Theses
Overview
Theses in the psychology of perception are fundamentally empirical in nature - i.e. you will collect data for a study and evaluate it independently. Depending on the topic, you have a permanent contact person who will accompany you through this process.
No programming knowledge is required if you want to complete your thesis in our department. The experiments are programmed by us and the data will be prepared in such a way that they can be analyzed in SPSS by students. If you are explicitly interested in getting involved in programming or in analyzing the data with your own scripts in R, Matlab, or Python, we are also happy to support you.
Our employees have different expertise and we use various methods. If one of our research topics has aroused your interest, please contact the respective contact person on the studies page - there are often small follow-up studies that are suitable for both bachelor's and master's theses. You will also find a list of current and concrete projects here.
Current projects
We have multiple topics and projects for thesises. Below you can see the current list of projects for the summer semester 2022 (last updated 01.25).
| Topic | B.Sc. / M.Sc. | Contact |
| Sensory attenuation describes the attenuation of self-generated stimuli compared to externally generated stimuli. One's own touch is therefore perceived less strongly than externally generated stimuli. Our experiment aims to investigate the influence of intentional actions on the effect of sensory attenuation. We use behavioral experiments for this. Theses can start upon request. Supervision in German and English. | B.Sc. / M.Sc. | Saskia Johnen |
| My studies are mainly focused on the way visual stimuli are processed in an efficient way to get a stable and reliable representation of the visual world we are experiencing. “The autistic world” can be quite different from ours, and right now little is known on how people with heightened autistic traits make sense of the world around them when things change and move unexpectedly. For example, I investigate how our previous visual experience influence what we perceive next and how this information is combined in the autistic perception. My studies mostly use eye-tracking experiments. The thesis can start upon request. Supervision is only available in English. | B.Sc. / M.Sc | Antonella Pomé |
| Students can study the physiological principles of movement in relation to perception, such as the phenomena of gating and attenuation. These processes are analyzed using advanced techniques such as EEG, eye tracking and haptic devices. What happens when these mechanisms are disrupted or do not work as expected? What impact does this have on perception and motor control? Are there differences in performance in people with different neurological or sensory profiles? The thesis can be started immediately. Supervision is only available in English. | B.Sc. / M.Sc | Pierangelo Nicolás D'Onfrio Pacheco |
| Projects to investigate visual stability in eye movements involve combining eye tracking and psychophysical tasks. This will allow us to investigate the mechanism that allows human observers to perceive the external world as stationary despite the movements of their own visual receptors. New experiments will focus in particular on intra-saccadic habituation to predictable movements to explain transsaccadic visual stability. The experiments will be designed to compare the predictions of this theory with those of competing theories. Supervision is available in English only. | B.Sc. / M.Sc | Umberto Calleri |
| Visual perception and perception of time: Under what conditions are we good at detecting differences in brightness, and when are we not? What influences our estimation of time intervals? Why does our brain perceive events around us differently when we have triggered them ourselves? How much of our perception is based on reality, and how much on our expectations and memories? Supervision in German and English. | B.Sc. / M.Sc. | Leonie Jozwiak |
| I offer thesis topics related to sensory attenuation during premovement, exploring how sensory perception is modulated before voluntary actions. Using behavioral experiments and game-based paradigms, we investigate the relationship between movement preparation and sensory processing. Students interested in perception, action, and cognitive neuroscience are welcome to contribute to this research. Supervision is only available in English. | B.Sc. / M.Sc. | Saeed Zahran |