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 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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Michael Mack wins travel grant from Cognitive Science Society
September 18, 2009Mike Mack won a $500 travel grant from the Cognitive Science Society to its meeting in Amsterdam this July. He presented a paper entitled Recognizing Scenes Containing Consistent or Inconsistent Objects. Congratulations Mike.
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Palmeri, Logan, and Schall awarded Chancellor’s Award for Research
September 18, 2009At the Fall Faculty Assembly, Gordon Logan, Thomas Palmeri, and Jeff Schall were awarded a Chancellor’s Award for Research for the theoretical and empirical work summarized in their 2007 Psychological Review paper. Their research has combined behavioral, electrophysiological, and computational methods to test and refine alternative models of the inhibitory control processes that are recruited during the stop-signal paradigm. It is very important to acknowledge additionally Leanne Boucher, who clearly has played a very central role in this line of work.
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Alan Wong’s Dissertation Research Highlight
July 11, 2009A paper out of Alan Wong’s recent dissertation has been highlighted by Vanderbilt Exploration and the UPI.
Wong, A.C.-N., Palmeri, T.J., & Gauthier I. (in press). Conditions for face-like expertise with objects: Becoming a Ziggerin expert – but which type? Psychological Science. -
VSS 2009
May 14, 2009Braden Purcell’s poster presented at VSS 2009 is available for download.
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VSS 2008 Catlab posters
May 21, 2008Posters from the Catlab presented at VSS 2008 can be downloaded here.