PERCEPTION
COGNITION &
DEVELOPMENT
LAB @ CHAPEL HILL
The Perception, Cognition, and Development Lab @ Chapel Hill investigates how we see, how we think, and how we remember. We tend to focus on questions related to spatial representation, but we explore a range of related topics (e.g., numerical cognition, shape perception, temporal memory, time perception, etc.). We are housed within the Department of Psychology and Neuroscience at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill.
Current projects
Intuitive Topology
In a series of recent projects, we explore how both adults and children reason about — and perceive — topological relations.
Visual adaptation
Have you ever stared at a colorful image, and then, when looking at an empty wall after, seen a colorful visual aftereffect? That’s a kind of visual adaptation. In a series of papers, we examine what visual adaptation is, and what it can and cannot tell us about visual representation.
The format(s) of visuospatial representation
How do we represent where things are? What is the code of spatial representation in the mind?
Remembering when
In our every day lives, we have to remember not only what happens, but when those things happen. With everything going on around us at all times, how do we remember when things were?
People
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Sami Yousif
Dr. Yousif is the Principal Investigator of the PCDL. You can learn more about him via his personal webpage.
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Olivia Walter
Olivia is the lab manager of the PCDL. She is a second-year student at UNC studying biology, neuroscience, and applied sciences.
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Manasi Chaudhary
Manasi is a third-year undergraduate at UNC studying computer science, linguistics, and statistics.
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Melissa Fabela-Salgado
Melissa is a second-year student at UNC studying psychology, chemistry, and German.
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Macy Johnson
Macy is a second-year undergraduate student at UNC studying neuroscience, psychology, and chemistry.
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Mahwish Kittur
Mahwish is a first-year undergraduate student at UNC studying neuroscience.
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Misha Logisa
Misha is a first-year undergraduate student at UNC studying Neuroscience, Global Studies, and Spanish.
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Naomi Lytle
Naomi is a third-year undergraduate student at UNC studying Psychology, Linguistics, and Data Science.
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Catherine Marley
Catherine is a first-year undergraduate student at UNC studying psychology.
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Rachel Olugbusi
Rachel is a second-year undergraduate student studying neuroscience and computer science.
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Ashna Shah
Ashna is a second-year undergraduate student at UNC studying neuroscience and computer science.
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Owen Vescio
Owen is a second year undergraduate student at UNC studying psychology, statistics, and philosophy.
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Gabe Waterhouse
Gabe is a first-year undergraduate student at UNC studying psychology.
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Cynthia Wen
Cynthia is a first-year undergraduate student at UNC studying biomedical engineering, neuroscience, and statistics.
Lab news
Congratulations to Mahwish Kittur for receiving a summer undergraduate research fellowship! (March 2025)
Sami was honored to receive an Undergraduate Teaching Award for teaching and mentorship in and out of the classroom. (March 2025)
Our paper Children’s understanding of topological relations was published in Open Mind. (March 2025)
Congratulations to outstanding undergraduate students Gabe Waterhouse and Ashna Shah for receiving National Science Foundation Undergraduate Travel Grants to attend the Vision Sciences Society meeting in May 2025! (February 2025)
Our paper Perceiving topological relations was published in Psychological Science. (February 2025)
Our paper Random behavior is stable across tasks and time is forthcoming in Journal of Experimental Psychology: General. (February 2025)
On behalf of the lab, Sami received a Junior Faculty Development Award, which will help to support the many phenomenal undergraduate researchers in the lab. (January 2025)
Our paper An illusion of time caused by repeated experience is forthcoming in Psychological Science. (January 2025)
Our paper Seven reasons to (still) doubt the existence of number adaptation was published in Cognition. This paper is a rebuttal to two replies on the number adaptation paper we published back in May. (September 2024)
Our paper Size adaptation: Do you know it when you see it? was published in Attention, Perception, & Psychophysics. (July 2024)
Our paper Event representation at the scale of ordinary experience was published in Cognition. (June 2024)
Our paper Intuitive network topology was published in Journal of Experimental Psychology: General. (June 2024)
Our paper Number adaptation: A critical look was published in Cognition, followed by a debate. (May 2024)
Our paper Oblique warping: A general distortion of spatial perception was published in Cognition. (April 2024)