Oliver Braddick

Oliver John Braddick FMedSci (born 16 November 1944) is a British developmental psychologist who is involved in research on infant visual perception.

Braddick is Emeritus Professor of Experimental Psychology and was formerly head of the Department of Experimental Psychology at Oxford University from 2001 until his retirement in 2011. He attained a BA (1965) and PhD (1968) in Experimental Psychology at Trinity College, Cambridge. Between 1968–69 he was a post-doctoral fellow in the laboratory of Lorrin Riggs, Brown University, USA. In 1969 he returned to Cambridge as a University Demonstrator, proceeding to become a lecturer and then reader. By 1976, Braddick was an active member of the Cambridge Visual Development Unit, along with Janette Atkinson, his wife. The unit carried out pioneering research on the development of visual cortical function in infancy and in early visual screening. He also progressed understanding in binocular processes of both infants and adults. In 1993 Braddick moved to University College London, together with Janette Atkinson, as professors of Psychology. He proceeded to become head of the Psychology department in 1998. He was elected fellow of the Academy of Medical Sciences in 2001 and that same year appointed Head Professor of Psychology at the University of Oxford and fellow at Magdalen College, Oxford. In July 2012, it was announced that he had been elected as a Fellow of the British Academy, due to his contributions in the field of visual perception and its development in early childhood. Braddick is also a member of the Visual Development Unit at the University College of London and University of Oxford, a unit that specialises in child visual perception.

Braddick specialises in infant vision, particularly visual and visuomotor development of the dorsal and ventral streams in infants and children. In infancy, visual traits determine a manual response and the kinematic parameters of each type of response, including reach-and-grasp and surface exploration. These responses reflect the properties of visuo-motor modules which appear in infants from 4 to 12 months old. Since these modules are part of the dorsal cortical stream, they interact with the ventral stream processing in development and in the mature system. His current research is on the perceptual development of infants with hyperopia. In addition to working on infant vision, he and his colleagues showed that adults attempting to grab a glowing item in the dark had a longer reach duration, lower average speed, as well as lower peak speed versus the same situation in the light.

According to Braddick, reliable motion perception needs a number of processes that integrate and combine visual motion signals from neighbouring locations within the field of vision. This has the effect of smoothing out spatial variations in velocity.

Atkinson Janette, Braddick Oliver, Nardini Marko, and Anker Shirley (2007) Infant hyperopia: detection, distribution, changes and correlates-outcomes from the cambridge infant screening programs. Optom Vis Sci, 84(2):84–96. Braddick Oliver, Birtles Deirdre, Wattam-Bell John, and Atkinson Janette (2005) Motion- and orientation-specific cortical responses in infancy. Vision Res, 45(25–26):3169-79. Braddick Oliver, Atkinson Janette, and Wattam-Bell John (2003) Normal and anomalous development of visual motion processing: motion coherence and 'dorsal-stream vulnerability'. Neuropsychologia, 41(13):1769–84. Mason A JS, Braddick O J, and Wattam-Bell J (2003) Motion coherence thresholds in infants—different tasks identify at least two distinct motion systems. Vision Res, 43(10):1149–57. Braddick Oliver J, Wishart Keith A, and Curran William (2002) Directional performance in motion transparency. Vision Res, 42(10):1237–48. Gunn Alison, Cory Elizabeth, Atkinson Janette, Braddick Oliver, Wattam-Bell John, Guzzetta Andrea, and Cioni Giovanni (2002) Dorsal and ventral stream sensitivity in normal development and hemiplegia. Neuroreport, 13(6):843-7. Atkinson J, Anker S, Braddick O, Nokes L, Mason A, and Braddick F (2001) Visual and visuospatial development in young children with Williams syndrome. Dev Med Child Neurol, 43(5):330-7. Braddick O J, O'Brien J M, Wattam-Bell J, Atkinson J, and Turner R (2000) Form and motion coherence activate independent, but not dorsal/ventral segregated, networks in the human brain. Curr Biol, 10(12):731-4.

Curran W, Braddick O J, Atkinson J, Wattam-Bell J, and Andrew R (1999) Development of illusory-contour perception in infants. Perception, 28(4):527-38.