Speaker: Prof. Chris Olivers, Department of Experimental and Applied Psychology, Institute for Brain and Behaviour, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, The Netherlands

Time: May 25, 1:00-2:30 PM

Venue: Room 1113, Wangkezhen Building

Host: Prof. Huan Luo

Student Host: Chihao Peng

Abstract

Visual working memory (VWM) refers to the cognitive mechanisms that allow us to temporarily retain task relevant visual information. Traditionally, VWM has been studied as a memory of something, emphasizing the capacity and fidelity of maintained representations. More recent work, however, frames VWM as a memory for something—highlighting its prospective role in guiding goals, attention, and action. In this talk, I will review several lines of research from my lab that investigate VWM as a function of the upcoming task. These include memory for attention, memory for action, and memory for task scheduling. Across these projects, we show how the prospective purpose of VWM reshapes its representations and the control processes that govern them.

Bio

Chris Olivers (MSc Nijmegen 1996; PhD Birmingham 2001) is Full Professor of Visual Cognition, principal investigator at the Institute for Brain and Behaviour Amsterdam, and Head of the Department of Experimental and Applied Psychology at the Vrije Universiteit (VU), Amsterdam. He teaches on the workings of perception and cognition at Bachelor, Honors, and Master levels. His research focuses on mechanisms of visual perception, attention, working memory, and cognitive control, using a behavioral and neuroscientific approaches. Influential work includes how irrelevant visual information may be suppressed, how attention fails over time, how attention dynamically changes depending on observer’s goals, and which capacity limitations the cognitive system faces when observers try to find multiple relevant pieces of information. He plays an active role in research ethics, including devising national policy.

2026-05-19