GRK 3147:  Perceiving and Interacting with Materials and Objects in Naturalistic Environments

• Subject Area: Psychology
• Term: since 2026
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 547865311

Perception and interaction with the world are supported by a complex cascade of perceptual, cognitive, and motor processes. Despite decades of research we are only beginning to understand what it takes to perceive and interact with materials and objects in everyday contexts. To date, most core insights have come from strictly controlled laboratory experiments that reduce perception and action to simple conditions, such as perceiving individual objects without context or performing discrete actions like button presses. To understand how human perception and interaction function in the real world, they need to be researched in settings that more closely mimic everyday situations. The RTG constitutes the joint effort of researchers from Psychology and Cognitive Neuroscience to advance the field across three key areas: (1) how we perceive materials and objects under naturalistic conditions, (2) how we interact with and manipulate our everyday environments, and (3) how these processes vary across individuals and across the lifespan. By combining latest methods from computer graphics, virtual reality, mobile eye and body tracking, EEG and fMRI recordings, as well as computational models such as deep neural networks (DNNs) tailored to naturalistic stimuli and tasks, we will study complex, realistic stimuli during free interactions with the environment. Our research approach will provide a unique opportunity for training doctoral researchers in the latest theoretical developments and a wide variety of cutting-edge behavioral, neuroscientific, and computational methods. The goals of our qualification program are: (1) individually tailored and personalized opportunities to acquire skills critical for careers inside and outside academia, (2) a course program that establishes theoretical knowledge and a common conceptual framework on material and object perception and interaction, (3) research and training that allows for in-depth research while acquiring a broad range of methodological skills, and (4) the development of the doctoral researchers to become independent scientists. Justus Liebig University Giessen is the idea place for the RTG, with a world-leading group of perception and action researchers, a strong history in structural graduate training in this research area, comprehensive support structures for doctoral researchers offered by the university, as well as an excellent research infrastructure. This environment enables world-class research and training of the next generation of doctoral researchers.

• DFG Programme: Research Training Groups
• Applicant Institution: Justus-Liebig-Universität Gießen
• Spokesperson: Professorin Dr. Katja Fiehler
• Participating Researchers: Professorin Dr. Jutta Billino; Professorin Dr. Katharina Dobs; Professorin Katja Doerschner-Boyaci, Ph.D.; Professor Dr. Knut Drewing; Professor Roland William Fleming, Ph.D.; Professor Benjamin de Haas, Ph.D.; Professor Dr. Martin Hebart; Professor Dr. Mathias Hegele; Professorin Dr. Bianca Jovanovic; Professor Daniel Kaiser, Ph.D.; Professorin Dr. Bianca van Kemenade