Sandra Utz


Fonction: former team member - currently at the University of Birmingham
Bureau: S-01.103
Téléphone: ++41 26 300 7493
Courriel: sandra.utz

Research interests:

Modulation of basic mechanisms of selective attention

Automatic mechanisms of information selection and transformation are commonly thought to be "immodulable" by cognitive processes. Recent research however shows that this notion needs to be updated.
In this project, using the methods of whole and partial report, we assess whether accessory features such as colors or forms affect processing performance.

 

Having successfully defended her PhD thesis, Sandra is currently continuing her researches as a Postdoctoral research fellow in Dr. Joe McCleery research laboratory, Birmingham University. She is studying visual processing in children with Autistic Spectrum Disorders using electroencephalography, event-related potentials, and eye-tracking technology.

 

Publications

Teaching and presentations

  • "An examination of processing speed and visual short-term memory (VSTM) capacity in patients with recent onset schizophrenia and healthy control persons", Vortrag im Doktorandenseminar am 25.01.2007.
  • "Stochastic modelling of elementary psychological processes", Vortrag im Doktorandenseminar am 24.04.2007.
  • "Feature-based modulation of TVA parameters in normal observers? A replication of Peers et al. (2005)", Vortrag im Doktorandenseminar am 08.05.2007.
  • Are TVA parameters affected by shifts in features of visual objects? Research Day, 08.11.2007
  • "Are TVA parameters affected by shifts in features of visual objects?", Vortrag am Pro*Doc Meeting in Lausanne am 23.11.2007.
  • "Theory of Visual Attention (Bundesen, 1990)", Vorlesung in der Veranstaltung "Attention and Performance" (Joseph Krummenacher) am 27.11.2007 & 19.11.2008.
  • "Is the assumption of automatic selection in theories of visual attention appropriate?", Vortrag im Doktorandenseminar am 13.12.2007.
  • "Integrating parameter- and dimension-based accounts of visual selective attention", Projekt-Kurzpräsentation, 03. Juni 2008
  • "Visual search and the Asperger Syndrome", Projekt-Kurzpräsentation, 03. Juni 2008
  • "Test of visual attention for children based on the Theory of Visual Attention", Projekt-Kurzpräsentation, 03. Juni 2008
  • "Visual Search Performance in Observers with the Asperger Syndrome" Pro*Doc Summer School 2008 in Zürich 08.-10.09.2008
  • Tutoring Seminar "Impairments in cognitive functions - Assessment" (HS2008)
  • „Visual Search in Observers with the Asperger Syndrome: Advance to the next Performance Level", Vortrag im Seminar „Current topics in sensation and perception", 24.03.09
  • „Modulation of different attentional components", Vortrag im Seminar „Current topics in sensation and perception", 21.04.09

Poster presentations

  • Utz, S. & Krummenacher, J. (2007). "Are TVA parameters affected by shifts in features of visual objects?", Poster am internationalen Symposium "Dynamics of attentional control" in Holzhausen am Ammersee vom 15.06.-17.06.2007.
  • Utz, S. & Krummenacher, J. (2008) "Visual Search Performance in Observers with the Asperger Syndrome", Poster am "Second Symposium on Visual Search and Selective Attention, Murten, 16.-19. Juli 2008
  • Utz, S. & Krummenacher, J. (2008) "Effects of dimension-based changes on the parameters of the Theory of Visual Attention", Poster am "Second Symposium on Visual Search and Selective Attention, Murten, 16.-19. Juli 2008
  • Utz, S. & Krummenacher, J. (2008) "Modulability of Basic Mechanisms of Selective Attention ", Poster am "Second Symposium on Visual Search and Selective Attention, Murten, 16.-19. Juli 2008
  • Utz, S. & Krummenacher, J. (2008) "Visual Search Performance in Observers with the Asperger Syndrome", Poster in Pro*Doc Summer School 2008, Zürich 08.-10.09.2008
  • Utz, S. & Krummenacher, J. (2009) "Enhanced Visual Search Performance in Observers with the Asperger Syndrome", Poster am "Annual meeting of the Swiss Society for Neuroscience" am 14.03.2009
  • Utz, S. & Krummenacher, J. (2009) "Visual and semantic cueing in search for feature targets in observers with Asperger's syndrome", Poster am "Annual meeting of the Swiss Society of Neuroscience" am 14.03.2009
  • Krummenacher, J. & Utz, S. (2009) "Enhanced feature integration in observers with Asperger's syndrome", Poster am "Annual meeting of the Swiss Society of Neuroscience" am 14.03.2009
 

 

Département de Psychologie  -   R. Faucigny 2   -   1700 Fribourg   -   Tel +41 26 / 300 7620   -   Fax +41 26 / 300 9712   -   psychologie [at] unifr.ch   -    Swiss University