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Miriam Spering - Postdoc

• 09/2006: Ph.D. "summa cum laude" in Psychology (Justus-Liebig University Giessen, Germany)
• 03/2002: Diploma (M.A.) in Psychology (Ruprecht-Karls-University Heidelberg, Germany)
• 07/1998: Testamur (B.Sc.) in Psychology (Exeter University, England)
• 07/1997: Prediploma in Psychology (Konstanz University, Germany)

I am interested in how we process visual information in order to interact with our environment through motor actions. Humans rely on visual feedback for most motor behaviors, and yet many approaches to understanding human movement ignore the role of vision. I study eye movements as a model system for visuomotor behavior, focusing on the visual signals that control these movements and on the interaction between movement and perception. I use a variety of experimental tools from classical visual psychophysics to state-of-the-art eye movement recordings.

Journal articles

• Spering, M., Montagnini, A., & Gegenfurtner, K.R. (2008). Competition between color and luminance in target selection for smooth pursuit and saccadic eye movements. Journal of Vision, 8, 1-19. [pdf]
• Spering, M. & Gegenfurtner, K.R. (2008). Contextual effects on motion perception and smooth pursuit eye movements. Brain Research, 1225, 76-85. [pdf]
• Spering, M., & Gegenfurtner, K.R. (2007b). Contrast and assimilation in motion perception and smooth pursuit eye movements. Journal of Neurophysiology, 98, 1355-1363. [pdf]
• Spering, M., & Gegenfurtner, K.R. (2007a). Contextual effects on smooth pursuit eye movements. Journal of Neurophysiology, 97, 1353-1367. [pdf]
• Thaler, L., Todd, J.T., Spering, M., & Gegenfurtner, K.R. (2007). Illusory bending of a rigidly moving line segment: Effects of image motion, luminance contrast and smooth pursuit eye movements. Journal of Vision, 7, 1-13. [pdf]
• Montagnini, A., Spering, M., & Masson, G.S. (2006). Predicting the 2D target velocity cannot help 2D motion integration for smooth pursuit initiation. Journal of Neurophysiology, 96, 3545-3550. [pdf]
• Spering, M., Gegenfurtner, K.R., & Kerzel, D. (2006). Distractor interference during smooth pursuit eye movements. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception and Performance, 32, 1136-1154. [pdf]
• Spering, M., Kerzel, D., Braun, D.I., Hawken, M.J., & Gegenfurtner, K.R. (2005). Effects of contrast on smooth pursuit eye movements. Journal of Vision, 5, 455-465. [pdf]
• Spering, M., Wagener, D., & Funke, J. (2005). The role of emotions in complex problem-solving. Cognition and Emotion, 19, 1252-1261. [pdf]
  

Book

• Spering, M. & Schmidt, T. (2008). Allgemeine Psychologie Kompakt [Introduction to Experimental Psychology]. Weinheim: Beltz PVU. (140 pages) [Book webpage (in German)]