Sven Mattys
Professor
Profile
Biography
- State University of New York at Stony Brook, PhD in Psychology, 1997
- Université Libre de Bruxelles, BA in Psychology, 1993
Career
After graduating from the Université Libre de Bruxelles in 1993, I moved to the USA to carry out my PhD studies at the State University of New York at Stony Brook (1997). I remained in America as a postdoctoral researcher at the Johns Hopkins University (1997-1999) and then at the House Ear Institute in Los Angeles (1999-2000), before moving to the University of Bristol in 2001. I joined the University of York in 2012.
Departmental roles
- Research committee member
- Ethics Committee member
Research
Overview
I am a cognitive psycholinguist specialising in speech perception and spoken-language processing under natural listening conditions. My research examines how auditory signal quality interacts with cognitive resources and linguistic knowledge, with particular emphasis on listening effort, attention, speech-on-speech perception, and native versus non-native listening. I integrate behavioural, physiological, and metacognitive approaches to understand individual differences in speech recognition and the mechanisms supporting successful spoken communication.
Grants
- ESRC: 2023-2026
- ESRC: "Split listening: A cognitive investigation of speech perception in adverse conditions", with co-PIs Sarah Knight and Ronan McGarrigle, 2023-2025
- The Leverhulme Trust: "Cognitive listening: Speech perception in noise within a cognitive framework", 2019-2023
Supervision
- Emily Shepherdson (PhD)
- Effah Morad (PhD)
Teaching
Undergraduate
- Hearing (Year 1)
- Language development (Year 1)
- Language development practical (Year 1)
Postgraduate
- Empirical project
External activities
Memberships
- Psychonomics Society
- Experimental Psychology Society
Editorial duties
- Action editor: Journal of Acoustical Society of America
- Consulting editor: Journal of Memory and Language, Journal of Experimental Psychology: LMC, Attention, Perception & Psychophysics, Applied Psycholinguistics.
- Grant assessment panel member: ESRC, UKRI, European Science Foundation, Flanders Research Foundation
