Sensori-motor decision-making and optimality of goal-directed movements under risk

• Applicant: Privatdozentin Dr. Julia Trommershäuser
• Subject Area: General, Cognitive and Mathematical Psychology
• Term: from 2001 to 2009
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 5354448

This research project aims to study the structure of optically perceived space. Previous studies suggest that this space is distorted with respect to physical space, but - due to a heterogeneity of experimental findings - a uniform mapping of physical into perceived space has not been clearly demonstrated. The proposed research project suggests that distortions of perceived space arise from (1) a distorted perception of three-dimensional space itself, (2) additional distortions in perceived space due to a scene's context, and (3) distortions due to different task demands or response modalities. Psychophysical experiments will be performed to demonstrate and separate the different factors causing spatial distortions. An explicit model, based in part on elements drawn from Bayesian Decision Theory, will be derived to provide a theoretical framework for describing and predicting biases in observers' distance judgments in those experiments.

• DFG Programme: Independent Junior Research Groups