioural and physiological methods to investigate the developmental origins of perceptual, sensorimotor and cognitive abilities in infants and children. A particular focus of Andy’s research is the development of multisensory processes, particularly those underlying body representations. From 2009-2015, Andy’s research was funded by the European Research Council grant, “Human Embodied Multisensory Development”. In 2012 Andy co-edited the book Multisensory Development (Oxford University Press) with Profs. David Lewkowicz and Charles Spence.

Teaching

Professor Bremner teaches a final year BSc Psychology module: Social cognitive development in infancy and early childhood.

Postgraduate supervision

Professor Bremner supervises PhD students interested in perceptual, sensorimotor and cognitive development, with particular emphasis on the following areas:

  • The development of body perception in infancy and childhood
  • Sensorimotor development in infancy
  • Multisensory development in infancy and childhood
  • The development of touch perception in infancy and childhood
  • The development of object perception and spatial representation in infancy
  • Crosscultural differences in perception
  • The development of visual and multisensory illusions

Research

Research Interests: 

The development of multisensory perception, object knowledge, spatial representation, body representation, in infancy and early childhood.

Other activities

Prizes, awards and honorary roles

2013                      The Margaret Donaldson Early Career Prize for an outstanding contribution to developmental psychology. Awarded annually by the Developmental Psychology Section of the British Psychological Society

2009                      European Research Council Starting Independent Researcher Award “Human Embodied Multisensory Development” (1.2m€).

2005 – date        Honorary Research Fellow of the Centre for Brain and Cognitive Development, Birkbeck, University of London

2003                      ESRC Postdoctoral Fellowship Award

 

Editorial work

2016 – 2018        Editorial Board Member of Goldsmiths Press

2016 – date        Editorial Board Member of the British Journal of Developmental Psychology

2016 – date        Editor (with Robin Banerjee) of Infant and Child Development

2008 – 2016        Associate Editor of the British Journal of Developmental Psychology

 

External examining

2016 – date        External Examinerfor MSc in Child Development and Education, Department of Education, University of Oxford

2013 – date        External Assessor for Psychology programmes, City University, Hong Kong

2013 – date        External Examiner for the BSc (Hons.) Psychology, Queens University, Belfast

2010 – date         External Examiner for the MSc Developmental Cognitive Neuroscience, Durham University

Publications

Recent publications

Article

Yang, J, Kanazawa, S, Yamaguchi, MK, Bhattacharya, J & Bremner, A 2023, 'Cortical signatures of visual body representation develop in human infancy', Scientific Reports, vol. 13, no. 1, 14696. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-023-41604-5

Orioli, G, Parisi, I, van Velzen, JL & Bremner, AJ 2023, 'Visual objects approaching the body modulate subsequent somatosensory processing at 4 months of age', Scientific Reports, vol. 13, no. 1, 19300. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-023-45897-4

Cowie, D, Gottwald, JM, Bird, LA & Bremner, AJ 2022, 'The role of hand size in body representation: a developmental investigation', Scientific Reports, vol. 12, no. 1, 19281. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-022-23716-6

Pedale, T, Mastroberardino, S, Capurso, M, Bremner, AJ, Spence, C & Santangelo, V 2021, 'Crossmodal spatial distraction across the lifespan', Cognition, vol. 210, 104617. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cognition.2021.104617

Gori, M, Campus, C, Signorini, S, Rivara, E & Bremner, A 2021, 'Multisensory spatial perception in visually impaired infants', Current Biology, vol. 31, no. 22, pp. 5093-5101. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cub.2021.09.011

Gottwald, JM, Bird, L-A, Keenaghan, S, Diamond, C, Zampieri, E, Tosodduk, H, Bremner, AJ & Cowie, D 2021, 'The Developing Bodily Self: How Posture Constrains Body Representation in Childhood', Child Development, vol. 92, no. 1, pp. 351-366. https://doi.org/10.1111/cdev.13425

Knight, FLC, Bremner, AJ & Cowie, D 2020, 'Does the language we use to segment the body, shape the way we perceive it? A study of tactile perceptual distortions', Cognition, vol. 197, 104127. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cognition.2019.104127

Begum Ali, J, Thomas, RL, Mullen Raymond, S & Bremner, AJ 2020, 'Sensitivity to Visual-Tactile Colocation on the Body Prior to Skilled Reaching in Early Infancy', Child Development. https://doi.org/10.1111/cdev.13428

Bremner, AJ 2020, 'The Development of Touch Perception and Body Representation', Cambridge Handbook of Infant Development: Brain, Behavior, and Cultural Context.

Rigato, S, Banissy, MJ, Romanska, A, Thomas, R, van Velzen, J & Bremner, AJ 2019, 'Cortical signatures of vicarious tactile experience in four-month-old infants', Developmental Cognitive Neuroscience, vol. 35, pp. 75-80. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.dcn.2017.09.003

Rigato, S, Bremner, A, Gillmeister, H & Banissy, MJ 2019, 'Interpersonal representations of touch in somatosensory cortex are modulated by perspective', Biological Psychology, vol. 146, 107719. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.biopsycho.2019.107719

Chapter

Bremner, AJ 2022, Developmental origins of bodily awareness. in AJT Alsmith & MR Longo (eds), The Routledge Handbook of Bodily Awareness. 1st edn, Routledge Handbooks in Philosophy, Routledge, London, pp. 279-297. https://doi.org/10.4324/9780429321542-25

Abstract

Orioli, G, Parisi, I, Van Velzen, J & Bremner, A 2021, 'Visual-tactile expectations and peripersonal space representations in infancy', Cognitive Processing, vol. 22, no. Suppl 1, pp. S27-S27. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10339-021-01058-x

Comment/debate

Yang, J, Ganea, N, Kanazawa, S, Yamaguchi, MK, Bhattacharya, J & Bremner, AJ 2023, 'Author Correction: Cortical signatures of visual body representation develop in human infancy', Scientific Reports, vol. 13, no. 1, 19205. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-023-46310-w

Letter

Taylor, H & Bremner, A 2024, 'Cluster Kinds and the Developmental Origins of Consciousness', Trends in Cognitive Sciences. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tics.2024.01.007

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