Dr. Richard LeGrand
BA (Hons) (McGill), PhD (McMaster)
Courses taught
- PSYC 1100 - Introduction to Psychology: Basic Processes
- PSYC 1200 - Introduction to Psychology: Areas and Applications
- PSYC 2300 - Applied Statistics
- PSYC 2375 - Perception
- PSYC 2385 - Cognition
- PSYC 2400 - Research Methodology
- PSYC 3215 - Memory
- PSYC 4900 - Special Topics: The Psychology of Face Perception
Areas of Interest
I am interested in studying the cognitive and brain mechanisms that underlie various aspects of face processing such as detecting that a stimulus is a face, knowing who a person is (facial identity) and what mood they are in (facial expression). To do so, I study the emergence of face processing skills during infancy, their maturation during childhood, and expert face processing in adulthood. I also study various patient populations who have severe deficits processing faces including such as patients with prosopagnosia (difficulty recognizing faces following brain injury), autism spectrum disorder, and recovery from congenital cataract. I study face processing skills using both behavioural and neurophysiological measures. Recently I have begun using event-related potentials to examine the temporal dynamics of face perception (in particular the N170 and N250 components).
**I am available for supervising honour students.**
Scholarly Work
- Tanaka, J.T., Kaiser, M., Butler, S. & Le Grand, R. (2012). Mixed Emotions: Holistic and analytic perception of facial expressions. Cognition and Emotion.
- Mondloch, C.J., Le Grand, R., & Maurer, D. (2010). Development of expertise in face recognition. ; In: Perceptual expertise: Bridging brain and behaviour. Gauthier, Isabel (Ed.); Tarr, Michael J. (Ed.); Bub, Daniel (Ed.); New York, NY, US: Oxford University Press, 2010. pp. 67-106.
- Le Grand, R., Mondloch, C.J., Maurer, D., & Brent, H. (2004). Impairment in holistic face processing following early visual deprivation. Psychological Science, 15, 762-768.
- Le Grand, R., Mondloch, C.J., Maurer, D., & Brent, H. (2003). Expert face processing requires visual input to the right hemisphere during infancy. Nature Neuroscience, 10, 1108-1112.
- Mondloch, C.J., Geldart, S., Maurer, D. & Le Grand, R. (2003). Developmental changes in face processing skills. Journal of Experimental Child Psychology, 86: 67-84.
- Maurer, D., Le Grand, R., & Mondloch, C.J. (2002). The many faces of configural processing. Trends in Cognitive Sciences, 6: 255-260.
- Le Grand, R., Mondloch, C.J., Maurer, D., & Brent, H. (2001). Early visual experience and face processing. Nature, 410: 890.