DR. HARUN KARIMPUR
As a Strategy & Innovation Lead with a background at the intersection of psychology and computer science, I have been consistently leveraging emerging technologies over the last 9 years, always with a clear focus on data-driven insights. My experience in strategy, data analysis and identification of industry trends, enables me to develop and execute corporate strategies effectively. This website, however, is a dedicated space for my explorations beyond my professional sphere, specifically my work in the captivating fields of Human-Computer/Environment Interaction and Spatial Information Processing.
I worked for the European Active Observer project as a member of the Center for Mind, Brain, & Behavior (CMBB) and alumnus of the German Academic Scholarship Foundation
*** NEWS ***
Jul, 2023
I had the honor of contributing to the World Economic Forum's latest report. This report is all about wide-ranging implications of metaverse adoption on individuals, covering areas like access, adoption, psychological and physical well-being, Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI), sustainability, and economic empowerment. The goal was to stimulate international dialogue for strategic development and regulatory guidance.
Feb, 2023
Spatial Representations are fundamental for digital experiences!
Excited to share our paper has been published and made it onto the cover of Nature Reviews Psychology
Mar, 2022
Our toolbox for VR studies has been published in Behavior Research Methods!
Nov, 2021
I am honored to receive a best dissertation award in my field for my past research!
May, 2020
I received an Elsevier / Vision Research Travel Award! Excited to present my work @VSS2020!
PROJECT AREAS
SPATIAL CODING
I'm interested in solving complex problems related to how the brain processes, computes and represents spatial information facilitating our actions in reach space or navigation. I am working on questions like:
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Which perceptual mechanisms influence our actions in space?
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How do different frames of reference interact?
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How can landmarks facilitate spatial orientation and object interaction?
EMBODIMENT
Our senses provide us with information that, once integrated, can lead to fascinating phenomena such as embodiment of a prosthesis or an avatar. I aim to understand the underlying factors that make up this sense of one's own body. XR allows us to trick the senses and maintain a high degree of experimental control. I use a holistic approach in which I combine objective measures such as electrodermal activity and movement kinematics.
INTUITIVE PHYSICS
"This floor is quite slippery!"
In our everyday lives, we rarely need formulas to get an estimate of physical properties in our environment. In some cases, our predictions fail. But why is that the case? Why do we integrate unreliable cues? In a recent project, I started to look into this issue.
PUBLICATIONS
PEER REVIEWED JOURNAL ARTICLES
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Fiehler, K. & Karimpur, H. (2023). Spatial Coding for action across spatial scales. Nature Reviews Psychology.
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Forster, P.-P., Karimpur, H., & Fiehler, K. (2022). Demand characteristics challenge effects in embodiment and presence. Scientific Reports, 12, Article 14084.
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Forster, P.-P., Karimpur, H., & Fiehler, K. (2022). Why we should rethink our approach to embodiment and presence. Frontiers in Virtual Reality: 3, Article 838369.
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Schuetz, I., Karimpur, H., & Fiehler, K. (2022). vexptoolbox: A software toolbox for human behavior studies using the Vizard virtual reality platform. Behavior Research Methods. Advance online publication.
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Crowe, E., Bossard, M., Karimpur, H., Rushton, S., Fiehler, K., & Brenner, E. (2021). Further evidence that people rely on egocentric information to guide a cursor to a visible target. Perception, 50(10).
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Karimpur, H., Kurz, J., & Fiehler, K. (2020). The role of perception and action on the use of allocentric information in a large-scale virtual environment. Experimental Brain Research, 238(9), 1813-1826.
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Karimpur, H., Eftekharifar, S., Troje, N. F., & Fiehler, K. (2020). Spatial coding for memory-guided reaching in visual and pictorial spaces. Journal of Vision, 20(4), Article 1.
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Cretenoud, F. A., Karimpur, H., Grzeczkowski, L., Francis, G., Hamburger, K., & Herzog, H. M. (2019). Factors underlying visual illusions are illusion-specific but not feature-specific. Journal of Vision, 19(14), Article 12.
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Karimpur, H., Morgenstern, Y., & Fiehler, K. (2019) Facilitation of allocentric coding by virtue of object-semantics. Scientific Reports, 9, Article 6263.
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Hamburger, K., Ragni, M., Karimpur, H., Franzmeier, I., Wedell, F., & Knauff, M. (2018). TMS applied to V1 can facilitate reasoning. Experimental Brain Research, 236(8), 2277–2286.
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Karimpur, H., & Hamburger, K. (2018). A rat in the sewer: How mental imagery interacts with object recognition. PLOS ONE, 13(3), Article e0194227.
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Balaban, C. Z., Karimpur, H.*, Röser, F., & Hamburger, K. (2017). Turn left where you felt unhappy: how affect influences landmark-based wayfinding. Cognitive Processing, 18(2), 135–144. [*shared first authorship]
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Karimpur, H., & Hamburger, K. (2016). Multimodal integration of spatial information: The influence of object-related factors and self-reported strategies. Frontiers in Psychology, 7, Article 1443.
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Karimpur, H., Röser, F., & Hamburger, K. (2016). Finding the return path: Landmark position effects and the influence of perspective. Frontiers in Psychology, 7, Article 1956.
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Karimpur, H., & Hamburger, K. (2015). The future of action video games in psychological research and application. Frontiers in Psychology, 6, Article 1747.
CONFERENCE CONTRIBUTIONS
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Schütz, I., Karimpur, H., & Fiehler, K. (2021). A toolbox for perception and action experiments using the Vizard VR platform. Presented at the 21th Annual Meeting of the Vision Science Society.
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Karimpur, H., Kurz, J., & Fiehler, K. (2020). From reaching to walking: How we build robust spatial representations for visually guided actions. Presented at the 20th Annual Meeting of the Vision Sciences Society.
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Karimpur, H., Schmidt, F., & Fiehler, K. (2019). How spatial coding is affected by mid-level visual object properties within and outside of peripersonal space. Presented at the 19th Annual Meeting of the Vision Sciences Society. St. Pete Beach, FL, USA.
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Karimpur, H., & Fiehler, K. (2018). Semantics determine the influence of allocentric information in memory-guided reaching. Presented at the 18th Annual Meeting of the Vision Sciences Society. St. Pete Beach, FL, USA.
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Karimpur, H., & Fiehler, K. (2018). Semantics determine the influence of allocentric information in memory-guided reaching. Talk given at the 60th Conference of Experimental Psychologists (TeaP). Marburg, Germany.
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Cretenoud, F. A., Karimpur, H., Grzeczkowski, L., Francis, G., Hamburger, K., & Herzog, H. M. (2017). How many factors are there in vision? Poster presented at the 40th European Conference on Visual Perception. Berlin, Germany.
HONORS & AWARDS
BEST DISSERTATION AWARD
Awarded by the JLU for my research in the field of cognitive neuroscience
ELSEVIER / VISION RESEARCH TRAVEL AWARD
Awarded in support of my attendance and the research presented at the 20th Annual Meeting of the Vision Science Society
STIPENDIUM - STUDIENSTIFTUNG DES DEUTSCHEN VOLKES
(GERMAN ACADEMIC SCHOLARSHIP FOUNDATION)
Scholarship awarded in support of my PhD (accepted and declined below)
STIPENDIUM - GIESSEN DISSERTATION FELLOWSHIP
(JUSTUS LIEBIG UNIVERSITY GIESSEN)
Scholarship awarded in support of my PhD (received and declined to accept above)
STIPENDIUM - STUDIENSTIFTUNG DES DEUTSCHEN VOLKES
(GERMAN ACADEMIC SCHOLARSHIP FOUNDATION)
Scholarship awarded in support of M.Sc. in Psychology
IRTG 1901 PROJECT CHALLENGE GRANT
awarded by the IRTG 1901 "The Brain in Action" in support of a research project
STIPENDIUM - DAAD
Scholarship awarded in support of the research stay at Stanford University
CONTACT
hkarimpur [at] outlook.com