Research interests

Wayfinding and spatial cognition in human beings

Much of my current research focuses on questions about how we human beings find our way around in physical space, how we build mental representations of space that help us to know where we are and where we are going.  In particular, I've been preoccupied with the question of how we can use various kinds of sensory feedback from self-motion to update position.  We've developed a procedure that gives people altered feedback about self-motion, and so gives us a tool to try to understand how all of the various bits and pieces of information about self-location, 'implacement' as it is sometimes called, comes together.

A very recent interest for me is to try to understand how the basic framework of spatial cognition influences our behaviour in the built environment.  How do the psychological factors that influence our sense of 'implacement' (or lack thereof perhaps) contribute to the ways that we build and use architectural forms?  How do we use our neighbourhoods and cities, and are there ways to apply what we know of spatial cognition to optimize architectural and planning decisions (for example: how does our perception of space, its navigability or walkability, influence decisions about behaviour in the built environment?).  What are the implications of the organization of spatial cognition for our relationship to natural environments?  There's a book in the works.

I conduct research both by studying behaviour in real physical settings (ranging from grassy fields to urban streetcorners) but also by using virtual reality.  In the spring of 2007, the Psychology department expects to install a major new virtual reality laboratory that will allow us to study spatial cognition and wayfinding in large, virtual environments.  We will also have the ability to track eye movements, join physically separated users in shared virtual spaces, and generate large, immersive virtual environments simulating nearby existing built environments.  

Wayfinding and spatial cognition in animals

I also conduct research with animals that is related to my human research.  My current animal research concerns the manner in which a 'typical' small mammal -- the Mongolian gerbil -- uses pictorial cues and visual motion to compute the locations of nearby surfaces for various kinds of visuomotor tasks.  One project, in partnership with Northern Digital Instruments, has the goal of using a clever 6DOF motion tracker on an animal's head to produce a kind of virtual reality environment for animals.  I am also interested in questions about how gerbils use their abilities to compute depth, location, and position to solve their own kinds of 'real world' problems.  In particular, many of my animal experiments are concerned with the problem of how to use mental representations of space to avoid predation.  

Opportunities for students

I have openings (and funding) in my laboratory for both undergraduate and graduate level student researchers, both in my human research program and my animal research program.  Please don't hesitate to contact me for further information.