ProfessorAlex Holcombe

As you read this text, your mind rapidly samples and processes the words on the page. Experiments in my lab reveal how such streams of visual information are buffered and prioritized for recognition and processing into memory. We have developed techniques that recently have provided insights into how naps can boost learning and into how damage to the parietal lobe of the brain affects rapid letter processing.

One challenge during reading and other tasks is keeping separated, while processing in parallel, the representations of rapidly encountered stimuli. This is also an issue when we try to keep track of multiple moving objects in a busy scene. Behavioral experiments, illustrated by some animations here, compare speed limits for different features and the dynamics of how these features are bound into a coherent percept.

I am also interested, along with others at the Centre for Time, in how the architecture of the mind affects our representations of the past, present, and future.

My research aligns with the Faculty of Science Research Strengths - Cultivating Scientific Capability, Brain Behaviour and Cognition, Health and Wellbeing Across the Lifespan.