Dr. Claudia Menzel
Curriculum Vitae
Education
2012 – 2016
2005 – 2011
PhD student at the Institute for Anatomy I, University Hospital Jena, Germany
PhD thesis: “Image properties of face photographs and their relation to face processing and evaluation”
Studies of Biology at Martin-Luther University Halle-Wittenberg, Germany
Diploma-Thesis: “Leaf swallowing behaviour in captive great apes” in cooperation with the Max-Planck-Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, Leipzig, Germany
Positions
2017 – now
2012 – 2016
2010 – 2012
2009
Post-Doctoral researcher at the Social, Environmental and Economic Psychology, University of Koblenz-Landau, Germany
Research assistant at the Institute for Anatomy I, University Hospital Jena and Co-Worker at the Person Perception Research Unit, Friedrich Schiller University Jena, Germany
Research assistant at the Department of Developmental and Comparative Psychology, Max-Planck-Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, Leipzig, Germany
Field assistant at Goegap Nature Reserve, South Africa
Main research interests:
My main research interests lay in the interface between biology and psychology. During my PhD, I worked on effects of statistical properties of face images on the perception of individual person characteristics. Furthermore, I am interested in the perception of nature, health effects of exposure to nature, experimental aesthetics and environmental attitudes.
Publications
Menzel C, Hayn-Leichsenring GU, Néméth K., Kovács G (2017). When noise is beneficial for sensory encoding: Noise adaptation can improve face processing”. Brain and Cognition 117: 73-83. DOI: 10.1016/j.bandc.2017.06.006
Menzel C, Hayn-Leichsenring GU (shared first-authorship), Langner O, Wiese H, Redies C. (2015). “Fourier power spectrum characteristics of face photographs: Attractiveness perception depends on low-level image properties.” PLoS ONE, 10(4), e0122801. DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0122801
Menzel C, Fowler A, Tennie C, Call J (2013). “Leaf Surface Roughness Elicits Leaf Swallowing Behavior in Captive Chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes) and Bonobos (P. paniscus), but not in Gorillas (Gorilla gorilla) or Orangutans (Pongo abelii)”. International Journal of Primatology 34(3): 533-553. DOI: 10.1007/s10764-013-9679-7
Selected conference presentations
Talks:
Menzel C, Hayn-Leichsenring GU, Redies C, Németh K, Kovács G (2015). Noise can be good: Noise adaptation affects the neural correlates of face processing. Talk at 11th PPRU Workshop “Human Communication: From Person Perception to Social Action”, April 2015, Jena, Germany.
Menzel C, Hayn-Leichsenring GU, Langner O, Redies C (2014). Calculating beauty? The higher-order image statistics of faces. Talk at 56th Conference of Experimental Psychologists (TeaP), April 2014, Gießen, Germany.
Menzel C, Fowler A, Tennie C, Call J (2013). Leaf swallowing behavior in captive great apes: Rough surfaced leaves elicit leaf swallowing in naïve chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes) and bonobos (P. paniscus). Talk at IX. Göttinger Freilandtage “The Health-Sociality-Fitness Link”, December 2013, Göttingen, Germany.
Menzel C & Hayn-Leichsenring GU (2013). ‘Beauty = -2 ?’ The Higher-Order Image Statistics of Facial Attractiveness and Age. Talk at 8th Person Perception Research Unit Workshop “Foundations of Person Perception: Trends in Cognition and Neuroscience”, October 2013, Jena, Germany.
Posters:
Menzel C, Hayn-Leichsenring GU, Redies C, Kovács G (2015). Noise can be good: Visual adaptation to noise with different Fourier power spectrum characteristics affects the electrophysiological correlates of face processing. Poster presented at 15th Meeting of the Vision Sciences Society, May 2015, St. Pete Beach, Florida, USA.
Menzel C, Langner O, Redies C, Hayn-Leichsenring GU (2014). Happy is complex and neutral is bright: Statistical image properties of face photographs showing different emotions. Poster presented at 37th European Conference on Visual Perception, August 2014, Belgrade, Serbia.
Menzel C, Hayn-Leichsenring GU, Langner O, Redies C (2014). Adjust the ratio of fine detail and coarse structure until you like the image! Poster presented at 9th Person Perception Research Unit Workshop “From cortical areas to social functions”, April 2014, Jena, Germany.
Menzel C, Redies C, Langner O, Hayn-Leichsenring GU (2013). Not only the face matters: Influence of random noise backgrounds with different statistical properties on face attractiveness. Poster presented at 36th European Conference of Visual Perception, August 2013, Bremen, Germany.
Menzel C, Fowler A, Tennie C, Call J (2011). Leaf swallowing behaviour in captive great apes. Poster presented at 2nd Transfer of Knowledge Conference of Comparative Cognition “, May 2011, Prague, Czech Republic.
