G’day!

I am a Lecturer in the School of Psychology at the University of Adelaide, running the Perception, Attention, Learning, and Memory Lab. The PALM Lab is a cognitive neuroscience and psychology lab researching visual attention and working memory – in a nutshell, trying to understand how visual information is maintained in the mind and brain for ongoing cognition.

Lately, my research interests have focused on two main ideas. The first is more theoretical – how is visual information is represented in the mind and brain? I am trying to connect cognitive theories and mathematical models of working memory to observed and decoded patterns of brain activity. The second is more applied – is digital technology impacting our ability to focus? I am hoping to conduct research that establishes whether there is a causal link between digital technology use and attention spans, using objective performance measures.

I am passionate about improving science, particularly by empowering early-career researchers to pursue reproducible and open research practices. I was a long-time member of the steering committee of ReproducibiliTea, a grassroots initiative to start Open Science communities at local institutions. I am the inaugural Open Practices Editor of Attention, Perception, & Psychophysics, where I evaluate the open research materials in an attempt to enhance the computational reproducibility of the published manuscripts. I have been recognised as a “rigor champion” by the National Institutes of Health for my advocacy, and continue to work in this space.

I grew up in Sydney, Australia, where I completed my PhD under the supervision of Prof Alex Holcombe and Dr Patrick Goodbourn at the University of Sydney. Following that, I completed my postdoc with Prof Edward Awh and Prof Edward Vogel in the Awh/Vogel Lab at the University of Chicago. I’m also a 7-time marathon finisher, coffee enthusiast, and always stand back from the baggage carousel at airports.

On this website, you will find my preprints, conference posters, talk slides and blog posts. The best way to keep up-to-date on what I am doing is via Bluesky, and feel free to email me at william(dot)ngiam(at)adelaide(dot)edu(dot)au..

Latest Updates

I gave a Raising the Bar talk, giving my perspective on the current narrative around digital technology harming attention spans.

A talk summarising some of my recent research and theoretical ideas:

ReproducibiliTea Podcast

I am one of the hosts of the ReproducibiliTea Podcast, where we try to highlight early-career researcher perspectives on the open scholarship movement.