Biography

Reader in Psychology, School of Psychology, University of Sussex, 2011-present

Visiting Scholar, University of California, Berkeley, 2010-2011

Lecturer to Reader, University of Surrey, 2005-2011

Research Fellow, University of Surrey, 2003-2005

PhD, University of Surrey, 2000-2003

Psychology, BSc (Hons), First Class, University of Nottingham, 1997-2000

Role

Reader in Psychology

Other Roles

Associate Editor, Infant and Child Development

Teaching: Cognitive Psychology UG year 1; Developmental Psychology UG year 2; Developmental Psychology Masters Conversion Course; Academic Advisor; Final Year Project Supervisor

My research aims to:

1. Understand how we perceive and process colour
2. Establish how colour perception and cognition develops
3. Use colour as a testing ground for broader theoretical debates, such as how language and thought interact

I conduct experiments with participants from across the lifespan (infancy to adulthood), and use a range of methods such as eye-tracking, psychophysics, colour science and the event-related potential approach. 

So far, I have led research projects on: the development of colour categorisation; the impact of colour term acquisition on colour perception; the origins of colour preference; and chromatic discrimination in children with Autism Spectrum Conditions (ASC).  This research attempts to address fundamental issues in cognitive and developmental science.  For example, my research on the development of colour categorisation addresses broader questions such as: how and when do categories form?; what is the relationship between categories in language and thought?; how are categories expressed in the brain?  I have provided converging evidence that infants categorise colour, and this has contributed to a long-standing multi-disciplinary debate on whether the division of the colour spectrum into discrete categories (e.g., red, green, blue) in both language and thought is arbitrary, or whether there are constraints on how and where categories form in the colour spectrum. 

I lead the Sussex Colour Group: http://www.sussex.ac.uk/psychology/colour/index, and the Sussex Baby Lab: http://www.sussex.ac.uk/babylab

Grants, Consultancies and Awards

• £127,936, co-investigator with Amanda Ludlow (PI), Arnold Wilkins, Peter Allen, Stacey Coulter, David Simmons, Action Medical Research. 'Diagnosis and treatment of visual and visuoperceptual anomolies in Autism Spectrum Conditions, 2013-2016
• €1.48 million, PI, European Research Council, Starting Grant Award. 'The Origin and Impact of Colour Categories in Language and Thought' (project CATEGORIES), 2012-2017
• Researcher of the Year, Faculty of Arts and Human Sciences, University Surrey, 2010
• £7,000, King Saud University.  ‘Ecological Valence and Colour Preference’, with Abdul Al-Rasheed, 2010
• ESRC, PhD studentship, £53,210 ‘The Effect of Language on Pre-Attentive Colour Perception’, primary supervisor for student James Alvarez, 2009-2012 
• £1,440, PI, Nuffield Foundation Science Bursary. ‘The Effect of Context on Biological Components of Infant Colour Preference’, URB/38024, 2010
• £99,796, PI, Economic and Social Research Council Grant.
  Hemispheric Asymmetries in Categorical Perception of Orientation in Infants and Adults, RES-000-22-2861. With Dr. Di Catherwood (University of Gloucestershire), 2008-2009
• Centre for Learning Development, University of Surrey. Statistical analysis, 2008
• Dyrup Ltd. Consultancy on infant colour perception, 2007
• £9,877, Research and Enterprise Support Grant. Colour Perception in Children with Autism, 2006-2007
• Wish Films. Consultancy on attention in toddlers for development of a TV programme for toddlers, 2006
• £25,000, Joint Innovation Fund Grant. The Origin of Colour Categories.
  With Dr. Amanda Holmes (University of Roehampton) and Prof. Ian Davies (University of Surrey), 2005-2006
• £6,000, Research and Enterprise Support Grant. Infant Colour Preference, 2004-2005
• Economic Social Research Council Post-doctoral Fellowship, PTA-026-27-0110, 2003-2004
• Economic and Social Research Council PhD Studentship, R42200124191, 2001-2003

Invited Talks

• Kenneth Craik Club, Cambridge University, 2012
• Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience, University College London, 2011
• Laboratoire Psychologie de la Perception, Paris, 2011
• Cognitive Brown Bag Seminar Series, School of Psychology, University of Sussex, 2011
• Institute for Mathematical Behavioural Sciences, University of California, Irvine, 2011
• Ivry Lab, University of California, Berkeley, May 2011
• Department of Psychology, University of Nevada, April 2011
• Whitney-Silver-Palmer-Prinzmetal-Robertson mtg, University of California, Berkeley, 2011
• Department of Psychology, University of California, San Diego, 2011
• Center for the Explanation of Consciousness, Stanford University, 2011
• Institute of Cognitive and Brain Sciences, University of California, Berkeley, 2011
• Invited speaker, Optical Society of America Fall Vision Meeting, USA, 2010
• Centre for Brain and Cognitive Development, Birkbeck College, 2010
• Invited debate, Max Planck Institute for Psycholinguistics, Nijmegen 2010
• Vision@UCL, University College London, 2009
• Keynote Address, Iberian Conference of Perception, 2009
• Whitehead Lecture, Goldsmiths University, 2009 
• Language and Development Group, Oxford University, 2009
• Adult and Child Cognition Group, Royal Holloway, 2009
• Department of Psychology, Oxford Brookes University, 2008 
• Institute of Neuroscience, Newcastle University, 2008
• Health Sciences, University of Roehampton, 2008
• Psychology Department, University of Reading, 2007
• Psychology Department, University of Bangor, 2007
• Psychology Department, Lancaster University, 2006
• Childhood Research in Autism Cognition Group, University of Nottingham, 2006
• Centre for Childhood Development and Learning, The Open University, 2005
• Dannemiller Lab, Rice University, Houston, USA, 2004
• Centre for Brain and Cognitive Development, Birkbeck College, 2004
• Surrey Morphology Group, University of Surrey, 2004
• Developmental Psychology Group, University of Nottingham, 2003
• Surrey-Essex-Goldsmiths CogPop Group, University of Surrey, 2003
• Developmental Psychology Group, Oxford University, 2003

Media

BBC Radio 4, 'Technicolour: Colour Naming'; BBC World, 'The Why Factor: Blue'; BBC Horizon, 'Do you See What I See?'; National Public Radio (USA); The Naked Scientist, BBC 5 Live; Southern Counties Radio; Eagle Radio; Radio 6PR Perth (Australia); Beat Radio (Ireland); Mercury Radio; BBC News Online; Nature News; The Times: Junior Baby and Pregnancy Magazine; Surrey Advertiser

Past and Current PhD students

• Dr. Oliver Wright
• Dr. Gilda Vicky Drivonikou
• Dr. Alexandra Clifford
• Dr. Abdul Al-Rasheed
• Dr. Chloe Taylor
• Dr. James Alvarez
• John Maule
• Lewis Forder

Publications

Bannisy, M.J., Tester, V., Muggleton, N.G., Janik, A.B., Davenport, A., Franklin, A., Walsh, V. & Ward, J. (2013). Synesthesia for color is linked to improved color perception, but reduced motion perception. Psychological Science, in press.

Farran, E.K., Cranwell, M.K., Alvarez, J. & Franklin, A. (2013).  Colour discrimination and categorisation in Williams syndrome.  Research in Developmental Disabilities, in press.

Taylor, C., Schloss, K., Palmer, S. & Franklin, A. (2013).  Color preferences in infants and adults are different.  Psychonomic Bulletin and Review, in press.

Ludlow, A., Heaton, P., Hill, E. & Franklin, A. (2012). Colour obsessions and phobias in Autism Spectrum Disorders: the case of J.G. Neurocase, in press.

Taylor, C., Clifford, A. & Franklin, A. (2012).  Color preferences are not universal.  Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, in press.

Clifford, A., Franklin, A., Holmes, A., Drivonikou, G.V., Ozgen, E., & Davies, I.R.L. (2012). Neural correlates of acquired color category effects. Brain and Cognition, 80, 126-143.

Taylor, C. & Franklin, A. (2012).  The relationship between color-object associations and color preference: Further investigation of Ecological Valence Theory.  Psychonomic Bulletin and Review, 19, 190-197.

Franklin, A., Gibbons, E., Chittenden, K, Alvarez, J. & Taylor, C. (2012). Infant color preference for red is not selectively context specific.  Emotion, 12, 1155-1160.

Franklin, A. & Sowden, P. (2011). Colour in Autism Spectrum Disorders. In Biggam, Carole P., Hough, Carole, Kay, Christian & Simmons, David R.C. (Eds.), New Directions in Colour Studies. John Benjamins, Amsterdam, NL.

Drivonikou, G.V., Clifford, A., Franklin, A. & Davies, I.R.L. (2011). Category training affects colour discrimination but only in the right visual field. In Biggam et al. (Eds.), New Directions in Colour Studies. John Benjamins, Amsterdam, NL.

Clifford, A., Franklin, A., Holmes, A. & Davies, I.R.L. (2011). Investigating the underlying mechanisms of categorical perception of colour using the Event-Related Potential technique. In Biggam et al. (Eds.), New Directions in Colour Studies. John Benjamins, Amsterdam, NL.

Clifford, A., Holmes, A., Davies, I.R.L. & Franklin, A. (2010). Color categories affect pre-attentive color perception. Biological Psychology, 85, 275-282.

Franklin, A., Catherwood, D., Alvarez, J. & Axelsson, E. (2010). Hemispheric asymmetries in categorical perception of orientation in infants and adults. Neuropsychologia, 48, 2648-57. 

Franklin, A., Sowden, P., Notman, L., Gonzales-Dixon, M., West, D., Alexander, I., Loveday, S. & White, A. (2010). Reduced chromatic discrimination in children with Autism Spectrum Disorders. Developmental Science, 13, 188-200.

Franklin, A., Bevis, L., Ling, Y. & Hurlbert, A. (2010). Biological components of infant colour preference. Developmental Science, 13, 346-354.

Franklin, A. (2009). Pre-linguistic categorical perception of colour cannot be explained by colour preference: response to Roberson and Hanley. Trends in Cognitive Sciences, 13, 501-502.

Clifford, A., Franklin, A., Davies, I.R.L. & Holmes, A. (2009). Electrophysiological markers of color categories in the infant brain. Brain and Cognition, 71, 165-172.

Holmes, A., Franklin, A., Clifford, A. & Davies, I.R.L. (2009). Neuro-physiological evidence for categorical perception of colour: evidence from Event-Related Potentials on a visual oddball task. Brain and Cognition, 69, 426-434.

Franklin, A., Wright, O. & Davies, I.R.L. (2009). What can we learn from toddlers about categorical perception of colour? Journal of Experimental Child Psychology, 102, 239-245.

 Overview of Franklin, Drivonikou, Clifford et al. in ‘Editor’s Choice’ section of Science: Chin, G. (2009). ‘Reading from left to right.’ Science, 322, 1610.

 Franklin, A., Drivonikou, G.V., Clifford, A., Kay, P., Regier, T. & Davies, I.R.L. (2008). Lateralization of categorical perception of color changes with color term acquisition. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, USA, 47, 18221-18225. 

Franklin, A., Sowden, P., Burley, R., Notman, L. & Alder, E. (2008). Colour perception in children with autism. Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders, 38, 1837-47.

Franklin, A., Pitchford, N.J.P., Mahony, L., Davies, I.R.L., Clausse, S. & Jennings, S. (2008). Salience of primary and secondary colours in infancy. British Journal of Developmental Psychology, 26, 471-483.

Franklin, A., Drivonikou, G.V., Bevis, L., Davies, I.R.L., Kay, P. & Regier, T. (2008). Categorical perception of color is lateralized to the right hemisphere in infants, but to the left hemisphere in adults. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, USA, 105, 3221-3225.

Drivonikou, G.V., Kay, P., Regier, T., Ivry, R., Gilbert, A., Franklin, A. & Davies, I.R.L. (2007). Further evidence of Whorfian effects to the right visual field. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, USA, 104, 1097-1102.

Franklin, A., & Davies, I.R.L. (2006). Converging evidence for pre-linguistic colour categorisation. In C.P Biggam & N. Pitchford (Eds.), Progress in Colour Studies: Psychological Aspects (pp. 101-120). John Benjamins: Amsterdam, NL.

Franklin, A., (2006). Constraints on children’s colour term acquisition. Journal of Experimental Child Psychology, 94, 322-327.

Daoutis, C., Franklin, A., Riddett, A., Clifford, C. & Davies, I.R.L. (2005). Categorical effects in children’s colour search: a cross-linguistic comparison. British Journal of Developmental Psychology, 23, 1-29.

Franklin, A., Pilling, M. & Davies, I.R.L. (2005). The nature of infant colour categorisation: Evidence from eye-movements on a target detection task. Journal of Experimental Child Psychology, 91, 227-248.

Franklin, A., Clifford, A., Williamson, E. & Davies, I.R.L. (2005). Colour term knowledge does not affect categorical perception of colour in toddlers. Journal of Experimental Child Psychology, 90, 114-141.

Franklin, A. & Davies, I.R.L. (2004). New evidence for infant colour categories. British Journal of Developmental Psychology, 22, 349-377.

Davies, I.R.L. & Franklin, A. (2002). Categorical similarity may affect colour pop-out in infants after-all. British Journal of Developmental Psychology, 20, 185-203.

9.30-10.30 Mondays; 9.00-10.00 Wednesdays