Research interest

Every day we make countless eye movements (saccades) to perceive our environment. Saccades are very brief, they only take some tens of milliseconds. The high velocity of these eye movements causes two very interesting features. First, in order to make us perceive a stable and clear environment the visual input is reduced while the eyes are moving (Bridgeman et al., 1975). Second, saccades are too brief to be controlled via visual feedback, since it takes up to 30ms for the visual signal to leave the retina alone (Lee et al., 1994). Hence saccades are planned before they are executed. 
If the target of a saccade is stepped while the eyes are in flight, the induced error becomes available to the system only after the saccade is finished. The dissociation between expected and actual saccade landing position will modulate the planning of the next saccade, such that saccadic accuracy can be maintained. Within several tens of repetitions the saccade will be longer or shorter, aiming for the new target. This adjustment of saccades is called saccadic adaptation (McLaughlin, 1967). 
My research interest focuses on saccadic adaptation processes and their implications. What can be perceived, before and after the eye movement during adaptation? Does perception impact the motor learning process of saccadic adaptation? And does saccadic adaptation itself have an impact on other visual disciplines?

Publications

Meermeier, A., Gremmler, S., & Lappe, M. (2017). Novelty modulates oculomotor learning. (in review)

Meermeier, A., Gremmler, S., & Lappe, M. (2016). The influence of image content on oculomotor plasticity. Journal of Vision, 16(8), 17-17.

Lencer, R., Meermeier, A., Silling, K., Gremmler, S., & Lappe, M. (2016). Instability of visual error processing for sensorimotor adaptation in schizophrenia. European Archives of Psychiatry and Clinical Neuroscience, 1-8.

Conference Contributions

Meermeier, A., Gremmler, S., Lappe, M. (2016), Novelty modulates oculomotor learning. Poster presentation at the European Conference on Visual Perception (ECVP), Barcelona, Spain.

Meermeier, A., Gremmler, S., Lappe, M. (2017), Intrinsic vs extrinsic value in oculomotor learning. Poster presentation at the 17th Annual Meeting of the Vision Sciences Society (VSS), St. Petersburg, Florida, USA.

Academic CV

2008-2014	Studies in Psychology, University of Münster
2011	Bachelor thesis, University of Münster, Title: Saccadic adaptation in a covert visual saerch task (Supervisor: Prof. Dr. Lappe)
2013	Master thesis, University of Muenster, Title: Direction specific saccadic adaptation in a covert visual saerch task (Supervisor: Prof. Dr. Lappe)
2012-2014	Student assistant, University of Muenster
2014	Beginning of PhD research project, Institute of Psychology, University of Muenster