I am a PhD student under the supervision of Prof. Julie Harris interested in the perception of depth and shape. I am particularly interested in the role of colour in these percepts. It has been shown by Bloj et al. (1999) that the stereopsis information of an object can drastically change the percept of colour of this object. This is done through knowledge of inter-illumination. Hence the visual system is able to combine colour and stereopsis information in a sensible way to interpret our visual information. Kingdom (2003) demonstrate the opposite effects, colour having an impact in the perception of shape/depth through the ‘colour-shading effect’.

The aim of my PhD research is to analyse these effects and try to enhance understanding the relation between colour and shape perception. I am also interested in the extent of inbuilt knowledge that the visual system is using in its processing and how the combination of the available cues is computed by the brain.

Bloj, M.; Kersten, D. & Hurlbert, A. (1999), 'Perception of three-dimensional shape influences colour perception through mutual illumination', Nature 402(6764), 877-879.

Kingdom, F. (2003), 'Color brings relief to human vision', Nature Neuroscience 6(6), 641-644.