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Professor Iain Gilchrist

telephone: +44 (0)117 92 89004 email: I.D.Gilchrist@bris.ac.uk

Room 3D32

Personal Webpage

Biographical details

I took my first degree in Psychology (BSc) at the University of Durham (1989-1992) and then studies for a PhD at the University of Birmingham (1992-1995). I then worked as a Research Associate at the University of Durham (1995-1998). I joined the Department of Experimental Psychology, University of Bristol as Lecturer in Neuropsychology in 1998, became Reader in 2002 and Professor in 2007.

I am an Honorary Neuropsychologist in North Bristol NHS Trust; A member of: The Applied Vision Association; The Experimental Psychology Society; The British Ocular Motor Group and an Associate Member, Centre for Vision and Visual Cognition, University of Durham.

Teaching and administration



I am currently a University Research Fellow (2008-2009)

Research interests

Key words: perception, action, eye-movements, saccades, active vision, neuropsychology, foraging, visual search, drawing.

My research is concerned with link between vision and action. Vision provided information so that we can interact with the world. These interactions involve motor systems such as eye, arm, head, and whole body movements. One major focus of this work has been to understand how and why we move our eyes. Eye movements are interesting because the movement itself radically changes the nature of the visual input. We have also been looking at other visually guided actions such as drawing, copying and foraging. In order to understand these processes we test both patients and unimpaired individuals and are involved in building a biologically inspired robot.

Recent and current grants

Scanpaths when viewing faces. NWO & ESRC Bilateral Grant Scheme (2008-2012).

Human Attention and Machine Learning. Cognitive Systems Foresight & EPSRC (2007-2010).

Natural dynamic scenes and human vision. EPSRC (2007-2010).

Modelling sequential effects in saccadic choice. The Wellcome Trust (2006-2009).

The development of strategies for searching and navigating through space. MRC (2005-2008).

Collaborations

Recent collaborators include:
Prof. John Findlay, University of Durham
Dr Monika Harvey, University of Glasgow
Dr Eugene McSorley, University of Reading
Prof. Jan Theeuwes, Vije University, Amsterdam

PhD students supervised

Peter Etchells

Jennifer McBride

James Storey

Some recent publications

Findlay, J. M. & Gilchrist I. D. (2003).Active vision: The psychology of looking and seeing. Oxford University Press, Oxford.

Smith, A. D., Hood, B. M. & Gilchrist I. D. (2008). Visual search and foraging compared in a large-scale search task Cognitive Processing, 9, 121-126.

Körner, C. & Gilchrist, I. D. (2008). Memory processes in multiple-target visual search. Psychological Research, 72, 99-105.

Smith, A. D., Gilchrist, I. D., Cater, K., Ikram, N., Nott, K., & Hood, B. M. (2008). Reorientation in the real world: The development of landmark use and integration in a natural environment. Cognition, 107, 1102-1111.

Vincent, B. T., Troscianko, T. & Gilchrist, I. D. (2007). Investigating a space-variant weighted salience account of visual selection. Vision Research, 47, 1809-1820.

Smith, A. D., Gilchrist, I. D., Butler, S, Muir, K., Bone, I., Reeves, I. & Harvey, M. (2007). Non-lateralised deficits of drawing production in hemispatial neglect. Brain and Cognition, 64, 150-157.

Körner, C. & Gilchrist, I. D. (2007). Finding a new target in an old display: Evidence for a memory recency effect in visual search. Psychonomic Bulletin & Review, 14, 846-851.

Ludwig, C. J. H., Mildinhall, J. W. & Gilchrist, I. D. (2007). A population coding account for systematic variation in saccadic dead time. Journal of Neurophysiology, 97, 795-805.

Leonards, U., Baddeley, R., Gilchrist, I. D., Troscianko, T., Ledda, P. & Williamson, B. (2007). Mediaeval artists: masters in directing the observers' gaze. Current Biology, 17, 8-9.

Porter, G., Troscianko, T. & Gilchrist, I. D. (2007). Effort during visual search and counting: insights from pupillometry. Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology, 60, 211-229.

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