Alain Chavaillaz Fonction: former team member - currently at Stony Brook University Bureau: S-01.103 Téléphone: ++41 26 300 7492 Courriel: alain.chavaillaz

Research interests:

Spatial and temporal feature integration

How does the brain integrate feature to create a coherent representation of what we see, we hear, we touch. Most of the cognitive models that deal with feature integration are mainly focused on the spatial aspect of the problem. Our recent research using visual search paradigms show that features are not temporally integrated in the same fashion.

Effect of context in visual search

A familiar context is very helpful when searching a particular object. For example, during your first day of work you will have difficulty to find all what you need to work, but with time you do not have to think anymore about this, you know automatically where to search. With time the context is become familiar and helps you to find more easily you material. But what does make it possible? Which component of the context is relevant in a visual scene? We investigate those questions using a visual search paradigm. Our results show that only a change in the object color affects this effect. Other methods, as eye movement analysis and EEG, will be used to offer a better understanding of this phenomenon.

Are attention and eye movements controlled by similar mechanisms?

Attention and eye movements are often in a close relationship. Most of the time where we look is where we pay attention, what let thinking that both attentional and ocular systems are controlled by a, at least, similar mechanisms. But what happens when we have to pay attention to two objects that are not located at the same place? Eye movements analysis is the solution we found to solve this issue. Current results provide some evidence that, in this condition, attention and eye movements are controlled by different control mechanisms