About me

I obtained a BA degree in Psychology from the University of Sofia (Bulgaria) in 2013 and a MSc degree in Linguistics from the University of Potsdam (Germany) in 2015. During my Master's degree, I also did study visits at the University of Eastern Finland and the University of Groningen (the Netherlands). I completed my PhD degree at Bournemouth University between 2015 - 2018. I then did a post-doctoral fellowship with Dr. Tim Slattery between 2018-2020, before starting as a lecturer at Bournemouth University in 2020. In 2023, I moved to UCL to start a lectureship in behavioural statistics.

I'm studying oculomotor control during reading and other similar tasks. My current research focuses on a few topics: auditory distraction, saccade targeting during reading, and computational modeling. I am also interested in evidence synthesis, statistical inference, and open science.

Publications

Pre-prints


  1. Sui, L., Li, W., Vasilev, M. R. (pre-print). From words to phrases: How phrase-level frequency affects natural reading in L1 and L2 speakers. | Data + Materials | PDF

  2. Vasilev, M. R. , Ozkan, Z. G., Wu, J., Kirkby, J., Parmentier, F.B.R., Nuthmann, A. (pre-print). Distraction by unexpected sounds during passage reading and dynamic scene viewing. | Data + Materials | PDF

  3. Serrano-Carot, M.,Angele. B., Xu, H., Vasilev, M. R. . (pre-print). Webcams can be used to study eye movements during reading | Data + Materials | PDF

    2025


  1. Parker, A. J., Tao, M., Vasilev, M. R. (2025). Are the differences between intra-line and return-sweep fixation durations driven by linguistic, oculomotor, or visual processing? A comparison of eye movements during reading and z-string scanning. Psychonomic Bulletin & Review. | Data + Materials | PDF

  2. Vasilev, M. R. , Ozkan, Z. G., Kirkby, J., Nuthmann, A., Parmentier, F. (2025). Unexpected sounds induce a rapid inhibition of eye-movement responses. Psychophysiology, 62(1), e14728. | Data + Materials | PDF

    3. 2024


  3. Allbritton, D., Gomez, P., Angele, B., Vasilev, M. R., & Perea, M. (2024). Breathing life into meta-analytic methods. Journal of Cognition , 7(1): 61, 1–17. 10.5334/joc.389 | Code + Materials | PDF

  4. Mercier, T. M., Budka, M., Vasilev, M. R., Kirkby, J. A., Angele, B., & Slattery, T. J. (2024). Dual input stream transformer for eye-tracking line assignment. IEEE Transactions on Pattern Analysis and Machine Intelligence, 1-12. 10.1109/TPAMI.2024.3411938 | Data | PDF

    5. 2023


  5. Vasilev, M. R., Lowman, M., Bills, K., Parmentier, F. B. R., & Kirkby, J. A. (2023). Unexpected sounds inhibit the movement of the eyes during reading and letter scanning. Psychophysiology , 1-19. 10.1111/psyp.14389 | Data + Materials | PDF

  6. Adedeji, V. I., Vasilev, M. R., Kirkby, J. A., & Slattery, T. J. (2023). Children’s reading of sublexical units in grades three to five: A combined analysis of eye-movements and voice recording. Scientific Studies of Reading, 1-20. 10.1080/10888438.2023.2259522 | Data | PDF

  7. Vasilev, M. R., Hitching, L., & Tyrrell, S. (2023). What makes background music distracting? Investigating the role of song lyrics using self-paced reading. Journal of Cognitive Psychology, , 1-27. 10.1080/20445911.2023.2209346 | Data + Materials | PDF

    8. 2022


  8. Adedeji, V. I., Vasilev, M. R., Kirkby, J. A., & Slattery, T. J. (2022). Return-sweep saccades in oral reading. Psychological Research, 86, 1804–1815. doi:10.1007/s00426-021-01610-6 | Data | PDF

    9. 2021


  9. Attard-Johnson, J., Vasilev, M. R., Ciardha, C. Ó., & Bindemann, M., Babchishin, K. (2021). Tracking arousal: A meta-analytic review of pupil responses to sexual stimuli. Archives of Sexual Behavior , 50, 3385–3411. doi:10.1007/s10508-021-02137-y PDF

  10. Hills, P. J., Vasilev, M. R., De Vai, R. L., Mahabeer, A., Morisson, R., Silveira, A., & Angele, B. (2021). Sensory gating is related to positive and disorganised schizotypy in contrast with smooth pursuit eye movements and latent inhibition. Neuropsychologia , 162, 107989. doi: 10.1016/j.neuropsychologia.2021.107989 PDF

  11. Vasilev, M. R. , Adedeji, V. I., Laursen, C., Budka, M., & Slattery, T. J. (2021). Do readers use character information when programming return-sweep saccades? Vision Research, 183, 30-40. doi: 10.1016/j.visres.2021.01.003 | Data + Materials | Pre-registration | PDF

  12. Vasilev, M. R., Parmentier, F. B. R., & Kirkby, J. A. (2021). Distraction by auditory novelty during reading: Evidence for disruption in saccade planning, but not saccade execution. Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology , 74(5), 826-842. doi: 10.1177/1747021820982267 | Data + Materials | PDF

  13. Vasilev, M. R., Yates, M., Prueitt, E., & Slattery, T. J. (2021). Parafoveal degradation during reading reduces preview costs only when it is not perceptually distinct. Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology, 74(2), 254-276. doi: 10.1177/1747021820959661 | Data + Materials |

    14. 2019


  14. Vasilev, M. R., Yates, M., & Slattery, T. J. (2019). Do readers integrate phonological codes across saccades? A Bayesian meta-analysis and a survey of the unpublished literature. Journal of Cognition, 2(1), 43, 1–29. doi: 10.5334/joc.87 | Data + Materials |

  15. Vasilev, M. R., Liversedge, S. P., Rowan, D., Kirkby, J. A., & Angele, B. (2019). Reading is disrupted by intelligible background speech: Evidence from eye-tracking. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception and Performance, 45(11), 1484-1512. doi: 10.1037/xhp0000680 | Data + Materials |

  16. Slattery, T. J. & Vasilev, M. R. (2019). An eye-movement exploration into return-sweep targeting during reading. Attention, Perception, & Psychophysics, 81(5), 1197-1203. doi: 10.3758/s13414-019-01742-3 | Data + Materials |

  17. Vasilev, M. R. , Parmentier, F. B. R., Angele, B., & Kirkby, J. A. (2019). Distraction by deviant sounds during reading: An eye-movement study. Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology, 72(7), 1863–1875. doi: 10.1177/1747021818820816 | Data + Materials |

  18. Parmentier, F. B. R., Vasilev, M. R., & Andrés, P. (2019). Surprise as an explanation to auditory novelty distraction and post-error slowing. Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, 148(1), 192-200. doi: 10.1037/xge0000497

    19. 2018


  19. Vasilev, M. R. , Kirkby, J. A., & Angele, B. (2018). Auditory distraction during reading: A Bayesian meta-analysis of a continuing controversy. Perspectives on Psychological Science, 13(5), 567 - 597. doi: 10.1177/1745691617747398 | Negative results in European psychology journals. Europe's Journal of Psychology, 9(4), 717-730. doi:10.5964/ejop.v9i4.590 | Data |

  20. Vasilev, M. R. , Slattery, T. J., Kirkby, J. A., & Angele, B. (2018). What are the costs of degraded parafoveal previews during silent reading? Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory and Cognition, 44(3), 371-386. doi: 10.1037/xlm0000433 | Materials |

    21. pre-2017


  21. Vasilev, M. R. & Angele, B. (2017). Parafoveal preview effects from word N+1 and word N+2 during reading: A critical review and Bayesian meta-analysis. Psychonomic Bulletin & Review, 24(3), 666-689. doi:10.3758/s13423-016-1147-x | Data + Materials |

  22. Vasilev, M. R. (2013). Negative results in European psychology journals. Europe's Journal of Psychology, 9(4), 717-730. doi:10.5964/ejop.v9i4.590 | Data |