Mintao has moved to the University of East Anglia as a Lecturer in the School of Psychology. He is currently a Guest Research Scientist in the Department of Human Perception, Cognition, and Action, Max Planck Institute for Biological Cybernetics. He completed his Ph.D. study at the Insititute of Psychology, Chinese Academy of Sciences. He then moved to the University of Hong Kong and Brown University for his postdoc training on face processing and spatial navigation.
His research focuses on human face recognition and spatial navigation, aiming to unravel how people perceive and represent faces and spaces, and how people use these representations to recognize faces and to navigate between places. He uses multiple research approaches to address these questions, including psychophysics, virtual environment, eye-movement tracking, and functional MRI.
For more information about Mintao and his research, please visit here.
Cognitive and Neural Processes Underlying Face Recognition and Spatial Navigation
One primary function of human perception, cognition, and action is to effecitvely interact with the environment. My research aims to understand two fundamental aspects of these human-environment interactions: (a) how do we perceive, recognize, and interact with faces (i.e., interacting with our soical environment), and (b) how do we perceive, represent, and navigate in spaces (i.e., interacting with our physical environment).
The ulitmate goal of my research is to understand the cognitive and neural mechasnisms underlying the dynamic human-environment interactions (i.e., face recognition and spatial navigaiton), and more importantly, to imporve the way we interact with the dynamic physical and social environments (i.e., improve face- and space-related cognitive and social ability).
Other-Race Effect (ORE) in Face Memory
- Why do people have difficulty recognizing other-race faces?
- How to reduce such difficulty in eyewitness memory?
Holistic Processing of Faces and Non-Face Objects
- What type of information underlies holistic processing?
- Is holistic processing related to face recognition ability?
Naturalistic Face Recognition: Dynamic Faces
- How does facial motion affect holistic processing and ORE?
- What makes some natural faces more memorable than others?
Cue Interaction in Human Navigation
- How do people use visual and non-visual cues for navigation?
- What determines our sense of direction during navigation?
Neural Mechanisms Supporting Recognition and Navigation
- How does the brain represents faces and spaces?
- What brain networks support recognition and navigation?
Artikel (20): | |
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Zhao M  und Bülthoff I (Oktober-2013) The other-race effect in face recognition is sensitive to face format at encoding
Visual Cognition 21(6) 722-725. 
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Zhao M und (Januar-2013) Integrative processing of invariant aspects of faces: Effect of gender and race processing on identity analysis
Journal of Vision 13(1:15) 1-18.
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Zhao M und (April-2010) Holistic processing underlies gender judgments of faces
Attention, Perception, & Psychophysics 72(3) 591-596.
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Zhao M , , , und (Juni-2007) Spatial updating during locomotion does not eliminate viewpoint-dependent visual object processing
Visual Cognition 15(4) 402-419.
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, Zhao M und (Januar-2007) Layout geometry in the selection of intrinsic frames of reference from multiple
Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition 33(1) 145-154.
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, Zhao M und (2006) [Human spatial memory and spatial navigation]
Advance in Psychological Science 14 497-504. |
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Zhao M (2006) [Mental representation of locations and spatial relations of objects in a scene]
Advance in Psychological Science 14 321-327. |
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Zhao M und (Mai-2005) [Orientation specificity of spatial representation in multi-view learning]
Acta Psychologica Sinica 27(3) 308-313.
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Poster (33): | |
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Zhao M und Bülthoff I (August-2013): Learning Faces from Multiple Viewpoints Eliminates the Other-Race Effect, 36th European Conference on Visual Perception (ECVP 2013), Bremen, Germany, Perception, 42(ECVP Abstract Supplement) 204.
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Zhao M und (August-2012): Does Path Integration Serve as a "Reference System" for Detecting Landmark Instability?, 12th Annual Meeting of the Vision Sciences Society (VSS 2012), Naples, FL, USA, Journal of Vision, 12(9) 198.
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, Zhao M , , , , und (Juni-2012): Perception of configural and componential information in own- and other-race faces: An fMRI study, 18th Annual Meeting of the Organization for Human Brain Mapping (OHBM 2012), Beijing, China.
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Zhao M und (November-2011): How Do Humans Detect Landmark Instability During Navigation?, 52nd Annual Meeting of the Psychonomic Society, Seattle, WA, USA, Abstracts of the Psychonomic Society, 16 78.
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Zhao M und (September-2011): Is path integration an automatic process or a back-up system for landmark-based navigation?, 11th Annual Meeting of the Vision Sciences Society (VSS 2011), Naples, FL, USA, Journal of Vision, 11(11) 929.
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Zhao M und (November-20-2010): Path Integration and Visual Landmarks: Optimal Combination
or Multiple Systems?, 51st Annual Meeting of the Psychonomic Society, St. Louis, MO, USA, Abstracts of the Psychonomic Society, 15 133.
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Zhao M und (August-2010): Are path integration and visual landmarks optimally combined in spatial navigation?, International Conference Spatial Cognition (SC 2010), Portland, OR, USA.
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, Zhao M , , und (August-2009): Dissociating contributions of configural and component information to the own-race advantage in face recognition, 9th Annual Meeting of the Vision Sciences Society (VSS 2009), Naples, FL, USA, Journal of Vision, 9(8) 504.
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Zhao M und (August-2009): Holistic gender perception for both own-race and other-race faces, 9th Annual Meeting of the Vision Sciences Society (VSS 2009), Naples, FL, USA, Journal of Vision, 9(8) 500.
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, Zhao M und (Juli-2008): Configuration and component processing of own-race and other-races faces, Asia-Pacific Conference on Vision (APCV 2008), Brisbane, Australia. |
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, , Zhao M , und (Juni-2006): Spatial updating during locomotion does not eliminate viewpoint dependence in visual object processing, 6th Annual Meeting of the Vision Sciences Society (VSS 2006), Sarasota, FL, USA, Journal of Vision, 6(6) 316.
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, Zhao M und (November-2005): Layout geometry and viewing perspectives in the selection of intrinsic frames of reference, 46th Annual Meeting of The Psychonomic Society, Toronto, ON, Canada, Abstracts of the Psychonomic Society, 10 52.
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Vorträge (9): | |
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Zhao M und Bülthoff I (November-14-2013) Abstract Talk: The other-race effect in face recognition is sensitive to
face format at encoding, 21st Annual Conference on Object Perception, Attention, and Memory (OPAM 2013), Toronto, ON, Canada.
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Zhao M und Bülthoff I (November-6-2013) Invited Lecture: The other-race effect in face recognition is sensitive to face format at encoding, The University of Hong Kong: Department of Psychology Seminar, Hong Kong, China.
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Zhao M und (Mai-17-2013) Invited Lecture: Visual and self-motion cues are integrated to improve navigation precision, but compete to determine navigation direction, Spatial Memory: Bayes and Beyond, Richmond, VA, USA. |
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, Zhao M und (November-28-2006) Abstract Talk: Layout geometry affects the selection of intrinsic frames of reference in spatial memory, National Conference on Brain and Cognitive Sciences, Guilin, China. |