My research explores the intimate relationship between object, language and perception in Shakespeare's plays. Using an analytical approach inspired by basic principles of phenomenology, I consider how Shakespeare's language influences our perception of real and non-present stage properties and set: how he imbues imaginary objects with an almost palpable sense of presence, and engineers our perception of onstage objects, subtly shaping and augmenting visual stimuli with verbal imagery. Through close reading centred on five plays, I explore how Shakespeare's fusion of word and object is engineered to evince a vividly visceral response to what we see, hear and imagine. My research poses the following questions: how does Shakespeare prepare the mind of a watching and listening audience to perceive more than may actually appear on stage? How far can illusion, created by language and imagination, supplement what an audience might see? How is language used to blur the boundaries between subject and object, transcending the mere exchange of characteristics? Textual examples have been selected from Shakespeare's tragedies and histories. My study does not encompass Shakespeare's comedies, for − though they offer rich opportunity for analysis − such work would require a separate approach, geared to this very different genre.

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Head-Mounted Displays (HMDs) are increasingly used to support mobile work (Laramee & Ware, 2002). Human operators sometimes require additional auditory support when using an HMD, which raises the question of whether sound is better delivered publicly in free-field or privately via earpiece. A novel experimental procedure was created in which participants had to identify mismatches between auditory information and visual information on an HMD. Different conditions of sound delivery and physical movement were manipulated within-subjects. Participants heard the sound either via earpiece or free-field while they either sat or moved about the test room. Predictions were based on the idea that inconsistent spatial mapping of vision and sound would compromise mismatch detection. First, I predicted a main effect of movement such that participants‟ mismatch detection would be worse when they moved than when they sat. Second, I predicted an interaction between movement and sound delivery. When participants are seated there will be no difference in mismatch detection between the two methods of sound delivery. When participants are walking, however, mismatch detection will be better with an earpiece than with free-field delivery. Results supported the first prediction. For the second prediction, the significant interaction found took a different form than predicted. With the earpiece, participants performed equally well whether sitting or walking, but with free-field sound, participants performed better when sitting than when walking. Results have implications for understanding necessary auditory conditions for effective crossmodal integration and may indicate a cause for concern for people who use HMDs and auditory displays in safety-critical environments.

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<p>A fundamental characteristic of human visual perception is the ability to group together disparate elements in a scene and treat them as a single unit. The mechanisms by which humans create such groupings remain unknown, but grouping seems to play an important role in a wide variety of visual phenomena. I propose a neural model of grouping; through top-down control of its circuits, the model implements a grouping strategy that involves both a connection strategy (which elements to connect) and a selection strategy (spatiotemporal properties of a selection signal that segments target elements to facilitate identification). With computer simulations I explain how the circuits work and show how they can account for a wide variety of Gestalt principles of perceptual grouping. Additionally, I extend the model so that it can simulate visual search tasks. I show that when the model uses particular grouping strategies, simulated results closely match empirical results from replication experiments of three visual search tasks. In these experiments, perceptual grouping was induced by proximity and shape similarity (Palmer & Beck, 2007), by the spacing of irrelevant distractors and size similarity (Vickery, 2008), or by the proximity of dots and the proximity and shape similarity of line figures (Trick & Enns, 1997). Thus, I show that the model accounts for a variety of grouping effects and indicates which grouping strategies were likely used to promote performance in three visual search tasks. </p>