Meet Dr. Joan Ongchoco, one of the department’s newest faculty members.
“At the core of my work is trying to understand how perception -- what is it that we see -- interacts with broader mental life.”
Dr. Ongchoco joins us for a Q&A where we learn more about her background, her research program—and what she does outside of the lab and classroom.
To start with, can you tell us a little about yourself?
I hail from the Philippines, but spent a part of my childhood in Vancouver. I majored in Philosophy, Politics, and Economics at Yale-NUS College (in Singapore), before doing my PhD at Yale where I worked primarily with Brian Scholl. I then spent a year in Berlin afterwards, where I worked with Martin Rolfs.
What kinds of questions do you try to answer through your research?
At the core of my work is trying to understand how perception — what is it that we see — interacts with broader mental life. That is, a lot of my work explores how features of perception (e.g., how we go from a continuous wash of light or sound to discrete objects and events) may actually have rich downstream consequences beyond perception (e.g., for decision-making, mental dysfunction, etc.).
Can you give us an example of this in our daily lives?
Because of the centrality of perception in our everyday lives, my research involves phenomena that we encounter everyday — from regular grid patterns on bathroom tiles, or even doorways! See here: https://perception.psych.ubc.ca/#lab-research, and for a short film feature of this, see here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3R0j8u2KoIk
Can you tell us about any new research that you are particularly excited about?
In terms of new research, we have a lot of different projects ongoing that are being led by amazing graduate and undergraduate students in the lab right now — so stay tuned!
What do you like to do in your free time?
In my free time, I competitively dance: https://joanongchoco.com/dance.html.
Join us in welcoming Dr. Ongchoco to UBC Psychology!
