Basic and Applied Visual Psychophysics Group

The term Psychophysics refers to the branch of psychology that is concerned with the relationship between the external physical stimulus and behavioural/perceptual decisions.

The Visual Psychophysics Group at the University of Plymouth develops and applies psychophysical methods, such as detection/discrimination threshold measurements or neuronal adaptation, to study visual perception in healthy subjects and clinical populations. The research interests of this group range from basic research to understand shape, object, colour, motion and face perception, to the development of efficient clinical tests for specific ocular diseases, such as amblyopia, age-related macular degeneration, and glaucoma.

Basic and Applied Visual Psychophysics Group members

Key publications

Georgeson, M. A., Barhoom, H., Joshi, M. R., Artes, P. H., & Schmidtmann, G. (2023). Revealing the influence of bias in a letter acuity identification task: A noisy template model. Vision Research, 208, 108233. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.visres.2023.108233
Joshi, M. R., Voison K. J., Piano, M., Farnon, N., & Bex, P. J. (2022) A novel tool for quantitative measurement of distortion in keratoconus. Eye. [doi]
Zahidi A.A.A, McIlreavy L, Erichsen JT and Woodhouse JM. 2022. Visual and Refractive Status of Children With Down's Syndrome and Nystagmus. Investigative Ophthalmology & Visual Science. 63(2):28
Little, C., Solomonova, E., Jordan, M., Klein, N., Jennings, B., Schmidtmann, G., Leos, H., & Gold, I. (2022). The discrimination of self from other as a component of empathy. Emotion. Advance online publication. https://doi.org/10.1037/emo0001193
Warner, C. L., Bunn, L., Koohi, N., Schmidtmann, G., Freeman, J., & Kaski, D. (2021). Clinician’s perspectives in using head impulse-nystagmus-test of skew (HINTS) for acute vestibular syndrome: UK experience. Stroke and Vascular Neurology, svn. https://doi.org/10.1136/svn-2021-001229
Barhoom, H.S., Joshi, M.R., Schmidtmann G. (2021). The effect of response biases on resolution thresholds of Sloan letters in central and paracentral vision. Vision Research, 187, 110–119. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.visres.2021.06.002
Sharkawi E, Artes PH, Lindegger DJ, Dari ML, El Wardani M, Pasquier J, Guarnieri A. Gonioscopy-assisted transluminal trabeculotomy in primary angle-closure glaucoma (2021) Graefe's Archive for Clinical and Experimental Ophthalmology. DOI 10.1007/s00417-021-05244-7.
Khanal, S., Paudel, N., & Joshi, M. R. (2021). “Optometry in Nepal: a historical perspective.” Clinical and Experimental Optometry, 1-4.
Joshi, M. R, Simmers A. J., & Jeon S. T. (2021) “The interaction of global motion and global form processing on the perception of implied motion: an equivalent noise approach.” Vision Research, 61(5):58.
Wolffsohn, J.S., Ghorbani-Mojarrad, N., Vianya-Estopa, M., Nagra, M., Huntjens, B., Terry, L., Sweeney, L.E., Dutta, D., Joshi, M.R., Wright, D., Bruce, H., Hallam, E., Jolly, L., Chung, Y.B., En Tsen, J.R., Bishop, A., Davison, R., & Maldonado-Codina, C. (2021). Fast versus gradual adaptation of soft monthly contact lenses in neophyte wearers. Contact Lens and Anterior Eye, 101469.
Schmidtmann, G., Logan, A. J., Carbon, C.-C., Loong, J. T., & Gold, I. (2020). In the Blink of an Eye: Reading Mental States From Briefly Presented Eye Regions. I-Perception. https://doi.org/10.1177/2041669520961116
Schmidtmann, G., Jennings, B. J., Sandra, D. A., Pollock, J., & Gold, I. (2020). The McGill Face Database: validation and insights into the recognition of facial expressions of complex mental states. Perception, 49(3), 310-329.
Sharkawi E, Lindegger DJ, Artes PH, Lehmann-Clarke L, El Wardani M, Misteli M, Pasquier J, Guarnieri A. (2020) Outcomes of gonioscopy-assisted transluminal trabeculotomy in pseudoexfoliative glaucoma: 24-month follow-up. Br J Ophthalmol. doi: 10.1136/bjophthalmol-2020-315954.
Jammal AA, Ferreira BG, Zangalli CS, Vianna JR, Thompson AC, Artes PH, Costa VP, Reis ASC. Evaluation of contrast sensitivity in patients with advanced glaucoma: comparison of two tests. (2020) Br J Ophthalmol. doi:10.1136/bjophthalmol-2019-315273
Joshi, M. R., Simmers A. J., & Jeon S. T. (2020) “Implied motion from form shows motion aids the perception of global form in amblyopia.” Investigative Ophthalmology and Visual Science, 61(5):58.
Joshi, M. R., Persad V., & Farnon N. (2020) “A retrospective study of causes of visual impairment and use of low vision devices in the low vision clinic in Trinidad and Tobago.” Journal of Optometry, In Press.
Jennings, B. J., Schmidtmann, G., Wehbé, F., Kingdom, F. A. A., & Farivar, R. (2019), Detection of distortions in images of natural scenes in mild traumatic brain injury patients. Vision Research, 161, 12-17
Schmidtmann, G., Kingdom, F. A. A., & Loffler, G. (2019). The processing of compound radial frequency patterns. Vision Research, 161, 63–74.
Schmidtmann, G., & Fruend, I. (2019), Radial frequency patterns describe a small and perceptually distinct subset of all possible planar shapes. Vision Research, 154, 122–130. 
Marín-Franch, I., Artes, P. H., Chong, L. X., Turpin, A., & Wall, M. (2018). Data obtained with an open-source static automated perimetry test of the full visual field in healthy adults. Data in brief, 21, 75-82.
Wall, M., Zamba, G. K., & Artes, P. H. (2018). The effective dynamic ranges for glaucomatous visual field progression with standard automated perimetry and stimulus sizes III and V. Investigative ophthalmology & visual science, 59(1), 439-445.
Mönter, V. M., Crabb, D. P., & Artes, P. H. (2017). Reclaiming the periphery: automated kinetic perimetry for measuring peripheral visual fields in patients with glaucoma. Investigative ophthalmology & visual science, 58(2), 868-875.
Joshi, M. R., Simmers A. J., Jeon S. T. (2016) ''Concurrent investigation of global motion and form processing in amblyopia: an equivalent noise approach.'' Investigative Ophthalmology and Visual Science, 57(11), 5015-5022.
Sharkawi, E., Artes, P. H., Oleszczuk, J. D., Bela, C., Achache, F., Barton, K., & Bergin, C. (2016). Systematic occlusion of shunts: control of early postoperative IOP and hypotony-related complications following glaucoma shunt surgery. Journal of glaucoma, 25(1), 54-61.
Joshi, M. R., & Falkenberg, H. K. (2015). ''Development of radial optic flow pattern sensitivity at different speeds.'' Vision Research, 110, 68-75.
Chauhan, B. C., Malik, R., Shuba, L. M., Rafuse, P. E., Nicolela, M. T., & Artes, P. H. (2014). Rates of glaucomatous visual field change in a large clinical population. Investigative ophthalmology & visual science, 55(7), 4135-4143.