Perception, Cognition and Cognitive Neuroscience
Area Description (St. George)
Research on cognitive processes has a long history at the University of Toronto, beginning with some of the earliest memory experiments in North America that were conducted by Mark J. Baldwin and August Kirshmann in the late 1800s. The research conducted by the members of the current cognition group reflects a synthesis of traditional topics in cognitive psychology, such as memory, attention, and executive function, with a variety of interdisciplinary topics and techniques.
Adam Anderson's research focuses on the intersection between cognition and emotion, ranging from how emotion shapes perception and encoding to how it influences memory retrieval. To do so, he uses both cognitive and cognitive neuroscience approaches.
Morgan Barense studies the neural basis of human long-term memory, how this process might interact with other cognitive systems, and how it deteriorates through brain damage or disease. To address these questions, she uses behavioural, neuropsychological, and neuroimaging techniques.
Susanne Ferber's research interests fall within the realm of cognitive neuroscience, with the long-term goal of understanding the cognitive and neural processes that support perceptual awareness. Her work speaks to issues regarding the basic principles of the neural underpinning of visual perception, attention and visually guided action.
Lynn Hasher is interested in the impact of attentional regulation and inhibitory processes on cognition and particularly on retrieval from memory in young and older adults . One focus of her work is on the influence of circadian arousal on cognition and memory.
Gillian Einstein studies memory, sex differences in the brain, and the how mood and memory vary with hormone levels.
Morris Moscovitch studies memory and cognition in younger and older adults, and in people with brain pathology, from a neuropsychological perspective by using behavioural and neuroimaging methodology. He is also concerned with neural mechanisms and processes involved in face recognition.
Jay Pratt is interested in visual cognition, with an emphasis on how attention selects visual information for perception, cognition, and the planning and production of actions. With a variety of eye-tracking and limb-tracking technologies, he also conducts research on motor control and aging. Taken together, these researchers not only have tremendous expertise in the core topics of cognitive psychology and cognitive neuroscience, but are opening up new and exciting areas of interdisciplinary research.
Ian Spence works in the field of engineering psychology which applies knowledge concerning the abilities and limitations of humans to the design and use of human-machine systems. Recent research includes the role of perceptual and cognitive factors in information displays, the use of video games as a cognitive training tool, the role of color in recognition memory, and the problem of lostness in web navigation.
Research at the University of Toronto Scarborough