David McGovern

Dr

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Dr. David McGovern (BA Hons., MSc, PhD) is an Assistant Professor in the School of Psychology, Dublin City University. He completed his Bachelor of Arts and Masters degree in Cognitive Science in University College Dublin, before moving to the University of Nottingham to complete a PhD in Visual Neuroscience under the supervision of Dr. Jon Peirce. Following this, he gained a wide range of postdoctoral experience in the fields of sensory neuroscience and perceptual decision making in the University of Nottingham and Trinity College Dublin before taking up his current role in the School of Psychology. 

David teaches a number of modules including Cognition, Perception and Behavioural Neuroscience Methods across four programmes in the School of Psychology including the BSc. in Psychology, MSc. (Conversion) in Psychology, BSc. in Psychology and Mathematics and BSc. in Psychology and Disruptive Technologies. The latter of these two programmes are part of the DCU Futures initiative. 

Peer Reviewed Journal

Year Publication
2024 Brady, Nuala; Gough, Patricia; Leonard, Sophie; Allan, Paul; McManus, Caoimhe; Foley, Tomas; O'Leary, Aoife; McGovern, David P. (2024) 'Actions are characterized by ‘canonical moments’ in a sequence of movements'. Cognition, . [DOI]
2023 Quinn, Michael; Hirst, Rebecca J.; McGovern, David P. (2023) 'Distinct profiles of multisensory processing between professional goalkeepers and outfield football players'. Current Biology, . [DOI]
2022 McGovern, D.P.; Burns, S.; Hirst, R.J.; Newell, F.N. (2022) 'Perceptual training narrows the temporal binding window of audiovisual integration in both younger and older adults'. Neuropsychologia, 173 . [Link] [DOI]
2022 Gavin, Niall; Hirst, Rebecca J.; McGovern, David P. (2022) 'The magnitude of the sound-induced flash illusion does not increase monotonically as a function of visual stimulus eccentricity'. ATTENTION PERCEPTION & PSYCHOPHYSICS, 84 (5). [DOI]
2021 Moran, Catherine N.; McGovern, David P.; Warren, Greta; Gralaigh, Ronan O.; Kenney, Joanne P. M.; Smeaton, Alan; Dockree, Paul M. (2021) 'Young and Restless, Old and Focused: Age-Differences in Mind-Wandering Frequency and Phenomenology'. Psychology and Aging, 36 (2). [DOI]
2019 O'Dowd, A.; Cooney, S.M.; McGovern, D.P.; Newell, F.N. (2019) 'Do synaesthesia and mental imagery tap into similar cross-modal processes?'. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences, 374 . [Link] [DOI]
2018 McGovern, DP; Hayes, A; Kelly, SP; O'Connell, RG (2018) 'Reconciling age-related changes in behavioural and neural indices of human perceptual decision-making'. Nature Human Behaviour, 2 (12). [DOI]
2018 Dully J; McGovern DP; O'Connell RG; (2018) 'The impact of natural aging on computational and neural indices of perceptual decision making: A review'. BEHAVIOURAL BRAIN RESEARCH, 355 . [DOI]
2018 Walsh KS; McGovern DP; (2018) 'Expectation Suppression Dampens Sensory Representations of Predicted Stimuli'. Journal of Neuroscience, 38 (50). [DOI]
2017 McGovern DP; Walsh KS; Bell J; Newell FN; (2017) 'Individual differences in context-dependent effects reveal common mechanisms underlying the direction aftereffect and direction repulsion'. Vision Research, 141 . [DOI]
2016 McGovern DP; Astle AT; Clavin SL; Newell FN; (2016) 'Task-specific transfer of perceptual learning across sensory modalities'. Current Biology : Cb, 26 (1). [DOI]
2016 McGovern DP; Roudaia E; Newell FN; Roach NW; (2016) 'Perceptual learning shapes multisensory causal inference via two distinct mechanisms'. Scientific Reports, 6 . [DOI]
2014 Astle AT; McGovern DP; McGraw PV; (2014) 'Characterizing the role of disparity information in alleviating visual crowding'. Journal of Vision, 14 (6). [DOI]
2014 Bell J; Sampasivam S; McGovern DP; Meso AI; Kingdom FA; (2014) 'Contour inflections are adaptable features'. Journal of Vision, 14 (7). [DOI]
2014 McGovern DP; Roudaia E; Stapleton J; McGinnity TM; Newell FN; (2014) 'The sound-induced flash illusion reveals dissociable age-related effects in multisensory integration'. Frontiers in Aging Neuroscience, 6 . [DOI]
2014 McGovern DP; Roach NW; Webb BS; (2014) 'Characterizing the effects of multidirectional motion adaptation'. Journal of Vision, 14 (13). [DOI]
2012 McGovern DP; Webb BS; Peirce JW; (2012) 'Transfer of perceptual learning between different visual tasks'. Journal of Vision, 12 (11). [DOI]
2012 McGovern DP; Roach NW; Webb BS; (2012) 'Perceptual learning reconfigures the effects of visual adaptation'. Journal of Neuroscience, 32 (39). [DOI]
2011 McGovern DP; Hancock S; Peirce JW; (2011) 'The timing of binding and segregation of two compound aftereffects'. Vision Research, 51 (9). [DOI]
2010 McGovern DP; Peirce JW; (2010) 'The spatial characteristics of plaid-form-selective mechanisms'. Vision Research, 50 (8). [DOI]
2010 Hancock S; McGovern DP; Peirce JW; (2010) 'Ameliorating the combinatorial explosion with spatial frequency-matched combinations of V1 outputs'. Journal of Vision, 10 (8). [DOI]

Other Publication

Year Publication
2023 Robinson, A.; Cooney, A.; Fassbender, C.; McGovern, D.P. (2023) Examining the Relationship Between HIV-Related Stigma and the Health and Wellbeing of Children and Adolescents Living with HIV: A Systematic Review. [Link] [DOI]
2020 Walsh, K.S.; McGovern, D.P.; Clark, A.; O'Connell, R.G. (2020) Evaluating the neurophysiological evidence for predictive processing as a model of perception. [Link] [DOI]
2020 Hirst, R.J.; McGovern, D.P.; Setti, A.; Shams, L.; Newell, F.N. (2020) What you see is what you hear: Twenty years of research using the Sound-Induced Flash Illusion. [Link] [DOI]
Certain data included herein are derived from the © Web of Science (2024) of Clarivate. All rights reserved.

Professional Associations

Association Function From / To
Vision Sciences Society Member -
Neuroscience Ireland Member -
Applied Vision Association Member -
Society for Physiological Research Member -

Honors and Awards

Date Title Awarding Body
01/01/2013 Government of Ireland Postdoctoral Fellowship Irish Research Council
01/01/2011 Brain Travel Scholarship Guarantors of Brain
01/01/2009 Universitas 21 Scholarship Universitas 21
01/01/2006 School of Psychology Research Scholarship The University of Nottingham

Research Interests

David’s research interests are primarily in the areas of sensory neuroscience and perceptual decision making. In particular, he is interested in how the brain combines information, both within and between the senses, and how this sensory information is used to form purposeful decisions. He is also interested in the development of perceptual training regimes to maintain and improve perceptual function in young and old populations. To address these questions, David uses a combination of psychophysics and electroencephalography (EEG). Where possible, the resulting data are verified through simulations derived from biologically plausible computational models.

Modules Coordinated

Term Title Subject
2022 Psychology Research Project PSYC510
2022 Perception PSYC109
2022 Cognition PSYC103
2022 Behavioural Neuroscience Laboratory Practice PSYC405
2022 Cognition PSYC501