UZH - Lehrstuhl für Neuropsychologie

Dr. Marcus Cheetham
Assistent
Tel.: +41 44 635 73 93
m.cheetham@psychologie.uzh.ch

Ongoing studies

Mapping the relationship between affective state and the human likeness dimension of the Uncanny Valley Hypothesis.
Principal investigators: Dr. Marcus Cheetham and Lingdan Wu.
Co-investigators: Professor Lutz Jancke, Professor Paul Pauli.

Judgmental bias and the human likeness dimension of the Uncanny Valley Hypothesis.
Principal investigator: Dr. Marcus Cheetham.
Co-investigators: Professor Lutz Jancke.
Research associate: Kristin Moellering.

Event-related potential correlates of processing human and highly similar nonhuman faces.
Principal investigator: Dr. Marcus Cheetham.
Co-investigators: Professor Lutz Jancke.
Research associate: Heinz Blaser.

The neuroarchitecture of feeling present in virtual reality: a surface-based morphometry study.
Principal investigators: Dr. Jürgen Hänggi, Dr. Marcus Cheetham.
Co-investigators: Dr. Thomas Baumgartner, Professor Lutz Jancke.

Publications

Cheetham, M., & Jancke, L. (to be published in Journal of Visualized Experiments). Categorical perception and neuroimaging of physical and category change along the Uncanny Valley Hypothesis’ dimension of human likeness.
Cheetham, M., Hänggi, J., & Jancke, L. (in review in Social Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience). Identifying with fictive characters: Structural brain correlates.
Cheetham, M., Petrovic, I., Jordan, N., Suter, P., & Jancke, L. (in review in Frontiers in Cognition). Perceptual decision-making, the dimension of human likeness, and the uncanny valley hypothesis: An eye movement study.
Cheetham, M., Suter, P., & Jancke, L. (submitted to Frontiers in Cognition). Asymmetrical perceptual sensitivity along the human likeness dimension of the uncanny valley hypothesis.
Meier, M, L,. de Matos, N. M., Brügger, M., Ettlin, D.A., Luechinger, R., Barlow, A., Cheetham, M., Jancke, L., & Lutz, K. (submitted to Journal of Neuroscience). Differential impact of Pavlovian fear conditioning as a function of stimulation site.
Havranek, M., Langer, N., Cheetham, M., & Jancke, L. (2012). Perspective and agency during video gaming influences spatial presence experience and brain activation patterns. Behav Brain Funct. 8, (34). doi: 10.1186/1744-9081-8-34
Cheetham J.M., Rahm B., Kaller C.P., & Unterrainer J.M., (2012). Visuospatial over verbal demands in predicting Tower of London planning tasks. British Journal of Psychology, 103 (1), 98–116. DOI: 10.1111/j.2044-8295.2011.02049.x
Cheetham, M., Suter, P., & Jancke, L. (2011). The human likeness dimension of the “uncanny valley hypothesis”: behavioral and functional MRI findings. Front. Hum. Neurosci. 5, (126). doi: 10.3389/fnhum.2011.00126
Cheetham, M., Pedroni, A.F., Antley, A., Slater, M., & Jancke, L. (2009). Virtual milgram: Empathic concern or personal distress? Evidence from functional MRI and dispositional measures. Front. Hum. Neurosci. 3, (29). doi: 10.3389/neuro.09.029.2009
Jancke. L., Cheetham, M., & Baumgartner, T. (2009). Virtual reality and the role of the prefrontal cortex in adults and children. Front. Neurosci. 3, (1), 52–59. doi: 10.3389/neuro.01.006.20009
Fahrenberg, J., & Cheetham, M. (2007). Assumptions About Human Nature and the Impact of Philosophical Concepts on Professional Issues: A Questionnaire-Based Study with 800 Students From Psychology, Philosophy, and Science. Philosophy, Psychiatry, and Psychology, 14 (3), 183-201.
Fahrenberg, J., & Cheetham, M. (2007). The Evaluation of Implicit Anthropologies. Philosophy, Psychiatry, and Psychology, 14 (3), 213-214.
Fahrenberg, J., & Cheetham, M. (2000). The mind-body problem as seen by students of different disciplines. Journal of Consciousness Studies, 7 (5), 47-59.

Ongoing studies - details

Mapping the relationship between affective experience and the human likeness dimension of the Uncanny Valley Hypothesis

Abstract: The Uncanny Valley Hypothesis (Mori, 1970) predicts experience of negatively or positively valenced feelings and cognitions as a function of human likeness. Even though affective experience of humanlike robotic and computer-generated characters (avatars) has dominated uncanny research, the findings have been inconsistent. This inconsistency is in part due to the uncertainty surrounding Mori’s vague terminology to describe the hypothesis’ valence dimension, heavy reliance in many studies on subjective self-ratings using psychometrically unvalidated measures of affective state and a frequent lack of experimental control over the stimuli used to represent the hypothesis’ dimension of human likeness (DHL). The current study addresses these shortcomings by using well-established explicit and implicit measures of affective experience in order to carefully map the relationship between the hypothesis’ dimensions of valence and of human likeness. The completed data analyses throw new light on this relationship.

Output: Wu, L., Cheetham, M., Jancke, L ., & Pauli, P. (in preparation). Mapping the relationship between affective experience and the human likeness dimension of the Uncanny Valley Hypothesis .

Funding body: SNF/DFG

top

Judgmental bias and the human likeness dimension of the Uncanny Valley Hypothesis

Abstract: Uncanny-related research seeks to understand subjective experience and behaviour in response to robotic and computer-generated characters (avatars) that are designed after the human image. One approach has been to examine subjective ratings of attractiveness, pleasantness and likeability of stimuli drawn from the hypothesis’ dimension of human likeness (DHL). This study examined the extent to which cognitive representations of exemplars of the human category influence such judgments. The data show that there is a systematic judgmental bias along the DHL. The forthcoming article shows that there is a systematic judgmental bias along the DHL and discusses this bias in terms of its impact as a method artefact (when not accounted for) and its potential as an experimental tool.

Output: Cheetham, M., Moellering, K., & Jancke, L . (in preparation). Judgmental bias and the human likeness dimension of the Uncanny Valley Hypothesis

Funding body: SNF

top

Event-related potential correlates of processing human and highly similar nonhuman faces

Abstract: Little is known about differences in cerebral processing of human and highly similar human like faces. Building on the study from Cheetham et al. (2011), the present study analyzed specific components of event related potentials time-locked to stimulus onset and used low resolution brain electromagnetic tomography (LORETA) to reveal differences in temporal and spatial patterns of brain activations in response to natural and humanlike faces across various face categories.

Output: Cheetham, M., Blaser, H., & Jancke, L. (in preparation). Event-related potential correlates of human and avatar face processing.

Funding body: European Union FET Integrated Project PRESENCCIA (Contract number 27731).

top

The neuroarchitecture of feeling present in virtual reality: a surface-based morphometry study

Abstract: Presence refers to the psychologically immersive experience of perceiving oneself as responding to the happenings mediated by virtual reality technology as if these were real. Building on a previous study of this department using fMRI, the present study examines the structural- functional relationship between specific brain regions that are involved in modulating the intensity of experienced presence.

Output: Hänggi, J., Cheetham, M., Baumgartner T., & Jancke, L. (preprint). The neuroarchitecture of feeling present in virtual reality: a surface-based morphometry study.