Matthew Langley

Mathew Langley was born and raised in the Midwest, where his fascination with phenomenology began early. As a child, he was captivated by questions of perception: Is the blue you see the same as the blue I see? How do we know dogs can't see red or green? What does it mean that bats navigate by using echoes? These early curiosities only deepened with time.

As an undergraduate, Langley encountered research showing that bodies and abilities (such as carrying a heavy backpack) can influence spatial perception, making hills appear steeper and distances farther. This phenomenon left a lasting impression: if small, momentary bodily states can alter perception of the environment, then reality itself may be less stable than it seems.

Today, Langley's research explores perception, action, and cognition, guided by this lifelong fascination with the factors that shape our experience of the environment. He hopes to share this passion with students, colleagues, and broader audiences, inspiring the same curiosity that first drove him to ask difficult questions about the nature of experience.

Areas of Expertise/Interest

Cognitive psychology, perception, perception-action, perceptual bias, spatial bias, object perception, scene perception, affordances, natural regularities.

Ph.D. Cognitive Science Psychology
Arizona State University
May 2025

M.A. Cognitive Science Psychology
Arizona State University
May 2021

B.S. Psychology
Northern Illinois University
May 2011

A.A. General Education
Elgin Community College
May 2008

Langley, M.D., & McBeath, M.K. (2023). Vertical Attention Bias for Tops of Objects and Bottoms of Scenes. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception and Performance. https://doi.org/10.1037/xhp0001117

Langley, M.D., Van Houghton, K., McBeath, M.K., & Lucca, K. (2023). Children and Adults Exhibit a Common Vertical Attention Bias for Object Tops and Scene Bottoms. Developmental Psychology. https://doi.org/10.1037/dev0001553

Jordan, J. S., Cialdella, V. T., Dayer, A., Langley, M. D., & Stillman, Z. (2017). Wild bodies don't need to perceive, detect, capture, or create meaning: They ARE meaning. Frontiers in Psychology, 8, 1149. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2017.01149

Wagman, J. B., Langley, M. D., & Farmer-Dougan, V. (2017). Doggone affordances: Canine perception of affordances for reaching. Psychonomic Bulletin & Review, 24(4), 1097-1103.

Wagman, J.B., Langley, M.D. & Higuchi, T. Turning perception on its head: cephalic perception of whole and partial length of a wielded object. Exp Brain Res 235, 153–167 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00221-016-4778-2

My research examines the factors that shape perception and attention, with a focus on vertical attention bias (VAB). Across developmental studies, orientation manipulations, and real-world mobile eye-tracking, I show that people systematically favor the tops of objects and bottoms of scenes, revealing how environmental structure and bodily orientation guide visual behavior. Grounded in progressive ecological psychology, my work highlights perception as an active, adaptive process shaped by affordances and task demands, with implications for applied fields such as interface design, education, and human–technology interaction.