Event overview
Third Whitehead lecture of Spring term 2014
ABSTRACT:
We move our eyes on average about three times a second as we explore our visual world. As the oculomotor system matures before other sensorimotor systems, eye movement recording has become a potentially valuable tool for studying the development of cognitive processes in infants before language develops and to see how these processes change throughout childhood. The data from eye movement recording have also been used to improve the layout of control panels and displays, to study how people look at paintings, to help train forensic scientists, airline pilots and radiographers and even make advertising more effective.
In this talk Peter will review some of the discoveries arising from over 60 years of eye movement research. Peter will also argue that the relationship of line of sight to the focus of attention is not always simple, however, and varies with age, experience and other parameters. As a research tool, then, eye movement recording needs to be handled with care. Drawing on a range of experimental studies and theoretical approaches, Peter will review some of the factors that influence the relationship between eye movements and attention and attempt to put forward a dynamic interpretive framework.
BRIEF BIO:
Peter has been a Visiting Fellow in the Centre for Urban and Community Research at Goldsmiths since 2007 and teaches on the MA in Photography and Urban Cultures. He carried out research on eye movements in infants, children and adults in Jerome Bruner’s lab in Oxford in the late 1970s and in Piaget’s lab in Geneva in the early 1980s. After pursuing applied research on the design of new aids to marine navigation for several years, he left the academic world to become a science writer, working for Nature, Science and New Scientist, before joining UNESCO, in Paris, as a staff editor. With a long-standing interest in art and visual perception, Peter has developed a parallel career as a documentary and fine art photographer alongside his writing and research.
www.gold.ac.uk/cccc/whitehead/
Dates & times
| Date | Time | Add to calendar |
|---|---|---|
| 26 Feb 2014 | 4:00pm - 5:30pm |
Accessibility
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