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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 past decade, always with a clear focus on data-driven insights. My experience in strategy, 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.

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*** 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

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Mar, 2022

Our toolbox for VR studies has been published in Behavior Research Methods!

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PROJECT AREAS

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Image by Michał Parzuchowski

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:

  • Which perceptual mechanisms influence our actions in space?

  • How do different frames of reference interact?

  • 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.

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PUBLICATIONS

PEER REVIEWED JOURNAL ARTICLES

  • Fiehler, K. & Karimpur, H. (2023). Spatial Coding for action across spatial scales. Nature Reviews Psychology, 2(2), 72–84.

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  • Forster, P.-P., Fiehler, K., & Karimpur, H. (2023). Egocentric cues influence the allocentric spatial memory of object configurations for memory-guided actions. Journal of Neurophysiology, 130(5), 1142–1149.

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  • Linka, M., Sensoy, Ö., Karimpur, H., Schwarzer, G., & de Haas, B. (2023). Free viewing biases for complex scenes in preschoolers and adults. Scientific Reports, 13, Article 11803. 

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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.
     

  • 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.
     

  • 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.
     

  • 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.
     

  • 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.
     

  • Karimpur, H., Morgenstern, Y., & Fiehler, K. (2019) Facilitation of allocentric coding by virtue of object-semantics. Scientific Reports, 9, Article 6263.
     

  • 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.
     

  • Karimpur, H., & Hamburger, K. (2018). A rat in the sewer: How mental imagery interacts with object recognition. PLOS ONE, 13(3), Article e0194227.
     

  • 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]
     

  • 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.
     

  • 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.
     

  • Karimpur, H., & Hamburger, K. (2015). The future of action video games in psychological research and application. Frontiers in Psychology, 6, Article 1747.

CONFERENCE CONTRIBUTIONS

  • Linka, M., Karimpur, H., & de Haas, B. (2023). GAZE - a benchmark sample of free gaze behaviour towards complex scenes. Presented at the 23rd Annual Meeting of the Vision Science Society.

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  • Forster, P.-P., Karimpur, H., & Fiehler, K. (2022). The role of expectations in embodiment and presence. Presented at the 22nd Annual Meeting of the Vision Science Society.

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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.
     

  • 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.
     

  • 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.
     

  • 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.
     

  • 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.
     

  • 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.

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HONORS & AWARDS

BEST DISSERTATION AWARD

Awarded by the JLU for scientific excellence of the 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 my Master's degree 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 my time at Stanford University

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CONTACT

hkarimpur [at] outlook.com

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