This research is aimed at developing a theory of mental representation that can account for our ability to perceive, remember, and imagine the meaningful spatial relations that comprise real-world scenes, when the input on which scene perception is based is at any given moment fragmentary. The perceiver somehow manages to integrate a continuous series of partial views of the environment into a smooth overall percept of a world of complex interrelated collections of objects and backgrounds. The research studies how this is done.
The funding provided by this grant will be added to other existing funding for the project, to help support the cost of a full-time Laboratory Coordinator, who will schedule experiments, help prepare stimuli, monitor the progress of the experiments, and maintain laboratory records and data files, among other responsibilities.
