Welcome to the CatLab, the web site for Tom Palmeri’s laboratory at Vanderbilt University.
Our laboratory studies how people visually categorize, identify, and recognize objects. We examine how objects are processed and represented by the visual system, how visual knowledge about objects is represented and learned, and how perceptual decisions about objects are made. We are particularly interested in the temporal dynamics of visual object recognition. That includes the short-term dynamics of an individual decision about an object’s category or identity and the long-term dynamics of how those decisions change with learning and perceptual expertise. We approaches these questions using a combination of behavioral experiments, cognitive neuroscience techniques, and computational and neural modeling.
Our research is and has been generously funded by grants from the National Science Foundation, the National Institutes of Health, the James S. McDonnell Foundation, and Discovery grants from Vanderbilt University.
Picture taken October 2007 after a weekly joint meetings of Palmeri’s Catlab and Gauthier’s Object Perception Laboratory. 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.
Recent Lab News
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Braden Purcell accepted to CSHL summer course
April 25, 2012Braden Purcell has been accepted to the Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory summer course in Computational Neuroscience: Vision. This is a highly competitive program. Congratulations to Braden on this outstanding accomplishment.
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New faces joining the lab
April 5, 2012Jianhong Chen is joining the lab this fall as a new graduate student in Psychological Sciences. Jianhong is getting her undergraduate degree from Peking University, one of the top three universities in China, where she worked with professor Fang Fang. Her research at PKU focused on adaptation, perceptual learning and EEG. For her graduate study, she is interested in perceptual expertise.
We also have two undergraduates working in the laboratory this summer on research fellowships. Billy Bunce will work with Jenn Richler and Mike Mack on a project modeling perceptual expertise. Akash Umakantha will work with Braden Purcell on neural models of perceptual decision making.
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Congratulations Dr. Ross!
March 6, 2012Congratulations to David Ross for successfully passing the oral defense of his PhD thesis from Cardiff University. Well done Dr. Ross!
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Tim Vickery takes faculty position at the University of Delaware
March 2, 2012Tim Vickery worked in the lab as an undergraduate and as a research assistant before going on to earn his PhD in psychology at Harvard with Yuhong Jiang. Tim is currently a postdoctoral fellow at Yale University with Marvin Chun. Tim just accepted a faculty position at the University of Delaware. Congratulations Tim!
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New paper to appear in Cerebral Cortex
February 21, 2012Congratulations to Jonathan Folstein on our new paper to appear in Cerebral Cortex:
Folstein, J., Palmeri, T.J., Gauthier, I (2012). Category learning increases discriminability of relevant object dimensions in visual cortex. Cerebral Cortex. [PDF]
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A couple of recent papers from the CatLab
January 17, 2012Purcell, B.A., Schall, J.D., Logan, G.D., & Palmeri, T.J. (in press). Gated stochastic accumulator model of visual search. Journal of Neuroscience. [PDF]
Folstein, J., Gauthier, I., & Palmeri, T.J. (in press). Not all morph spaces stretch alike: How category learning affects object perception. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition. [PDF]
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NSF Renews TDLC center grant
November 4, 2011The Temporal Dynamics of Learning Center (TDLC) recently received renewal of funding from the National Science Foundation with a five year $18 million grant. The TDLC, one of six Science of Learning Centers funded by NSF, provides core support for the Perceptual Expertise Network (PEN). PEN is co-directed by Palmeri and Gauthier, who also sit on the Executive Committee for the TDLC.
A story on the funding renewal appears here: http://news.vanderbilt.edu/2011/11/pen-grant-renewal/
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Scientific Computing minor highlighted in Vanderbilt Engineering magazine
October 5, 2011The new Scientific Computing program (Thomas Palmeri, co-Director) is highlighted in Vanderbilt Engineering magazine: Computing: It's Not Just for Computer Scientists and Engineers Anymore.
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Mike Mack wins Jum Nunnally Dissertation Award!
September 20, 2011Michael Mack is the 2011 winner of the Jum Nunnally Dissertation Award.
The Jum Nunnally Dissertation Award recognizes a recent outstanding doctoral dissertation in the Department of Psychology. The recipient receives a certificate and a $500 award. Mike's thesis was nothing short of excellent, and well deserving of this award.
Jum Nunnally came to Vanderbilt in 1960. In 1961, he became the second chair of the department. He served as chair from 1961-1964 and again from 1967-1970. Under Jum’s leadership, the department grew substantially in stature, including significant increases in both the number and quality of the faculty. A memorial fund to support student awards was established in 1982 by his friends and family. Proceeds from this fund were used to establish the Jum Nunnally Dissertation Award in 2010.
This makes the second CatLab PhD to win this prestigious award. Jenn Richler was co-winner of the award in 2010.
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Journal of Neuroscience article featured in Research News@Vanderbilt
September 1, 2011Our recent Journal of Neuroscience article entitled Neural basis of adaptive response time adjustment is featured in Research News@Vanderbilt:
http://news.vanderbilt.edu/2011/08/new-insight-into-impulse-control/Pouget, P., Logan, G.D., Palmeri, T.J., Boucher, L., & Schall, J.D. (in press). Neural basis of adaptive response time adjustment. Journal of Neuroscience.