Date: Wednesday, 20.11.2024 15:20-17:00 CET
Location: Building S1|15 Room 133
Abstract:
I am interested in the visual cognition of humans and other animals, and will discuss my work on predator-prey visual cognition, focusing on how patterning might make ‘prey’ targets more difficult to detect via camouflage, or to catch via motion confusion effects. I will begin with my work on imperfect camouflage, where we studied how best to optimise camouflage on heterogeneous backgrounds, as might be seen in nature when animals move between different habitats. I will then discuss motion dazzle, the hypothesis that certain types of patterns found in nature, such as high contrast stripes found on zebra, can cause misperceptions in the speed and direction perception processes of an observer (such as a predator). I will discuss work using psychophysics and an evolutionary game that suggest that stripes may be able to cause direction biases, but may not be an optimal camouflage type when in motion.
