My Research
B.Mus., B.Ed., B.Psych.Sci., B.Psych. (Hons.)
In 1994 I graduated from UNSW with a Bachelor of Music, Bachelor of Education. In 2019 I graduated from UOW with a Bachelor of Psychological Science, majoring in Social Marketing. In 2021 I completed Bachelor of Psychological Science Honours at UOW and in 2022 I began my Ph.D with Professor Robert Barry, Dr Frances DeBlasio, and Dr Timothy Byron as my supervisors. My current research focus is on cardiovascular measures of cognition in relation to music listening.
I presented my research (below) at the International Organisation of Psychophysiology 21st World Congress in Geneva, Switzerland in June 2023. Paper currently in progress.
S. Leimroth, F. Villarey, N. Pawlenko, F. DeBlasio, R. Barry. Heart rate and heart rate variability: Unaffected by caffeine consumption, International Journal of Psychophysiology, Volume 188, Supplement, 2023, Page 82, ISSN 0167-8760, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijpsycho.2023.05.212
Awards
In 2019 I did research on skin conductance response to musical complexity as part of a research internship subject taken during my final undergraduate year. I presented a poster on that research at the 29th annual meeting of the Australasian Society of Psychophysiology and received the award for Best Poster Presentation by a 3rd year student.
I was also selected in 2019 as a McKinnon Walker Scholar, one of 30 outstanding students from a wide range of disciplines, recruited from both within UOW and International and Australian partner universities, to participate in the Sustainable Homes Challenge. Unfortunately the COVID-19 pandemic arrived in early 2020 and the Sustainable Homes Challenge was cancelled due to lockdowns.
In 2021 I completed my Bachelor of Psychological Science Honours degree and I received a Dean’s Merit List award for achieving a ranking in the top 5% of students in the Bachelor of Psychological Science Honours program.
In 2022 I presented my honours research, the Effect of musical change and complexity on heart rate variability (HRV) during listening, at the 30th Annual Meeting of the Australasian Society of Psychophysiology and received the award for best postgraduate presentation.
I’m listed as the 5th author on: The ‘amplifier’ in Sokolov’s Orienting Reflex (OR) mechanism: An EEG/ERP extension”



