Research
visual perception, eye movements, object and shape perception, peripheral vision, visual prediction, visual inference
Interests
My research broadly investigates how humans perceive the visual world and make eye-movements to guide decisions and actions. I combine behavioural and psychophysical methods with eye-tracking, computational modelling, reaching, computer graphics, and statistical modelling to investigate the following topics:
1) Oculomotor planning. When we need information about something in our environment, we make rapid eye movements (saccades) to bring objects or areas of interest into our high-resolution central vision. How does this planning happen, and what sort of factors (visual, environmental, internal) determine when and where we direct our gaze?
2) Peripheral vs central vision. We make eye movements 2-3 times every second, but maintain a stable percept of the world, despite a constant change of visual input on the retina. How does the brain achieve this, and how is our experience of the world shaped by both peripheral and central vision?
3) Perceptual inference. Humans can make rapid inferences based on the physical properties (i.e. shape, geometry) of objects in the world. How do we make such inferences, and how do they affect motor planning, metacognition, and decision-making?
4) Past experience. Humans build priors about how things in the world will act, based on a lifetime of visual experience. How do these priors shape perception, action, and oculomotor planning?
5) Object viewpoint perception. Objects look different depending on how they are situated relative to you. How can we use non-uniformities in object viewpoint perception to inform us about the nature and dimensionality of our inner world, our mind’s eye?
6) Physical understanding and oculomotor control. How does our physical understanding of the world affect our interactions with the world via eye movements, and what is the interconnection between our mental models of the world and oculomotor control?
**Biography**
After completing undergraduate degrees in Psychology, Law, and French, I completed my PhD in Psychology at The University of Adelaide in Australia, under the supervision of Prof Anna Ma-Wyatt. For my PhD work, I investigated how visual perception changes when humans make eye and hand movements. I then moved to Germany in 2016 to do a post-doc with Prof Alexander Schutz at the University of Marburg, where my research focussed on how humans maintain the percept of a stable world, despite making 2-3 eye movements every second. In 2021 was awarded a grant from the German research council (DFG) to work with Prof Roland Fleming at JLU Giessen (Germany), where I led my own research program looking at how inferences from the physical properties of objects in the world influence eye movements. In December 2023 I joined Queen Mary as a Lecturer (equiv. Asst. Prof) in Psychology.
Publications

Publications of specific relevance to the Centre for Brain and Behaviour
2024
Spatial and directional tuning of serial dependence for tracking eye movementsGoettker A and
Stewart EEM Journal of Vision,
Association For Research in Vision and Ophthalmology (Arvo) vol. 24 (12), 12-12.
26-11-2024
A simple optical flow model explains why certain object viewpoints are specialStewart EEM, Fleming RW and Schütz AC
Proceedings of The Royal Society B,
The Royal Society vol. 291 (2026), 20240577-20240577.
01-07-20242023
The eyes anticipate where objects will move based on their shapeStewart EEM and Fleming RW
Current Biology,
Elsevier vol. 33 (17), r894-r895.
01-09-20232022
Mental object rotation based on two-dimensional visual representationsStewart EEM, Hartmann FT, Morgenstern Y, Storrs KR, Maiello G and Fleming RW
Current Biology,
Elsevier vol. 32 (21), r1224-r1225.
01-11-2022
Exploring the Interplay Between Message Format, Need for Cognition and Personal Relevance on Processing Messages About Physical Activity: a Two-Arm Randomized Experimental TrialShort CE, Crutzen R, Stewart EM, O’Rielly J, Dry M, Skuse A, Quester P, Rebar AL, Vandelanotte C, Duncan MJ and Vincent A
International Journal of Behavioral Medicine,
Springer Nature vol. 30 (3), 320-333.
10-06-2022
Serial dependence for oculomotor control depends on early sensory signalsGoettker A and
Stewart EEM Current Biology,
Elsevier vol. 32 (13), 2956-2961.e3.
30-05-2022
Humans represent the precision and utility of information acquired across fixationsStewart EEM, Ludwig CJH and Schütz AC
Scientific Reports,
Springer Nature vol. 12 (1), 2411-2411.
14-02-20222020
A review of interactions between peripheral and foveal visionStewart EEM, Valsecchi M and Schütz AC
Journal of Vision,
Association For Research in Vision and Ophthalmology (Arvo) vol. 20 (12), 2-2.
03-11-2020
Stronger saccadic suppression of displacement and blanking effect in childrenStewart EEM, Hübner C and Schütz AC
Journal of Vision,
Association For Research in Vision and Ophthalmology (Arvo) vol. 20 (10), 13-13.
01-10-20202019
The spatial and temporal properties of attentional selectivity for saccades and reachesStewart EEM, Verghese P and Ma-Wyatt A
Journal of Vision,
Association For Research in Vision and Ophthalmology (Arvo) vol. 19 (9), 12-12.
21-08-2019
Transsaccadic integration benefits are not limited to the saccade targetStewart EEM and Schütz AC
Journal of Neurophysiology,
American Physiological Society vol. 122 (4), 1491-1501.
31-07-2019
Transsaccadic integration is dominated by early, independent noiseStewart EEM and Schütz AC
Journal of Vision,
Association For Research in Vision and Ophthalmology (Arvo) vol. 19 (6), 17-17.
17-06-20192018
Optimal trans-saccadic integration relies on visual working memoryStewart EEM and Schütz AC
Vision Research,
Elsevier vol. 153, 70-81.
24-10-20182017
Attention modulates trans-saccadic integrationStewart EEM and Schütz AC
Vision Research,
Elsevier vol. 142, 1-10.
07-12-2017
The profile of attention differs between locations orthogonal to and in line with reach directionStewart EEM and Ma-Wyatt A
Attention, Perception, & Psychophysics,
Springer Nature vol. 79 (8), 2412-2423.
07-08-20172015
The spatiotemporal characteristics of the attentional shift relative to a reachStewart EEM and Ma-Wyatt A
Journal of Vision,
Association For Research in Vision and Ophthalmology (Arvo) vol. 15 (5), 10-10.
10-04-2015