One part of the research in the lab focuses on the neural processes of interpretation and selection that allow sensation (the retinas detecting light) to turn into conscious visual perception (seeing). We approach this topic using a diverse array of techniques from psychology and neuroscience, including psychophysics and brain imaging (fMRI). A second focus of the lab is strengthening the methodological and theoretical foundation of pupillometry (pupil size measurements) in the context of cognitive psychology.

Seeing is interpreting. We humans do not perceive the pattern of excited retinal receptors that form the actual input to our visual systems, but rather we see conjectured scenes in front of us. In a process that Hermann von Helmholtz called 'unconscious inference', the brain matches retinal signals with knowledge about the world, and perception reflects the brain's most plausible hypothesis as to what scene may have given rise to these signals. Research in the lab examines this interpretative aspect of vision, for instance by presenting observers with ambiguous or conflicting visual input (see movie): input that could plausibly have arisen from any of several real-world sources. This approach provides an exceptional window into the visual system trying to find an interpretation and, indeed, switching between interpretations over time even though the input stays the same.

The pupil as a window on the mind. Everybody knows that the pupils of your eyes grow and shrink depending on light levels. But the pupils also change size in association with a range of cognitive processes (for instance, they get bigger when you try to memorize a number, or solve a puzzle). This makes the pupil an easily accessible source of information on cognitive functioning. To further increase the utility of pupillometry in cognitive psychology, research in the lab aims to clarify the relation between cognition and pupil size, and to develop tools for analysis of pupil signals.

For a different take on work in the lab, listen to the Brascamp lab theme song. Courtesy of Lizzy Irwin and Haley Frey.