Welcome to the CatLab, the web site for Tom Palmeri’s laboratory at Vanderbilt University.

Our laboratory studies perceptual categorization, perceptual decision making, and perceptual expertise using a combination of behavioral experiments, computational modeling, and cognitive neuroscience techniques .

Our research is and has been generously funded by grants from the National Science Foundation, the National Institutes of Health, and the James S. McDonnell Foundation. Some of our collaborative research is funded by a grant from the Air Force Office of Scientific Research.

Picture taken October 2007 after a meeting of the weekly Gauthier-Palmeri lab meeting. From left to right: Noa Ben Amotz, Olivia Cheung, Rankin Williams, Anders Ericsson (visiting the lab for the morning), Tom Palmeri, Isabel Gauthier, Jonathan Folstein, Yetta Wong, Mike Mack, Jenn Richler.




Lab News


  • VSS 2008 Catlab posters

     Posters from the Catlab presented at VSS 2008 can be downloaded here.

  • Jennifer Richler and Michael Mack win Graduate Student Research Award

    Jenn and Mike recently won the Pat Burns Memorial Graduate Student Research Award. This annual award recognizes outstanding achievement in research by a graduate student in the Department of Psychology at Vanderbilt University. Jenn and Mike were recognized not only for their individual achievements in research but also by their ability to work together as a collaborative team.

  • Some New Papers from the Catlab

    Cheung, O.S., Richler, J.J., Palmeri, T.J., & Gauthier, I. (in press). Revisiting the role of spatial frequencies in the holistic processing of faces. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception and Performance.

    Richler, J., Gauthier, I., Wenger, M., & Palmeri, T.J. (in press). Holistic processing of faces. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition.

    Mack, M., Gauthier, I., Sadr, J., & Palmeri, T.J. (2007). Object detection and basic-level categorization: Sometimes you know it is there before you know what it is. Psychonomic Bulletin & Review.

  • Mike and Jenn win Golden Greeble Award

    May 15, 2007
    Congratulations to Jenn Richler and Mike Mack for winning the "Golden Greeble Award." This award will cover travel expenses for Mike and Jenn to work with Helena Kadlec and Michael Wenger on developing new tests for perceptual and decisional loci of holistic processing.

  • Mike wins TA Award

    April 25, 2007
    Congratulations to Mike Mack for winning the William F. Hodges Teaching Assistant Award.