STU Psychologist Wins Prestigious NSERC Research Grant to Study Multisensory Perception
How our brains integrate information to allow us to comprehend our surroundings is the subject of a significant new research grant awarded to St. Thomas University Psychology Professor Dr. Hiu Mei (Doris) Chow.
Dr. Chow has been awarded a Discovery Grant from the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council (NSERC), the first grant of this type ever won by a faculty member at STU.
With the grant, she will continue a program of experiments to advance the understanding of how the human brain processes complex information via multiple senses. The research has potential application in education, user experience, and technology development.
“Our ability to integrate multiple sensory inputs seems so effortless and intuitive in most of us, but it should not be taken for granted,” said Dr. Chow.
“By deepening our understanding of how the human brain integrates multiple sensory inputs—using human observers’ perception and behaviour as a window—the knowledge we gather can have broad implications in a variety of situations, from enhancing flavour by playing the right background music, making devices to translate seeing to hearing for individuals with low vision, to answering philosophical questions like what makes one sense different from another.”
Through her experiments, Dr. Chow seeks to understand what, when, and how audio-visual inputs are integrated. These experiments are conducted in her laboratory as well as “in the field” in real-life conditions such as experiments with commuters aboard trams in Hong Kong that traversed hills and flatlands to test people’s perception of verticality.
Scientific Research in a Liberal Arts Environment
Dr. Chow has a trainee-centred philosophy focused on mentoring undergraduate students, who receive cutting-edge training in scientific experimental methods and analysis.
“As a student at a liberal arts university, participating in Dr. Chow’s research lab helps round out my experience by exposing me to research exploring biological underpinnings of perception and cognition,” says Serena Bunin, BA’24, who completed an Honours in Psychology with a double-minor in Anthropology and Sociology.
Bunin completed a summer research internship in Dr. Chow’s lab, having won the NSERC Undergraduate Summer Research Award.
“Through our research activities, I have also gained confidence in working with human participants in a professional setting. For example, helping participants understand their rights as part of the consenting process, and giving instructions and feedback to participants.”