Many aspects of our perception and behaviour are influenced by prior knowledge. We are usually unaware of this influence, but every now and then you notice the effects of prior knowledge, for example when you lift a mug that you thought still contained coffee, but it turns out to be almost empty. Prior knowledge also influences our spatial perception. For example, when walking to a new destination, you often experience the return journey differently from the outward journey, partly because on the return journey we have prior knowledge of the distance to be covered. This thesis investigates how prior knowledge influences our vestibular perception of spatial orientation and self-movement. This research consisted of measuring subjects in behavioural experiments and modelling the collected data using mathematical models. I conclude that vestibular perception is influenced by prior knowledge about task-relevant stimulus history, accumulated over multiple time scales.
Sophie Willemsen (1997) obtained her master's degree in Artificial Intelligence from Radboud University Nijmegen in 2020. She then started her PhD research in the Sensorimotor Lab at the Donders Institute. Sophie currently works as a methodologist at Statistics Netherlands.