Claudia Damiano

Research Associate

Bernhardt-Walther Lab, University of Toronto

Broadly, my research interests span a wide range of topics related to visual cognition. I am interested in understanding how the physical features of our natural world are processed by our brains to guide visual attention, influence memory, and impact aesthetic preferences and emotions.

I am a research associate in the BWLab at the University of Toronto working with Dirk Bernhardt-Walther. Previously, I worked with Johan Wagemans in the GestaltReVision Lab at KU Leuven in Belgium. My ongoing work examines the link between visual features and aesthetic pleasure of natural environments, using a combination of behavioural and computational techniques.

In life news, I just became a mother and am currently on maternity leave, witnessing daily cognition "experiments" carried out by my little one. Exciting times!

Bernhardt-Walther Lab

GestaltReVision Lab

Highlights

Awards

Marie Skłodowska-Curie Individual Fellowship, 2021
FoVea Travel and Networking award, 2020
Council of Canadian Departments of Psychology TA award, 2019
NSERC PGS-D, 2017

Education

PhD 2019, Department of Psychology, University of Toronto
MA 2015, Department of Psychology, University of Toronto
BA&Sc 2014, Department of Cognitive Science, McGill University

Selected Publications * equal contribution

Chuquichambi, E.G., Damiano, C., Wei, N., Bruce, K., Chatterjee, A., ... & Walther, D.B. (2026). Curved background and foreground elements enhance the appeal of indoor spaces. Journal of Environmental Psychology, 102974. PDF.
Yang, M.*, Damiano, C.*, Gauvreau, P., & Walther, D.B. (2025). Empirical aesthetics of bridges. Plos one, 20(12), e0338493. PDF.
Damiano, C.*, Leemans*, M., & Wagemans, J. (2024). Exploring the semantic inconsistency effect in scenes using a continuous measure of linguistic similarity. Psychological Sciences, 09567976241238217. PDF.

Upcoming Events

June 1-3, 2026 Canadian Society for Brain, Behaviour and Cognitive Science (CSBBCS) annual meeting, York University, Toronto, Canada

May 15-19, 2026 Annual meeting of the Vision Sciences Society, St Pete Beach, USA

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