Dr. Philbeck holds a PhD in Psychology from the University of California, Santa Barbara. His postdoctoral research at Carnegie Mellon University was supported by a National Research Service Award and a grant from the James S. McDonnell Foundation. He has been on the faculty at GW since 2000 and has been Associate Professor since 2006. He is Director of the Cognitive Neuroscience Program in the GW Department of Psychology and is the Charter Director of the GW Mind-Brain Institute. Dr. Philbeck also holds an Associate Research Professor position the GW Department of Neurological Surgery.

Dr. Philbeck's research investigates the psychological and neural processes underlying how we use vision to determine our location and how we remain oriented while moving about. Effective navigation requires being able to figure out where we are and to keep track of our location while moving about. The ability to navigate has profound consequences for one's sense of independence and quality of life. The ability to keep track of one's location is so crucial that individuals lacking it are essentially helpless, and yet our understanding of the neural underpinnings of self- motion sensing remains coarse. To study these issues, Dr. Philbeck tests the perceptual abilities of people from a wide range of ages, including individuals who have suffered certain forms of brain injury.

In addition to research, Dr. Philbeck is active in teaching at both the undergraduate and graduate levels. He has mentored two NSF Graduate Fellows and an APA Graduate Fellow. He has also mentored recipients of GW's Luther Rice and George Gamow Undergraduate Research Awards.

Research Interests:

• Visual Space Perception
• Visual Control of Action
• Human Spatial Cognition and Navigation
• Cognitive Neuroscience of Perception and Action

This web site is maintained by John Philbeck (email: philbeck@gwu.edu. Date last modified: April 26, 2012. The views and opinions expressed on these pages are those of the author. The contents of this page have not been reviewed or approved by The George Washington University.