Team

Research Team Members & Research Students

Grace Erieau

Research Assistant, 2025-2026

Grace is a Research Assistant involved in the research project looking at Mapping Development from infancy into childhood. She has completing her Bachelor degree in Psychology.

Lara D'Orria

Research Assistant, 2026-2026

Lara is a Research Assistant working involved in the research project looking at Mapping Development from infancy into childhood. She has completed her Bachelor of Psychological Science with First Class Honours.

Matija Hripac

Research Assistant, 2026-2026

Master of Research Candidate, 2026

In 2025, Matija completed his Honours in Psychology where he achieved first class honours. In 2025, Matija was involved in Doyle Lab as a Lifespan Health and Wellbeing Research Centre Intern. In 2026, Matija is a Research Assistant involved in advancing multiple research projects focussed on child development. Matija commenced his Master of Research in 2026 in the lab. His research aims to further understand the mechanisms involved in the development of childhood mental health disorders, such as behavioural problems and callous unemotional traits.

Sabrina Adamec

PhD Candidate

PhD topic: Advancing Knowledge of Mothers’ Emotional Reactivity

Sabrina is a registered psychologist and clinical psychology registrar. She completed her Master of Clinical Psychology at Western Sydney University. Sabrina commenced her PhD in 2025. Her research aims to understand how maternal emotional arousal may change or stabilise as children age from infancy to early childhood. Additionally, her research aims to understand the impacts of early maternal arousal on childhood emotional and behavioural outcomes.

Rebecca Dooley

PhD Candidate

PhD topic: Understanding Mother-Infant Bonding

Rebecca is a clinical psychologist. She completed her Master of Clinical Psychology at the University of Technology Sydney. Rebecca commenced her PhD in 2026. Her research aims to further understand mother-infant bonding, including how to help mothers who struggle with bonding with their infant during pregnancy.

Current Master of Clinical Psychology Research Project and Psychology Honours Students

2026: Sally Wong, Master of Clinical Psychology research project
2026: Lisa Bendixen, Master of Clinical Psychology research project
2026: Kyrisma Nicholls, Master of Clinical Psychology research project
2026: Amar (Lune) Al Halasah, Honours in Psychology

Other Supported Students

PhD Co-Supervision

2023-2027: Patrick Adam, Combined Doctor of Philosophy/ Master of Clinical Psychology candidate, Western Sydney University.
- PhD topic: Childhood Socio-emotional Development: Conceptualisation, Competency and Outcomes for Development and Psychopathology
2025 to 2030: Daniel Einfeld, PhD candidate, Macquarie University.
- PhD topic: In Loco Parentis: A Creative Practice PhD on the Primary Prevention of Parental Psychological Maltreatment & Emotional Neglect

Research Completions

Master of Clinical Psychology

Chloe Goldsmith (2025). Research Project: "Looking for Threat: Examining Whether Infant Attention Bias and Temperament Are Longitudinally Associated with Childhood Anxiety".
Laura Marks (2025). Research Project: "Infant Joint Attention and Later Autism Risk: A Longitudinal Eye-Tracking Study".
Kelly Kinsella (2024). Thesis: "Examining Transition Outcomes for Adolescents and Young Adults with Eating Disorders".
Samuel Rittenbaum (2024). Thesis: "The Interaction of Age, Transition Readiness, Self-Efficacy, and Psychological Distress in Adolescents and Young Adults with ADHD on Treatment Adherence".
Maddison Marsh (2023). Thesis: "The Effect of Self-Efficacy, Health-Related Quality of Life, and Psychological Distress on Transition Readiness in Adolescents and Young Adults with Chronic Health Conditions".
Cassandra Kwok (2023). Thesis: "The Impact of Perceived Self-Efficacy on Healthcare Transition Outcomes: Perceptions from Parents and Adolescents".
Jolene Haines (2023). Thesis: "Psychometric Properties of the On Your Own Feet Self-Efficacy Scales in Adolescents and Young Adults with Chronic Health Conditions".
Ziting Gao (2023). Thesis: "Examining the Role of Maternal Anxiety and Infant Age in Patterns of Dyadic Arousal and Behavioural Synchrony".
Mahida Choudhury (2023). Thesis: "The Influence of Maternal Depression and Negative Infant Temperament on Maternal and Infant Social Positive Engagement During the Still-Face Procedure".
Allira Bell (2023). Thesis: "Tempering Temperament: Exploring the Influence of Maternal Mind-Mindedness on Infant Temperament in Shaping Socioemotional Development".
Samudra Radhakrishnan (2023). Thesis: "Examining Predictors of Positive Infant Social and Emotional Development Using the Face-to-Face Still-Face Paradigm".
Lisamarie Mason (2022). Thesis: "Assessing the Role of Negative Affect and Maternal Anxiety on Infants’ Attention Bias to Threat".
Shriya Mathur (2020). Thesis: "When is the Still Face not the Still Face: Validity of Mothers’ Behaviour in the Still Face Procedure".

Bachelor of Psychology (Honours)

Lara D’Orria (2025). Thesis: "Examining the Relationship Between Infants’ Affect Biased Attention with Infant Temperamental Negative Affect and Maternal Anxiety".
Lachlan Burke (2025). Thesis: "How is Anxiety Transmitted Across Generations: Investigating the Role of Affect Biased Attention, Maternal Anxiety Symptoms, and Infant Temperament".
Shayan Dehghan (2025). Thesis: "Does Mind-Mindedness Matter? Examining Whether Maternal Mind-Mindedness and Maternal Distress Influence Children’s Behavioural Symptoms and Diagnoses"
Yasmin Ghazzawi (2024). Thesis: "Health Providers’ Perceived Barriers and Facilitators to the Implementation of the Home, Education/Employment, Eating, Activities, Drugs, Sexuality, Suicidal Ideation and Safety (HEEADSSS) Assessment".
Mitchell Armstrong (2023). Thesis: "Longitudinal associations in tone and word learning in mono-lingual children".
Maria Manevska (2023). Thesis: "Environmental Adversity and Sympathetic Arousal in Infancy: Changes Across the First Year of Life".
Melanie Stephens (2023). Thesis: "Investigating Mother-Infant Physiological Synchrony during the Still-Face Procedure at 6-, 9-, 12-months-old".
Eman Sayed (2023). Thesis: "Assessing views of parents in rural Coffs Harbour about service needs". Awarded the Mind Connection Prize for Clinical Psychology, ‘Supporting Growing Minds’ theme.
Ajla Becirovic (2022). Thesis: "Examining Initiating Joint Attention in Infancy Using Eye-Tracking Technology".
Shani-Lee Bolt (2022). Thesis: "Investigating the Role of Temperamental Surgency on Infant’s Attention Biases".
Patricia Kay (2022). Thesis: "Use of Multimodal Cues in the Initiation of Joint Attention Among Culturally Diverse Mother-Toddler Dyads".
Elizabeth Innes (2022). Thesis: "Open Ended Language’s Impact on Language Acquisition in A Low Socio-Economic, Culturally Diverse Sample".
Olivia Brown (2016). Thesis: "Social Media Use in Young People: Elucidating Potentially Problematic Outcomes".
Johanna Long (2016). Thesis: "Factors Associated with Anxiety Symptoms in Children with Hearing Loss".