Constanze Hesse (PI)

Dr Constanze Hesse obtained her PhD (Dr. rer. nat.) in April 2008 at the Justus-Liebig University Giessen in Germany under the supervision of Dr Volker Franz (“The use of visual information when grasping objects”). Between March 2008 and March 2010, she was a post-doctoral research associate at the department of Experimental Psychology at the Ludwig-Maximilians University in Munich where she worked with Prof Heiner Deubel. In Munich, she focused her research on the role of attention in grasping as part of the Cluster of Excellence: “Cognitive Technical Systems”. In March 2010 she obtained funding from the German Research Foundation for a 2-year post-doctoral research project investigating the role of the dorsal and ventral pathway in perception and action processing at Durham University (UK) together with Prof Thomas Schenk. In April 2012 she started her position as a Lecturer at Aberdeen University where she was promoted in 2017 to Senior Lecturer.

See also: https://www.abdn.ac.uk/psychology/people/profiles/c.hesse

Martin Giesel (Post-Doc)

During his PhD, working with Karl Gegenfurter at the University of Giessen, Martin investigated chromatic discrimination and colour appearance of complex naturalistic stimuli using psychophysical experimentation and computational modelling. Supported by a DFG-funded post-doctoral scholarship, he investigated the visual perception of materials and material properties at SUNY College of Optometry working with Qasim Zaidi. In 2015, he moved to Scotland and joined Julie Harris’ lab at the University of St Andrews where he worked on a project investigating the perception of motion-in-depth and vergence eye movements. In 2018, he joined the GRasPER lab, where he currently investigates avenues of using motor behaviour (approach and avoidance behaviour) as a tool to investigate perceptual processes.

Karina Kangur (PhD-Student)

Karina Kangur obtained her undergraduate degree in psychology at the University of Aberdeen in 2016. She then did a Master of Research degree (MRes) investigating the optimality of decision making in reaching movements under the supervision of Dr Amelia Hunt and Dr Constanze Hesse. In 2017 she obtained funding from the EASTBIO doctoral training partnership (funded by the BBSRC) to work on a project investigating the perception of material and texture in vision and action under the joint supervision of Dr Constanze Hesse and Prof Julie Harris from St Andrews University.

Róisín Harrison (PhD-Student)

Róisín Harrison completed her psychology undergraduate degree in 2019 at the University of Aberdeen. Róisín’s research interests include motor expertise obtained through sport, and how this relates to the perception and execution of complex human movements. In her PhD project she is examining the benefits of motor expertise on basic perceptual, motor and proprioceptive performance, under the supervision of Dr Constanze Hesse.

Daniela Ruseva (Research Assistant & MRes Student)

Daniela obtained her undergraduate degree in psychology at the University of Aberdeen in 2022. In September 2022, she joined the lab as a Research Assistant on an ESRC-funded project investigating the cognitive and sensory basis for natural behaviour in Virtual Reality. She is also currently an MRes student and in her research project she investigates the effect of colour on approach biases toward different types of food.