biography
Margaret R. Tarampi, Ph.D. Assoc. AIA is an Associate Instructor in the Department of Psychology and the School of Architecture at University of Utah. Previously, she was a SAGE Junior Research Fellow in the SAGE Center for the Study of the Mind and a Research Associate in the Center for Spatial Studies both at UCSB. She received her Ph.D. in Cognitive Psychology from University of Utah in 2013. Her interdisciplinary research investigates the cognitive and neural mechanisms that underlie space perception and spatial cognition in select populations including individuals with visual impairments and spatial experts such as dancers and architects. Other research interests include spatial thinking, perception and action, perspective taking, joint action and kinesthetic imagery.
Prior to her current research work, Margaret was already developing a unique background that was truly interdisciplinary. She graduated from Carnegie Mellon University with a Bachelor of Architecture and minors in Psychology and Architectural History. Her interests in the effect of architecture on quality of life issues brought her to the American Institute of Architects in Washington DC and then to the Salk Institute for Biological Studies in La Jolla CA.
She is also an accomplished visual artist whose work is influenced by her psychological research. Her current work explores the assumptions and manipulations of the human perceptual system. Margaret’s art and design work has been displayed in exhibitions nationally and internationally.
