I am interested in unraveling the mechanisms underlying the way we interact with our environment. The first stage in these mechanisms is of course on the input side, i.e. everything related to perceptual processes. Yet these processes have profound effects on our cognition, and both may be affected in similar or different ways in clinical populations.

Perception

During most of my scientific career I have been interested in how our visual system processes the available information into useful (and less useful) experiences. Topics include motion vision, binocular interactions, visual cue integration and contextual influences.

Vision is of course but one of our senses. Most of the time we have to compare and integrate information from different senses. This is not a trivial task for our brain, given the different signal- and sensory properties, and yet this is achieved remarkably well.

In specific clinical populations and/or cases, perception can be affected at different levels of processing. How this can be related to known symptoms and what these phenomena tell us about regular perception remains an intriguing area.

Cognition

Our cognition influences our perception and vice versa. Sometimes cognitive abilities appear to have a perceptual origin. Our basic mathematical abilities, for instance, appear related to perceptual magnitude estimators, i.e. ‘numerosity processing’.

(Higher) Education

Cognition influences our learning behaviour. I have recently become interested in which factors are predictive for (higher) education success, and how we can use interactive instruments to enhance learning and increase educational performance.

Have a look at my publications to see more specific examples of my research interests.