Cognitive Psychology Vienna

Welcome to the 
Cognitive Psychology Vienna Group

Janik Trauner

We are the University of Vienna’s Cognitive Psychology research group led by Ulrich Ansorge, exploring the interplay of attention and memory in perception. 

Our work focuses on top‑down processing, i.e. the human ability to decide and control which objects to pay attention to and which to ignore, for example, when searching for your keys.

We are thus also naturally interested in the roles of awareness and of unaware processing. These issues are explored using a variety of methods, ranging from human performance measures in psychophysical tasks, to eye tracking and electroencephalography (EEG). 

Nicola Narracci/pexels

Our projects examine questions such as how timing helps us guide attention, how emotions and expectations shape what we notice and how stored information guides current perception – in seeing, hearing and touch.

We welcome students and collaborators at all career stages – discover our research topics, projects, publications and opportunities to collaborate with us.