Biography:

      Greta Munger joined the Psychology Department in the fall of 1994. She received her B.A. (1989) from the University of Chicago, and her Ph.D. (1994) from Columbia University. Dr. Munger's area of interest is perception, how we organize and understand the world around us. She teaches General Psychology, Cognitive Psychology, Perception & Attention, History and Systems, and a seminar on perception and cognition in the arts entitled "Psychology Goes to the Movies". Her teaching has led to a book, The History of Psychology: Fundamental Questions (Oxford, 2003), and a co-authored blog on things cognitive, Cognitive Daily.
      Dr. Munger and her students conduct experiments in visual cognition, in particular examining how we perceive and understand the world in motion around us. They present participants with glimpses of objects in motion and look at what aspects of the object and its motion are easy to see (e.g. motion about a vertical axis, like spinning), and what aspects are harder to see (e.g. motion about a horizontal axis, like tumbling). As part of her lab course (Psy 301), tutorials, and senior thesis projects, students have examined a variety of events—from cubes rotating about various axes and red balls translating across the screen to biomechanical movement, memory for scenes, and perception of motion through a scene. Using a wide range of objects and motions, they hope to further understanding of how we perceive the world in motion so clearly, yet with so little effort.