Doctoral Student Profile

Diane Thomson

Supervisors: John Perrone, Robert Isler

Human visual perception in navigation
I am interested in how we use visual information in the environment to navigate, and the resulting mental representations of spatial knowledge. Through experiments conducted in a driving simulator, I am researching how perceptual and memory processes involved in human visual navigation and self-motion (especially rotation) are affected by the degree of complexity of the visual environment (e.g., the presence or absence of landmarks, depth cues, and optic flow). I am also studying the effects of individual differences among navigators, resulting from experience, gender, age, and anxiety. I have developed a realistic large-scale complex New Zealand virtual environment, which has many potential applications (e.g., as a resource for educating drivers in the conditions specific to New Zealand roads). I also consider the implications of using virtual environments to investigate navigational performance in humans.