Concealed Information

Research Intersts

The questions that motivate our research all revolve around visual cognition and mostly around visual memory. Specifically, we are interested in how do we maintain visual information that is no longer present? How does the brain represent visual memories across eye movements and over time? What are the neural mechanisms underlying forgetting in healthy people and patients with brain disorders?

We are engaged in investigating these topics using various research methods including neuroimaging and behavioral experiments, in healthy individuals and patients with neurological disorders. We also develop a new computational framework designed to capture novel, key aspects of visual memory.

Reveling concealed information using eye movements

The links between cognitive processes and oculomotor behavior have been studied for at least two centuries. In recent years, several researchers have examined systematically whether eye movements could be used as a reliable indicator of deception and information concealment.
The fact that, similar to other nonverbal cues, oculomotor behavior is often elicited in the absence of awareness (presumably because the involvement of subcortical pathways bolsters its prospects in such applications. As documented, observers even find it hard to identify their own scanning pattern among others' scanning patterns.
Another issue that highlights the promise in using oculomotor measures is
the relative ease of tracking the eyes even from a distance, making it very
appealing to practical settings.
We use scientifically valid methods and explore the promise of various oculomotor measurements (e.g. gaze position, pupil size) in revealing crime related information—the Concealed Information Test (CIT).