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Memory and Perception

Research on Human Memory and Perception at the CBU

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To remember is to re-create a representation of something previously perceived. Conversely, to perceive and recognize is to relate our present experience to what we remember of the past. Memory and perception, thus, are inter-dependent.

To function effectively, memory and perception must also solve common problems. Most of us cannot perceive everything in our sensory world simultaneously; we must select the elements of the world we wish to perceive, and ignore distraction. Similarly, remembering a particular experience often requires that we ignore distracting memories evoked by our sensory world. Memory and perception thus both require control mechanisms that aid in the construction of stable percepts or memories.

The aim of the Memory & Perception Group research programme is to develop integrative theoretical accounts of memory and perception, and to explore ways in which these accounts might inform, and be informed by, clinical practice and rehabilitation.

Programmes

Memory control (Anderson). How control processes limit the influence of distracting memories, the effects of those mechanisms on later retention, and the interrelation between mnemonic and perceptual attention.
Conscious and unconscious memory and perception (Henson). How repeated exposure to visual stimuli affects our perception and behaviour, whether or not we are aware of that repetition.
Object vision and population-code representation (Kriegskorte): How real-world objects are visually perceived, recognized, and categorized across successive stages of cortical population-code representation.

Techniques

Neuroimaging (functional methods like fMRI, MEG/EEG, and cell recordings that allow measurement of activity in the brain; structural methods like VBM and DWI; and statistical methods such as pattern-information and connectivity analyses)
Behavioural Methods (in young and old healthy individuals and in individuals with impairments of perception or memory due to brain damage, dementia, and psychiatric disorders)
Computational Modelling (computer models of visual perception and memory)

Collaborative relationships with other institutes

Addenbrooke's Hospital/Herschel-Smith Site (studies of memory in dementia and stroke)
Department of Experimental Psychology/BCNI (human and animal models of memory and perception)
US National Institute of Mental Health (object vision and pattern-information analysis)