Objects And Knowledge Lab

Welcome to the Objects and Knowledge Laboratory, the website for Olivia Cheung's laboratory at New York University Abu Dhabi.

A postdoctoral researcher/research assistant position will be available in Fall 2023. If interested, apply here or send your CV and a brief research statement to Olivia.

The OAK Lab studies object recognition and perceptual expertise, using primarily a combination of behavioral, functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), and computational methods.

The general research goal of the lab is to understand how the human brain perceives the visual world, and how such processes are influenced by experience and learning. We study this broad question by examining how visual and conceptual knowledge interact to constrain representations of various categories, including objects, faces, words, musical notations, and scenes. 

See a recent NYUAD feature article about the lab's research: Making sense of the way the brain makes sense

Several ongoing research projects include:

How do socio-emotional factors influence face recognition?

How do different types of conceptual knowledge influence recognition of objects and scenes? 

To what extent is category selectivity in the brain influenced by conceptual knowledge?

How does the brain accommodate the acquisition of perceptual expertise for multiple categories?

Check out our presentations at V-VSS 2022:

He, C., & Cheung, O.S. Ensemble representation for animacy: Effects of shape and category. [poster]

Zhang, T.B., Jin, H., Erdi, A., & Cheung, O.S. Is holistic word processing influenced by word meaning? [poster]

Jintcharadze, D., & Cheung, O.S. Predicting election outcome by a human face. [poster] *Undergraduate Just In-time presentation 

Podmokly, J., & Cheung, O.S. Roles of animacy, object size, and context on object representations in the occipitotemporal cortex. [poster] *Undergraduate Just In-time presentation 

Cheung, O.S., & He, C. Functional connectivity and representational content of tool category and elongation in tool-selective parietal cortex. [talk]