Ilja Frissen

Academic title(s): 

Associate Professor

 

Ilja Frissen
Contact Information
Phone: 
514-398-4684
Email address: 
ilja.frissen [at] mcgill.ca
Degree(s): 
  • PhD Experimental Psychology; Tilburg University, Tilburg, The Netherlands
  • MSc Cognitive Psychology; Maastricht University, Maastricht, The Netherlands
Graduate supervision: 
  • Grace Brooks (Co-supervised with Martha de Francisco)

 

Research areas: 
Auditory perception & cognition
Multimodal cognition
Multisensory perception
Tacit knowledge
Current research: 

Haptic Cognition. In recognition of the hand's incredible abilities, Immanuel Kant called it "man’s outer brain". It is surprising, however, how little is still known about how our sense of touch informs cognitive processes. My current research is driven by the question how capable our sense of touch is in extracting information from containers. Humans routinely use active touch to gain behaviourally relevant information from containers. For instance, when shaking a juice can or rattling a box of chocolate sprinkles to estimate whether there is enough left to drink or to eat. These types of everyday experiences have inspired engineers to develop devices that mimic containers with virtual contents. However, while "easy enough" to simulate a container, we know virtually nothing about the underlying perceptual and cognitive processes. Some of this work was recently featured in popular science magazines, Psychology Today and Muy Interesante (in Spanish).

Tacit knowledge. Truly understanding (tacit) knowledge sharing requires bringing together Cognitive Science and Knowledge Management. A wealth of research in the Cognitive Sciences suggests that semantic and conceptual knowledge in languages, reasoning, or numerical processing are closely linked to sensorimotor processes (i.e., knowledge is embodied). From this, so-called embodied theories of cognition have evolved that propose that access to knowledge requires mental simulations in the brain's systems involved in perceiving and acting in the world. In other words, knowledge is indivisible from the sensorimotor states of the body as well as the characteristics of the surrounding environment. Some in Knowledge Management have called for the incorporation of Cognitive Science into the study of tacit knowledge sharing but their calls have gone unheeded. My contribution to the Knowah Knowledge Sharing Research Group is to heed the call.

 

Selected publications: 

Haptics

Container haptics

Frissen, I., & Chen, A.N. (2023). Humans can sense large numbers of objects in a box by touch alone. Perceptionhttps://doi.org/10.1177/03010066231207324

Frissen, I., Kappassov, Z., Huang, K-Y., & Ziat, M. (2023). Humans can sense small numbers of objects in a box by touch alone. Perception, 52(11-12), 799-811. https://doi.org/10.1177/03010066231201960

Frissen, I., Yao, H. Y., Guastavino, C., & Hayward, V. (2022). Humans sense by touch the location of objects that roll in handheld containers. Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology. https://doi.org/10.1177/17470218221086458

Other haptics

Frissen, I., & Mars, F. (2023). Planning lane changes using advance visual and haptic information. Psychological Research. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00426-023-01879-9

Egloff, D. C., Wanderley, M. M., & Frissen, I. (2018). Haptic display of melodic intervals for musical applications. IEEE Haptics Symposium, March 25-28, 2018, San Francisco, CA. doi: 10.1109/HAPTICS.2018.8357189  (6 pages)

Egloff, D., Frissen, I., & Wanderley, M. (2016). Vibrotactile melodic interval discrimination on the index finger of the non-dominant hand. EuroHaptics Conference, July 4-7, 2016, London, UK. (5 pages).

Ziat, M., Wagner, S.R., & Frissen, I. (2016). Haptic feedback to compensate for the absence of horizon cues during landing. EuroHaptics Conference, July 4-7, 2016, London, UK. (9 pages).

Blum, J., Frissen, I., & Cooperstock, J. (2015). Improving haptic feedback on wearable devices through accelerometer measurements. 28th ACM User Interface Software and Technology Symposium (UIST), November 8-11, 2015. Charlotte, NC. (6 pages).

Savord, A., Wisuri, E., Pless, P., Frissen, I., & Ziat, M. (2016). Movement Alteration in Flute Players: Can It Help Us Understand Focal Dystonia?. Critical Reviews™ in Physical and Rehabilitation Medicine, 28(3).

Ziat, M., Savord, A., & Frissen, I. (2015). The effect of visual, haptic, and auditory signals perceived from rumble strips during inclement weather. IEEE World Haptics Conference, June 22-25, Evanston, IL. pp. 351-355.

Ziat, M., Frissen, I., Campion, G., Hayward, V., & Guastavino, C. (2013). Plucked string stiffness affects loudness perception. In, I. Oakley, & S. Brewster, International Workshop on Haptic and Audio Interaction Design (HAID), LNCS. Springer Verlag. pp. 140-148.

Frissen, I., Ziat, M., Campion, G., Hayward, V., & Guastavino, C. (2012). The effects of voluntary movements on auditory-haptic and haptic-haptic temporal order judgements. Acta Psychologica, 141, 140-148.

Hearing and multisensory perception

Hearing

Frissen, I., Scherzer, J., & Yao, H-Y. (2019). The impact of speech-irrelevant head movements on speech intelligibility in multi-talker environments. Acta Acustica united with Acustica, 105(6), 1286-1290.

Juge, G., Pras, A., & Frissen, I. (2016). Perceptual evaluation of Transpan for 5.1 mixing of acoustic recordings. 140th International Convention of the Audio Engineering Society, June 4-7, 2016, Paris. (10 pages)

Frissen, I., & Guastavino, C. (2014). Do whole body vibrations affect spatial hearing? Ergonomics, 57, 1090-1101.

Frissen, I., Féron, F.X., & Guastavino, C. (2014). Auditory velocity discrimination in the horizontal plane at very high velocities. Hearing Research, 316, 94-101.

Feron, F.X., Frissen, I., Boissinot, J., & Guastavino, C. (2010). Upper limits of auditory rotational motion perception. Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, 128, 3703-3714.

Frissen, I., Katz, B.F.G., & Guastavino, C. (2010). Effect of sound source stimuli on the perception of reverberation in large volumes. In, S. Ystad, M. Aramaki, R. Kronland-Martinet, & K. Jensen (Eds.), Auditory Display, LNCS (pp. 358-376). Springer Verlag.

Multisensory perception

Frissen, I., Vroomen, J., & de Gelder, B. (2012). The aftereffects of ventriloquism: The time course of the visual recalibration of auditory localization. Seeing & Perceiving, 25, 1-14.

Frissen, I., Campos, J.L., Souman, J.L., & Ernst, M.O. (2011). Integration of vestibular and proprioceptive signals for spatial updating. Experimental Brain Research, 212, 163-176.

Passamonti, C., Frissen, I., & Ladavas, E. (2009). Visual recalibration of auditory spatial perception: Two separate neural circuits for perceptual learning. European Journal of Neuroscience, 30, 1141-1150.

Frissen, I., Vroomen, J., de Gelder, B., & Bertelson, P. (2005). The aftereffects of ventriloquism: Generalization across sound-frequencies. Acta Psychologica, 118, 93-100.

Frissen, I., Vroomen, J., de Gelder, B., & Bertelson, P. (2003). The aftereffects of ventriloquism: Are they sound-frequency specific? Acta Psychologica, 113, 315-327.

Knowledge sharing

Bidian, C., Frissen, I., & Evans, M.M. (2022). Does generational thinking create differences in knowledge sharing and ICT preferences? Knowledge and Process Management, 29( 4), 318– 332. https://doi.org/10.1002/kpm.1704

Frissen, I., & Evans, M.M. (2020). Advancing Experimental Research in Knowledge Management. In Proceedings of the 17th International Conference on Intellectual Capital, Knowledge Management & Organizational Learning (ICICKM 2020), (pp. 196-204). Academic Conferences and Publishing International.

Evans, M.M., & Frissen, I. (2020). Preparing the Emotionally Intelligent Workforce of Tomorrow: An Ability-based Program for Mid-to-late Adolescents. In Proceedings of the 17th International Conference on Intellectual Capital, Knowledge Management & Organizational Learning (ICICKM 2020), (pp. 170-178). Academic Conferences and Publishing International.

Frissen, I., Evans, M.M., & Wensley, A.K.P. (2019). How to measure tacit knowledge: Lessons from 35 years of psychological research. European Conference on Knowledge Management, pp 344-351.

Evans. M.M., Frissen, I., & Choo, C.W. (2019). The strength of trust over ties: Investigating the relationships between trustworthiness and tie-strength in effective knowledge sharing. electronic Journal of Knowledge Management, 17(1), 19-33.

Evans, M.M., Frissen, I., & Wensley, A. (2018). Organizational information and knowledge sharing: uncovering mediating effects of perceived trustworthiness using the PROCESS approach. Journal of Information and Knowledge Management, 17(1). Paper 1850001.

Evans, M. M., Wensley, A., & Frissen, I. (2015). The mediating effects of trustworthiness on social-cognitive factors and knowledge sharing in a large professional service firm. electronic Journal of Knowledge Management, 13, 240-253.

Other

Frissen, I., & Evans, M.M. (2023). Experimental research in knowledge management. Knowledge and Process Management. https://doi.org/10.1002/KPM.1764

Dinneen, J.D., Julien, C.-A., & Frissen, I. (2019). The scale and structure of personal digital collections. Proceedings of the 37th Annual CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems. May 4-9, Glasgow, UK. Paper 327.

Dinneen, J. D., Asadi, B., Frissen, I., Shu, F., & Julien, C. A. (2018, March). Improving Exploration of Topic Hierarchies: Comparative Testing of Simplified Library of Congress Subject Heading Structures. In Proceedings of the 2018 Conference on Human Information Interaction & Retrieval (CHIIR)(pp. 102-109). ACM.

Dinneen, J.D., Odoni, F., Frissen, I., & Julien, C-A. (2016). Cardinal: Novel software for studying file management behavior. ASIST 2016, October 14-18, 2016, Copenhagen, Denmark. (8 pages)

Frissen, I., & Mars, F. (2014). The effect of visual degradation on anticipatory and compensatory steering control. Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology, 67, 499-507.

Frissen, I., Campos, J.L., Sreenivasa, M., & Ernst, M.O. (2013). Enabling unconstrained omnidirectional walking through virtual environments: an overview of the CyberWalk project. In, F. Steinicke, Y. Visell, J. Campos, & A. Lécuyer (Eds.), Human Walking in Virtual Environments: Perception, Technology, and Applications. Springer Verlag.

Bouchara, T., Giordano, B.L., Frissen, I., Katz, B.F.G., & Guastavino, C. (2010). Effect of signal-to-noise ratio and visual context on environmental sound identification. 128th Convention of the Audio Engineering Society, London, UK, May 22-25, 11p.

Souman, J.L., Frissen, I., Sreenivasa, M.N., & Ernst, M.O. (2009). Walking straight into circles. Current Biology, 19, 1538-1542.
 

Selected talks and presentations: 

Recent talks

Frissen, I., Levene, A., Kaipa, T., & Ziat, M. (2022). Humans can sense the number of objects in a box by touch alone. Talk presented at the 63rd Annual Meeting of the Psychonomics Society, November 17-20, Boston, MA.

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