Broad Overview
Research Philosophy
I am primarily an expert in experimental phenomenology. My research in studying perceptual experiences stems from an approach which assumes universal invariants in the structure of experience. This is true not only between different experiences, but also between different experiencers.
So far, my research has focused on two such constraints. (1) Temporality, and (2) Indeterminacy. Though there is more to come.
Research Avenues
In the past, I have studied attention, decision making, learning, visual perception, and mental imagery in light of these constraints.
I developed novel experimental paradigms, tools, and illusions to study consciousness via a mirroring approach. From the viewpoint of a cognitive scientist, it means seeing phenomenological properties as necessary and constitutive properties of mental representations.
Thus, this forms a holistic way of understanding the mind with studying common properties which scaffold experiences, biology, neuroscience, and computational mechanisms.
Research Implications
A research program which elucidates invariant structures of experience can contribute across the board for all of mind sciences.
In my work, I have been looking at whether these universals apply to animal minds, and can inform us of their Umwelts. Not just for their behaviour, but also of ecological and ethological pressures.
I have also been exploring whether perturbations to these structures can account for pathology. Specifically in schizophrenia, dementia, and Alzheimer's disorders. Especially the latter two, which are considered purely cognitive, I am interested in exploring systematic alterations in the structures of experiences.
Finally, in the most ambitious (read crazy) foray, I wonder whether phenomenology and biology share common principles. If so, behaviour of basic biological agents should be predictable by models of human experience. Recently, I have been designing experiments for a research group pursuing these questions.