Melissa Võ

Short info

Our lab loves making a scene, which is why our research focuses on investigating the rules that govern object and scene perception. We are particularly interested in how scene grammar guides visual attention, boosts object perception/memory, and allows us to efficiently extract semantic information from scenes within the glimpse of an eye. Our overarching goal is to better understand human cognition while acting in real-world environments. For that purpose, we use a mixture of methods, including psychophysics, eye-tracking in real and VR environments, computational modelling as well as EEG.

Open Science

Gregorova, K., Turini, J., Gagl, B., & Vo, M. L. H. (2021).
Access to meaning from visual input: Object and word frequency effects in categorization behavior.
PsyArXiv Preprints

Kallmayer, A., Zacharias, L., Jetter, L., & Võ, M. L. (2024).
More than meets the eye: Neural evidence for scene grammar representations during individual object processing.
PsyArxiv, 10.

Articles

Baltaretu, B. R., Schuetz, I., Võ, M. L. H., & Fiehler, K. (2024).
Scene semantics affects allocentric spatial coding for action in naturalistic (virtual) environments.
Scientific Reports, 14(1), 15549.

Beitner, J., Helbing, J., David, E. J., & Võ, M. L. H. (2024).
Using a flashlight-contingent window paradigm to investigate visual search and object memory in virtual reality and on computer screens.
Scientific Reports, 14(1), 8596.

David, E., & Vo, M. L. H. (2024).
SPHEER: a rich dataset of time-resolved gaze and head movements in virtual reality.
Journal of Vision, 24(10), 906-906.

David, E., Gutiérrez, J., Võ, M. L. H., Coutrot, A., Da Silva, M. P., & Le Callet, P. (2024).
The Salient360! toolbox: Handling gaze data in 3D made easy.
Computers & Graphics, 103890.

Helbing, J., Draschkow*, D., & Võ*, M. L.-H. (2022).
Auxiliary scene-context information provided by anchor objects guides attention and locomotion in natural search behavior.
Psychological science, 33(9), 1463–1476.

Helbing, J., Draschkow, D., & Võ, M. L. H. (2025).
Incidental Encoding of Objects during Search Is Stronger Than Intentional Memorization due to Increased Recollection Rather Than Familiarity.
Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience, 1-20.

Kallmayer, A., & Vo, M. (2024).
Time-resolved brain activation patterns reveal hierarchical representations of scene grammar when viewing isolated objects.
Journal of Vision, 24(10), 655-655.

Kallmayer, A., & Võ, M. L. H. (2024).
Anchor objects drive realism while diagnostic objects drive categorization in GAN generated scenes.
Communications Psychology, 2(1), 68.

Kallmayer, A., Võ, M. L. H., & Draschkow, D. (2023).
Viewpoint dependence and scene context effects generalize to depth rotated three-dimensional objects.
Journal of Vision, 23 (10), 9.

Krugliak, A., Draschkow, D., Võ, M. L. H., & Clarke, A. (2023).
Semantic object processing is modulated by prior scene context.
Language, Cognition and Neuroscience,1-10.

Markov, Y. A., & Võ, M. L. H. (2025).
Scene consistency enhances state representations of real-world objects.
Scientific Reports, 15(1), 18581.

Markov, Y., Vo, M. L. H., & Wolfe, J. M. (2024).
VowelWorld 2.0: Using artificial scenes to study semantic and syntactic scene guidance.
Journal of Vision, 24(10), 920-920.

Müller Karoza, L. A., Wiesmann, S. L., & Võ, M. L. H. (2025).
The role of anchor objects in scene function understanding.
Scientific Reports, 15(1), 20247.

Turini, J., & Võ, M. L. H. (2022).
Hierarchical organization of objects in scenes is reflected in mental representations of objects.
Scientific Reports, 12(1), 20068.

Vingron, N., & Vo, M. (2024).
Language experience may modulate attentional disengagement to scene grammar inconsistencies during free-viewing.
Journal of Vision, 24(10), 863-863

Wiesmann, S. L., & Võ, M. L. H. (2022).
What makes a scene? Fast scene categorization as a function of global scene information at different resolutions.
Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception and Performance, 48(8), 871.

Wiesmann, S. L., & Võ, M. L.-H. (2023).
Disentangling diagnostic object properties for human scene categorization.
Sci Rep 13, 5912.