Vision and Cognition
Colleagues in the Vision and Cognition research group explore fundamental issues of importance in vision and cognition.
Our particular interests span colour perception, face perception and visual search through to aesthetics, spatial navigation and motor control. In doing so, we have a wide range of technical expertise that includes the running of behavioural studies to measuring brain function and biochemical influences on brain function, visual perception and cognition.
The group provides a supportive environment for colleagues and postgraduate students.
Postgraduate Students
Miss Georgina Bailey
Miss Emma Smillie
Exploring Survival Processing and Animacy in Human Memory, Investigating the Temporal Contiguity effect. (In collaboration with Dr Davide Bruno, School of Natural Sciences and Psychology, Liverpool John Moores University, UK.)
Exploring the Impact of Sat Nav Devices on Spatial Memory. (In collaboration with Dr Thomas Smyth, Department of Biological Sciences, University of Huddersfield, UK and Associate Professor Janet Speake, Department of Geography and Environmental Sciences, Liverpool Hope University, UK.)
Binding across features and their influence on cognitive processes such as reading and writing. (In collaboration with Dr Lorna Bourke, Liverpool Hope University, and Dr Neil Harrison, Liverpool Hope University.)
The next stage of this is looking at spatial-temporal binding of audio-visual features and their development across early life.
General influence of working memory and executive processing on cognitive development. (In collaboration with Dr Lorna Bourke, Liverpool Hope University.)
Understanding acrophobia (fear of heights) by testing evolutionary accounts of the visual cues necessary to induce a fear of height.
Person perception; Explaining the common assignment of personality and affect to body shape in the absence of any other information.
Perceptual distortions in general. This has included the distortion of placing the eyes on a drawn face (with Neil Harrison). A pilot study looking at the horizontal-vertical illusion and motion has revealed an effect of time distortion for horizontal motion when a moving dot is viewed against a backdrop of the HV illusion, but is absent when the HV illusion is not present.
Explaining inattention blindness at fixation. This is an ongoing series of experiments trying to decide on whether an object-based or space-based account offers the better explanation for this phenomenon.
He collaborates extensively with colleagues in the UK and the US. His current work includes projects funded by the Defence and Security Accelerator (DASA) called ‘We’re in this together: Using evidence-based visual perception to enhance crowd resilience’ and the Department for Transport called ‘X-ray Baggage Screening Time on Task’.
Visual attention and EEG measures of prosthetic hand control: optimisation through gaze training (in collaboration with Dr Greg Wood, Manchester Metropolitan University, and Dr Johnny Parr.)
Neural correlates of verbal-conscious and verbal non-conscious motor control (in collaboration with Dr Greg Wood, Manchester Metropolitan University, and Dr Johnny Parr.)
Readiness potentials, response times, and the automatic processing of affordances (in collaboration with Stefano Uccelli, University of Parma, Professor Nicola Bruno, University of Parma, and Dr Letizia Palumbo.)
Liking and approach avoidance for abstract curvature using EEG (in collaboration with Dr Letizia Palumbo.)
Context congruency effects in aesthetic evaluations of art works (in collaboration with Dr Letizia Palumbo.)
Aesthetic perception of art and its relationship to connection with nature
Visual preference for symmetry and curvature in typical developed adults and autism (in collaboration with Dr Giulia Rampone and Dr Marco Bertamini, University of Liverpool.)
Objects preference in autism (in collaboration with Prof Enric Munar, University of Balearic Islands, Spain.)
Liking and approach avoidance for abstract curvature using EEG (in collaboration with Dr Neil Harrison.)
Context congruency effects in aesthetic evaluations of art works (in collaboration with Dr Neil Harrison.)
Perception of biological motion and its role on aesthetic evaluations of dance (in collaboration with Dr Neil Harrison.)
Intergenerational effects of object semantics on colour preference (in collaboration with Prof Galina Paramei.)
Embodied mechanisms in emotional anticipation using EMG and TMS (in collaboration with Dr Tjeerd Jellema, University of Hull and Dr Valentina Cazzato, Liverpool John Moores University.)
Readiness potentials, response times, and the automatic processing of affordances (visiting PhD student Stefano Uccelli, from University of Parma, Italy. PhD supervisor: Prof Nicola Bruno. Project co-supervision in collaboration with Dr Neil Harrison).
The effect of colour on emotions read out from emoticons (In collaboration with Prof. Katsuaki Sakata: Department of Fine Arts, Joshibi University of Art and Design, Tokyo, Japan.)
Diatopic variation of the „Italian blues“: Estimating basicness. Modelling colour category volumes and boundaries (In collaboration with Prof. Gloria Menegaz: Department of Computer Science, University of Verona, Italy; Prof. Maria M. Del Viva: Department of Neuroscience & Psychology, University of Florence, Italy; Prof. Natalia L. Komarova: Department of Mathematics, University of California Irvine, USA.)
The effect of inversion of facial expressions of emotions (In collaboration with Dr. David L. Bimler: School of Psychology, Massey University, New Zealand.)
Assessing repeatability of the Cambridge Colour Test (In collaboration with Thiago M. P. Fernandes, PhD student: Department of Psychology, University of Paraíba, João Pessoa, Brazil.)
Dr Idalmis Santiesteban
Exploring the link between mirror sensory synaesthesia and autism spectrum disorders (In collaboration with Prof. Francis MacGlone and Dr. David Moore, Liverpool John Moores University)
Delayed autism diagnosis, impact on mental healtlh for individuals and their families
Empathic abilities of individuals with autism (In collaboration with Prof. Geoff Bird, University of Oxford and Prof. Fancesca Frassinetti and Dr Michela Candini, University of Bologna)
Empathy and emotional egocentricity bias in mirror-sensory synaesthesia (In collaboration with Prof. Michael Banissy, Goldsmiths, University of London, Prof. Claus Lamm and Ass Prof., Giorgia Silani, University of Vienna)