Andreas Breuer

Program affiliation: Cognition and Brain Sciences

Research interests

Andreas Breuer My research interests are in various cognition and memory topics. My primary focus is in how “higher-level” domains of cognition (e.g., object recognition and language processing) may interact with motor processing. For example, does the understanding of words that refer to manipulable objects (e.g., tools) lead to the activation of knowledge related to our physical interactions with these objects? Does the knowledge related to physical interactions help in the understanding of language? My work in this area includes the use of behavioural measures (e.g., reaction time), investigations using a mathematic model (EZ-diffusion model), and more recently the introduction of brain wave recording (event-related potentials).

An additional interest involves unconscious perception. We have been investigating the nature of unconscious processing and the possibility that conscious and unconscious processing are guided by similar principles. For example, consciously and unconsciously-perceived words may both lead to the formation of long-term memory resources.

I am also interested in the influence of fluency on various forms of judgments, e.g., recognition decisions and judgments of aesthetic preference.

Awards

Norma M. Wilson Graduate Scholarship 2010
Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council (NSERC) Postgraduate Scholarship (Doctoral) 2008-2010
NSERC Canada Graduate Scholarship (Masters) 2006-2008
President’s Research Award 2006-2010
Donald O. Hebb Award Best Conference Spoken Presentation by a Graduate Student 2007

Representative publications

Masson, M. E. J., Bub, D. N., & Breuer, A. T. (in press). Priming of reach and grasp actions by handled objects. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception and Performance.

Warren, C. M., Breuer, A. T., Kantner, J., Fiset, D., Blais, C., & Masson, M. E. J. (2009). Target-Distractor Interference in the Attentional Blink Implicates the Locus Coeruleus-Norepinephrine System. Psychonomic Bulletin and Review, 16(6), 1106-1111.

Breuer, A. T., Masson, M. E. J., Coen, A.-L., & Lindsay, D. S. (2009). Long-term repetition priming of briefly identified objects. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition, 35, 487-498.

Conference presentations

Breuer, A. T., Masson, M. E. J., & Bodner, G. E. (2010). A long-term effect of subliminally presented words. Poster presented at the 51st Annual Meeting of the Psychonomic Society, St. Louis, USA.

Tousignant, C., Bodner, G. E., Breuer, A. T., & Warren, C. (2010). Context affects subjective evaluations of paintings. Poster presented at the 12th Annual Northwest Cognition and Memory conference, Bellingham, USA.

Breuer, A. T., Bub, D. N., & Masson, M. E. J. (2010, January). The effect of object rotation on the activation of hand action representations. Poster presented at the joint meeting of the Perceptual Expertise Network and Temporal Dynamics of Learning Center, San Diego, USA.

Breuer, A. T., & Warren, C. M. (2009). Is fluency hedonically marked? Poster presented at the 11th Annual Northwest Cognition and Memory conference, Victoria, Canada.

Breuer, A. T., & Masson, M. E. J. (2008). Examining the intervener effect in masked repetition priming. Poster presented at the10th annual Northwest Cognition and Memory Conference, Seattle, USA.

Warren, C. M., Fiset, D., Kantner, J., Breuer, A. T., Blais, C., Masson, M. E. J. (2008). Dynamics of the Locus Coeruleus-Norepinephrine System Predict Extended Sparing in the Attentional Blink. Poster presentation at the 2008 Annual meeting of the Cognitive Neuroscience Society, San Francisco, California.

Breuer, A. T., Masson, M. E. J., Coen, A.-L., & Lindsay, D. S. (2007, November). Memory consolidation during rapid serial visual presentation. Paper presented at the 48th Annual Meeting of the Psychonomic Society, Long Beach, USA.

E-mail: abreuer@uvic.ca
Phone: 250-721-7545
Office: A045 - Cornett