Megumi Kobayashi, Ph.D.

Last Update: 25th Feb, 2026

Megumi Kobayashi Ph. D, Psychology

Associate Professor

Department of Psychology, Faculty of Humanities,

Niigata University, JAPAN

[ResearchGate]

Research interests

How and when do we acquire the ability to recognize people?- When we were babies or children? But, we hardly remember that time.

I've examined the development of person recognition ability based on face and body information in infancy and children by using infants' looking behavior and brain activation (e.g., functional near-infrared spectroscopy).

Also, I'm recently interested in the atypical development of visual processing in autistic spectrum disorder (ASD), attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), premature birth babies, etc.

NEWS

2026.02.25

Our new paper have just been officially published!

Bettoni, R., Yamashiro, D., Kobayashi, M., Yamaguchi, M. K., Rinaldi, R., Macchi Cassia, V. (2026). Spatial representation of serial order in working memory: A cross-cultural comparison between Japanese and Italian adults. Psychological Research, 90: 37. [link]

2026.02.12

Our new papers have just been officially published!

Kobayashi, M., Sugai, M., Kanazawa, S. & Yamaguchi, M. K. (2026). Variations in face experiences during the COVID-19 pandemic affect infants' preference for their mother's face. PLoS ONE, 21(2): e0340620. [link]

2026.02.02

Our new papers have just been accepted!

Bettoni, R., Yamashiro, D., Kobayashi, M., Yamaguchi, M. K., Rinaldi, R., Macchi Cassia, V. (accepted). Spatial representation of serial order in working memory: A cross-cultural comparison between Japanese and Italian adults. Psychological Research.

2026.01.26

Our new papers have just been accepted!

Kobayashi, M., Sugai, M., Kanazawa, S. & Yamaguchi, M. K. (accepted). Variations in face experiences during the COVID-19 pandemic affect infants' preference for their mother's face. PLoS ONE.

2025.10.28

Our new paper has been officially published!

Shirai, N., Kawai, M., Otsuka, Y., Kobayashi, M., & Tanaka, T. (2025). Infants' visual preference for upright faces during the COVID-19 pandemic in Japan. Infancy, 30, e70052. [link]

2025.10.28

Our new papers have just been accepted!

Shirai, N., Kawai, M., Otsuka, Y., Kobayashi, M., & Tanaka, T. (accepted). Infants' visual preference for upright faces during the COVID-19 pandemic in Japan. Infancy.

Yamanaka, N., Kobayashi, M., & Shirai, N. (accepted). Characteristics of boundary extension in 7- to 8-month-old infants. Japanese Journal of Psychonomic Science.

2025.05.19

I had a poster presentation, entitled "Modulation of face processing by motor development: Infants can discriminate faces in a wider range of picture-plane rotations before rolling over," on Vision Scineces Society (VSS) 2025. [link]

2024.09.06

I gave a talk for JPA Awards for International Contributions to Psychology (Award for Distinguished Early and Middle Career Contributions) on the 88th Anual Convention of the Japanese Psychological Association.

2024.08.28

I had a poster presentation, entitled "The tolerance for changes in eye size on perception of face identity," on European Conference on Visual Perception (ECVP) 2024.

2024.08.5

I was awarded JPA Awards for International Contributions to Psychology (Award for Distinguished Early and Middle Career Contributions). [link]

2024.05.19

I had a poster presentation, entitled "The relative contribution of face and body for person recognition in infancy," on Vision Sciences Society (VSS) 2024.

2023.07.13

Our new paper has been officially out in PLOS ONE.

Kobayashi, M., Kanazawa, S., & Yamaguchi, M. K. (2023). The role of scenic context on upright face preference in infancy. PLoS ONE, 18(7), e0288253. [link]

2023.07.06

Our new paper has been accepted in PLOS ONE!

Kobayashi, M., Kanazawa, S., & Yamaguchi, M. K. (accepted). The role of scenic context on upright face preference in infancy. PLOS ONE

2022.10.11

I gave a poster presentation entitled "Development of cortical processing of dynamic bodies in infancy" on fNIRS 2022.

2022.07.10

I gave a talk entitled "The impact of COVID-19 outbreak on infant's processing of the mother's face" in the symposium "The impact of COVID-19 restrictions on early cognitive development across the world" on XXIII ICIS 2022.

2022.06.02

I had a poster presentation, entitled "Nine-month-old infants can recognize a caricature of their mother's faces," on V-VSS 2022.

2022.04.01

I moved to the Department of Psychology, Faculty of Humanities, Niigata University as an Associate Professor.

2021.10.06

The new paper has been published!

Kobayashi, M., Kanazawa, S., Yamaguchi, M. K., & O'Toole, A. J. (2021). Cortical processing of dynamic bodies in the superior occipito-temporal regions of the infants' brain: Difference from dynamic faces and inversion effect. NeuroImage, 244, 118598 [link]

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