MR ZHUOEN LU

Biography

I received my BEng degree in Communication Engineering in China in 2019, followed by an MSc degree in Signal Processing and Communications at the University of Edinburgh in 2020. After working for a year as a research volunteer at the University of Edinburgh, I completed an MRes degree in Psychology at the University of Aberdeen in 2022. Additionally, I worked for four months as a research assistant.

I started my PhD programme at the University of Aberdeen in 2022, funded by EASTBIO. My PhD project focuses on an interdisciplinary approach that integrates psychology, biological signal processing, neuroscience, and artificial intelligence. The aim is to utilize novel technologies to investigate the internal mechanisms of self-reference on spatial perception and memory, as well as its application in improving cognitive performance in elderly people. I am supervised by Professor Jie Sui, and Dr Dewei Yi.

My primary research interests are in psychology, neuroscience, signal processing, and artificial intelligence.

Besides my research, I also engage in marking and supporting undergraduate students.

Please feel free to contact me about research or potential collaborations.

Current Research

The self-reference memory in virtual reality

This study explores how self-reference affects memory processing in spatial contexts using virtual reality (VR). The theoretical framework distinguishes between the bodily self (physical sense of agency) and the cognitive self (self-prioritization effect). Previous research has studied these domains separately, but this study aims to understand their integration in processing external information. The hypothesis is that participants will have higher recall accuracy for self-related items compared to those related to others, with individual factors (e.g., age, culture) significantly influencing this effect.

Self-perception in personal and social spaces

The self is multifaceted. We sometimes bias information about ourselves over others and sometimes we bias information about others such as a friend over strangers, leading to a self-prioritization or friend-prioritization effect. However, it remains unknown how the shifting facet of the self supports such context-dependent social judgement. The self, serving as a navigational reference point, not only reflects an evolutionary pressure to evade threats but also plays a vital role in contemporary social interactions. The bodily self-representation is a cognitive and perceptual process through which individuals develop a sense of body ownership, agency, and awareness of their own bodies at a specialised location (Serino et. al., 2013). Research has shown that there is a self-prioritisation effect in near-space processing (Huang et. al., 2021) and that people have varied preferences for information related to different people in interpersonal spaces with a distorted perception of distance for their belonging needs (Bogdanova et. al., 2021; Knowles, Green & Weidel, 2014; Lenglart et. al., 2022; Perry et. al., 2013). In this study, we are investigating whether manipulating bodily self-consciousness in different spatial contexts (i.e., personal space, social space) can activate distinct aspects of the self, and how accessing specific facets of the self would influence judgement when comparing processing information related to different self-relevance (Self, Friend, and Stranger) within and across spatial dimensions.

Funding and Grants

Funded by BBSRC EASTBIO Doctoral Training Partnership (DTP)