5XÉçÇøÊÓƵ

Research Team

Professor Anna Franklin, Baby Lab Leader

Professor Anna Franklin leads the Sussex Colour Group and co-leads the Sussex Baby Lab. She joined Sussex in 2011 following a visiting scholarship at the 5XÉçÇøÊÓƵ of California, Berkeley, and a faculty position at the 5XÉçÇøÊÓƵ of Surrey. She has conducted research on colour for the last 25 years, leading projects that ask questions about how we see and think about colour across development as well as in adulthood. She was a recipient of an ERC Starting Grant (Project CATEGORIES) and an ERC Proof of Concept Grant (Project COLOURTEST) and is currently leading an ERC Consolidator Grant (Project COLOURMIND). She regularly consults for industry and has led commercially funded projects which apply the science of colour and perceptual development to product design. For more about Anna see

Dr Alice Skelton, Baby Lab Leader

Dr Alice Skelton co-leads The Sussex Baby Lab and lead the Nature and Development Lab and is an Assistant Professor in Developmental Psychology. Previously her work has focused on how our visual systems 'tune in' to our environments, and how visual perception, especially colour, develops in the first year of life. Alice's current research aims to understand on how time spent with properties of nature and in nature environments impacts the perceptual and cognitive development of infants and children, with a particular focus on vision. You can see more about her work and .

Kath Symons, Doctoral Researcher

Kath is an doctoral researcher and visual artist affiliated with the Sussex Baby Lab and the Nature and Development Lab. She completed her BA in Fine Art at the Durban 5XÉçÇøÊÓƵ of Technology in South Africa and later pursued Psychology at Birkbeck, 5XÉçÇøÊÓƵ of London. She went on to earn an MSc in Psychology of the Arts, Neuroaesthetics, and Creativity at Goldsmiths (UoL). Before joining the Sussex Baby Lab, she worked as a researcher at the 5XÉçÇøÊÓƵ of Cambridge. Her PhD focuses on developmental aesthetics and infant visual perception, specifically examining early sensory biases towards computational image statistics found in nature, art, and patterns.

Taysa-Ja Newman, Doctoral Researcher

Taysa first joined the lab in 2022 as a research assistant where she investigated infant visual preferences in regards to natural scenes. She is now a doctoral researcher in the Nature and Development Lab after completing her undergraduate degree at the 5XÉçÇøÊÓƵ. Previously exploring how infants engage with baby board books using eye-tracking, she is currently researching the effects nature may have on infants’ stress, cognition, and development.

Deborah Antwi, Research Assistant

Deborah is working as a research assistant in the Baby Lab, assisting with data collection and recruitment. 

Macy Pike, Research Assistant

Macy is working as a research assistant in the Baby Lab, assisting with data collection and recruitment.