School of Psychology Research Groups:

Perception and Action – Research stream

Researchers

Dr Winand Dittrich

Postgraduate students ( from 2001)

Denise Dollimore Darwinian Evolutionary Ideas in Business Economics and Organizational Studies - PhD awarded 4/2006
George Georgiou The perception of causality - PhD awarded 4/2007
Carolynn Holmes Perception of Risk and Coping in top-level Sports Coaching - ongoing
Thomas Johansen Obsessions, Compulsions and Motor Control - ongoing
Dag Syrdal The perception of threatening faces – MSc awarded 9/2002

Research Assistants

Pamela Ashcroft (p/t voluntary 8-2006- 12/2006)
Bejal Pattni (p/t voluntary 6/2006-12/2006)
Scott Watson (p/t voluntary 6/2004-3/2006)

Visiting Collaborating Professors

Prof Chris Hawley (Hertfordshire Partnerships Mental Health Trust, QEII Hospital)
Prof Naomi Fineberg (Hertfordshire Partnerships Mental Health Trust, QEII Hospital)
Prof Udo Kischka (Nuffield Orthopaedic Centre, Oxford)

Other Academic Links

Dr Tony Atkinson (York University, UK)
Prof Onur Güntürkün (Ruhr University Bochum, Germany)
Prof Nils Landrö (University of Oslo, Norway)
Prof Stephen Lea (Exeter University, UK)
Prof Ted Ruffman (Otago University, New Zealand)

perceptual image 1 perceptual image 2 perceptual image 3 perceptual image 4

Summary of Main Research Themes in Perception, Cognition and Action.

Humans perceive to move and move to perceive.
The research focuses on the perception and action aspects of visual cognition in a variety of domains. It is motivated by a conceptual framework grounded in the functional organization of the brain that is sensitive to the dynamic interplay between neural plasticity and environmental stimulation. Projects include the areas:

- human body movement:

  • This is how people recognize motion information and interpret social signals from reduced visual patterns of kinematic body representations or visual animations.
    • Is it the location of information or the speed of the patterns moving that affords the recognition process or is it a linguistic driven interpretation about human movement?
    • How to understand the evolution of motion signals?

- emotions:

  • This is how people recognize facial motions and interpret emotional signals from reduced visual patterns of facial representations or caricatures. Of special interest is the detection and interpretation of threat.
    • Is a threat face recognized faster than other emotional faces?
    • Is the threat effect based on perceptual or emotional features?

- causality and intentionality:

  • This is how people recognize high-level and social concepts from simple geometrical motions.
    • How to make use of differences in the relationship of elements for its interpretation?

- sensorimotor integration:

(together with colleagues at Nuffield Orthopaedic Center, Oxford)
  • This is how people control simple actions and how visual input can lead to distractions during the execution of actions.
    • How is visual space represented and used during action control.
    • How do stroke patients compensate for spatial neglect in some cases? How can we improve rehabilitation?

- obsessional and compulsive actions:

(together with colleagues at QEII Hospital, Welwyn Garden City and University of Oslo, Norway)
  • This is how cognitive control of everyday actions such as checking and washing becomes impaired and which cognitive mechanisms are affected. Research includes self-reports measured and specially designed experiments testing together emotions and thoughts.
    • Which cognitive processes are affected most prominently?
    • Why do patients show a lack of control when performing some routine actions? How to shape new forms of therapy?

Publications:

Atkinson, A.P., Tunstall, M.L., & Dittrich, W.H. (2007) Evidence for distinct contributions of form and motion information for the recognition of emotions from body gestures. Cognition, 104, 59-72.

Atkinson, A.P., Dittrich, W.H., Gemmell, A.J., & Young, A.W. (2004) Emotion perception from dynamic and static body expressions in point-light and full-light displays. Perception, 33, 717-746

Dittrich, W. (2004) Book review on "Visual Perception. The influence of H.W.Leibowitz". Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology, 54A , 1341–1343

Kaz, G., Lea, S.E.G.,& Dittrich, W.H. (2002) Discrimination of intentional and random motion paths by pigeons. Animal Cognition 5 119-127

Bekkering, H., Neggers, S.F.W., Walker, R., Gleissner, B., Dittrich, W.H.,& Kennard, C. (2001) The preparation and execution of saccadic eye and goal directed hand movements in patients with Parkinson's disease. Neuropsychologia 39 173-183

Dittrich, W.H. & Lea, S.E.G. (2001) Motion discrimination and recognition in birds. In R.Cook (ed.) Avian Visual Cognition .Multimedia-Book with Comp.Cog.Press (pp.41).

Other Info:

PhD opportunities
Theories and phenomena of visual motion perception. Human movement.
Cognitive models of mental illness.
Especially in the areas of visual memory, attention, volition, motor control. Rehabilitation of psychological functions after stroke and brain injury.
Theories and universality of emotions. The role of emotion appraisal.
Sport Psychology and Sports Science.

Consultancy Offered
Applied Psychology in Commercial Environments and Product Development
Mental Training for Entrepreneurs
Research Methods and Experimental Design in Medical Environments
Science Applications in Sports Coaching

Research Leader