Our research focuses on a variety of questions. How do we focus on signals that are relevant, and ignore the things that aren’t? How does the brain recognize colours, faces and objects? And how is vision influenced by our other senses? How do we integrate vision with action, for instance to predict the location of a moving object?
Unusual and embodied perceptual experiences
- How do changes in sensory loss or brain plasticity, for instance, in blindness or following limb amputation, effect perceptual experience?
- How do we respond respond to the sight of touch, itch or pain in another person?
- Why do some people experience numbers as colours, or words as tastes (synaesthesia)? What causes this in the brain and does it lead to any benefits?
People: Jamie Ward
Visual attention and percepts
- How do social cues direct visual attention?
- How do familiarity and expertise impact face processing?
- How does the nervous system compensate for sensory and motor delays?
- What are the similarities and differences between visual and motor compensation for neural delays?
Face processing
- What is the nature of the “configural” information that we use in order to recognise faces?
- Why do “face adaptation effects” occur, and what can they tell us about the mechanisms underlying face recognition?
- How do we perceive age on the basis of facial cues?
Faculty: Graham Hole. Research staff: Sarah Laurence
Driving and attention
- Why don’t car drivers notice cyclists and motorcyclists?
- How and why does using a mobile phone distract drivers from attending to their surroundings?
Faculty: Graham Hole. Research staff: Sarah Laurence
Time Perception
- How does the brain represent the passage of time?
- How long does it take for a sensory stimulus to reach conscious awareness?
Faculty: Ryota Kanai
Visual Awareness and Qualia
- What are the neural bases of subjective sensory experience?
- How does neural activity correspond to the subjective quality of sensory experience?
Faculty: Ryota Kanai
Colour Perception and Cognition
- What are the underlying mechanisms of various aspects of colour perception and cognition, such as colour categories, unique hues, colour preference and colour constancy?
- Does language affect early visual processing?
- How are colour categories expressed in the brain?
People: Anna Franklin Gemma Catchpole, Alice Skelton, Christoph Witzel
Lab: Sussex Colour Group
Embodied Cognition
- How do our bodies shape the way we feel, think and behave?
- How is body perception influenced by cognitive factors, such as beliefs and expectations?
- How might tactile attentional processes contribute to psychological disorders?
People: Eleanor Miles
Distraction and mind-wandering
- What makes certain people particularly vulnerable to distraction? How can we reduce our vulnerability to distraction?
- What makes certain stimuli particularly distracting, or particularly powerful to engage our attention?
- Is distraction from both external and internal (i.e. mind-wandering) sources determined by common mechanisms?
- How well do established laboratory measures of inattention and distraction address common forms of daily-life attention problems?
*Image courtesy of BBC Horizon