Supervisor

Suitable for

Abstract

Name and Email Address of Research Project Supervisor: Dr Dejan Draschkow, dejan.draschkow@psy.ox.ac.uk;

Project Description: Although human knowledge and memories represent the past, we form and use them to support future behavior (Nobre & Stokes, 2019). Understanding which factors contribute to learning about the world and successfully finding the learned information in mind is of critical importance for developing methods for supporting this behavior in healthy individuals, but also in individuals with a range of neurocognitive and psychiatric conditions, such as stroke, Alzheimer’s, and Parkinson’s disease. Our novel virtual reality task (Draschkow, Kallmayer, & Nobre, 2021) combines the ecological validity, experimental control, and sensitive measures required to investigate the naturalistic interplay between memory and perception and opens the doors to investigating and supporting complex cognitive functions (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GT2kLkCJQbY).

In the proposed interdisciplinary projects, computer science and experimental psychology students will be paired to develop and validate sophisticated virtual reality protocols for measuring and supporting complex cognitive mechanism. Specific projects will focus on selected sub-topics and vary in scope, depending on students' interests and what kind of project it is (3rd, 4th, or MSc). These include: • Programming and refining game-like cognitive VR tasks in C# (Unity) • Developing protocols for online-based assessments of cognitive functions in C#/JavaScript • Developing algorithms for detecting markers of neurocognitive symptoms (such as tremor for Parkinson’s disease) in multivariate VR data (R/Python) • Developing proof-of-concept multimodal (voice, visual, and touch) protocols for supporting learning and memory in VR (with implications for supporting dementia patients) (C#/JavaScript/R/Python)

The projects are suitable for students who feel comfortable with highly interdisciplinary work/teams and have experience with (or be open to learn) scientific programming in C#/JavaScript/R/Python. Students will be fully integrated in a successful and collaborative research group and get hands-on experience with an interactive product-development cycle, including multiple stakeholders. Further related readings are: (Ballard et al., 1997; Hayhoe, 2017; Hayhoe & Ballard, 2014)

Relevant readings from cognitive science:

Ballard, D. H., Hayhoe, M. M., Pook, P. K., & Rao, R. P. N. (1997). Deictic codes for the embodiment of cognition. In Behavioral and Brain Sciences (Vol. 20, Issue 4, pp. 723–767). https://doi.org/10.1017/S0140525X97001611 Draschkow, D., Kallmayer, M., & Nobre, A. C. (2021). When Natural Behavior Engages Working Memory. Current Biology, 31(4), 869-874.e5. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cub.2020.11.013 Hayhoe, M. M. (2017). Vision and Action. Annual Review of Vision Science, 3(1), 389–413. https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev-vision-102016-061437 Hayhoe, M. M., & Ballard, D. (2014). Modeling task control of eye movements. Current Biology : CB, 24(13), R622-8. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cub.2014.05.020 Nobre, A. C. (Kia), & Stokes, M. G. (2019). Premembering Experience: A Hierarchy of Time-Scales for Proactive Attention. Neuron, 104(1), 132–146. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neuron.2019.08.030