Michael von Grünau

In Memory of Michael von Grünau

It is with great sadness that we bring news that Professor Michael von Grünau died on Thursday, December 22, 2011.

There will be a memorial for Michael von Grünau on Wednesday April 11, at 1PM in the Loyola Jesuit Hall and Conference Centre. [see map]

Michael was a Professor in the Department of Psychology at Concordia University in Montreal. He was well known for his contributions to the study of motion through both physiological and psychophysical studies. More recently he made many contributions to the study of visual attention. [more...]

My research is in the area of Vision. It is concerned with the study of central processes of motion, color, form and depth. Employing psychophysical techniques and computer-generated and -processed images, I am trying to access various levels of the processing streams in the human brain and to study the many interactions between them that hold the key to our understanding of perception and consciousness. A main concern is the involvement of selective processes of both automatic and attentional nature. The work is strongly influenced by both physiological and cognitive considerations. Further topics of study are visual search and the spotlight of attention; vision, eye and head movements during locomotion; the use of artificial scotomas to study visual performance and eye movement adaptations. Supported by NSERC, FQRSC and CIHR.

Selected Publications

• Galera C, Cavallet M., von Grünau M. and Panagopoulos A. (2006). Attentive characteristics revealed by local and global multiple cues. Psicologia: Teoria e Pesquisa, 22, 327-334.
• Vavassis A. and von Grünau M.W. (2007). Complex backgrounds delay low-load visual search. Spatial Vision. 20, 467-488.
• von Grünau M.W., Pilgrim K. & Zhou R. (2007). Velocity discrimination thresholds for flowfield motions with moving observers. Vision Research, 47, 2453-2464.
• Zhou R., Johnson A., Gurnsey R. and von Grünau M.W. (2008). Visual performance in normal and simulated low vision. Proceedings of the 9th International Conference on Low Vision, Montreal, July, 2008.