Projects per year
Personal profile
Biography
I am a postdoctoral researcher in the School of Psychological Sciences at Macquarie University, where I investigate how individuals coordinate their speech and movement patterns during social interactions. My research focuses on understanding how these multimodal behavioural signals - both within a person and between interaction partners- capture cognitive load, communicative demands, and social or clinical difficulties.
I am currently working on projects examining how people collaborate in noisy or high-demand environments, and how subtle coordination patterns can reveal challenges linked to mental health, including social anxiety. A major strand of my work explores how these markers of interpersonal coordination can be used in applied settings. To this end, I am currently running a project quantifying coordination within psychotherapy sessions with the goal of improving treatment outcomes.
I'm also passionate about making advanced time series analyses more accessible for other researchers. To this end, I contribute open resources on GitHub, including a tutorial and an accessible recurrence-analysis repository, to help researchers incorporate these techniques into their own work.
Education/Academic qualification
Psychology, PhD, University of Western Australia
2019 → 2023
Award Date: 13 Dec 2023
Psychology, Mres, University of Aberdeen
2016 → 2017
Psychology, MA, University of Aberdeen
2012 → 2016
External positions
Honorary Research Fellow, University of Western Australia
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Collaborations and top research areas from the last five years
Projects
- 3 Finished
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Investigating the role of multiscale coordination dynamics in shaping psychotherapeutic outcomes.
Macpherson, C. (Primary Chief Investigator), Kallen, R. (Co-Investigator) & Richardson, M. (Supervisor)
24/04/23 → 30/06/25
Project: Research
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Attention, mental health, and interpersonal coordination
Miles, L. (Primary Chief Investigator), Macpherson, C. (Co-Investigator), Myles, O. (Co-Investigator), Richardson, D. (Co-Investigator) & Tufft, M. (Co-Investigator)
1/01/23 → 31/12/24
Project: Research
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Investigating the relationship between social anxiety and interpersonal coordination: Identifying mechanisms and developing interventions.
Miles, L. (Co-Investigator), Macpherson, C. (Co-Investigator), Richardson, M. (Co-Investigator), Kallen, R. (Co-Investigator) & Fardinpour, A. (Co-Investigator)
1/01/22 → 31/12/22
Project: Research
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Examining the impact of attentional focus and partner gaze on interpersonal coordination
Macpherson, M. C., Brown, A. J. & Miles, L. K., 18 Mar 2025, (Submitted) 19 p. (PsyArXiv).Research output: Working paper › Preprint
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Examining the impact of attentional focus and partner gaze on interpersonal coordination
Macpherson, M. C., Brown, A. J. & Miles, L. K., Oct 2025, In: Psychonomic Bulletin and Review. 32, 5, p. 2201–2210 10 p., e12910.Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review
Open AccessFile -
Exploring the impact of background noise on fractal dynamics and complexity matching during social interaction
Macpherson, M. C., Miles, K. M., Weisser, A., Buchholz, J., Carlile, S. & Richardson, M. J., 19 Mar 2025, (Submitted) 18 p. (PsyArXiv).Research output: Working paper › Preprint
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Social psychology: how people interact
Miles, L., Macpherson, C., Marie, D. & Selkirk, B., 2025, Psychology: from inquiry to understanding. Lilienfeld, S. O., Lynn, S. J. & Namy, L. L. (eds.). 4th ed. Richmond, Victoria: Pearson Australia, p. 545-595 51 p.Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding › Textbook contribution
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Subclinical variation in mental health shapes the dynamics of everyday behaviour
Brown, A. J., Macpherson, M. C. & Miles, L. K., 14 Mar 2025, (Submitted) 37 p. (OSF Preprints).Research output: Working paper › Preprint
Activities
- 3 Presentation
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Investigating the influence of partner gaze on the relationship between interpersonal coordination and social anxiety
Macpherson, C. (Speaker), Brown, A. J. (Speaker), Kallen, R. (Speaker), Richardson, M. (Speaker) & Miles, L. (Speaker)
2023Activity: Talk or presentation › Presentation
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Social connection on the dance floor: Movement coordination in small group silent disco leads to greater self-other overlap
Soesanto, O. (Speaker), Macpherson, C. (Speaker), Richardson, M. (Speaker), Miles, L. (Speaker) & Kallen, R. (Speaker)
2023Activity: Talk or presentation › Presentation
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Fostering social connectedness through social motor coordination: An empirical exploration using the silent disco paradigm
Soesanto, O. (Speaker), Macpherson, C. (Speaker), Richardson, M. (Speaker), Miles, L. (Speaker) & Kallen, R. (Speaker)
2023Activity: Talk or presentation › Presentation