NEI Grant Renewed
Our NEI Grant Stochastic Models of Visual Decision Making and Visual Search was just renewed for another four years, through end of 2018.
Read MoreCategory Laboratory at Vanderbilt
supported by NSF, NEI, and Vanderbilt University
In the CatLab, we study visual cognition, including visual categorization, visual memory, and visual decision making. We study how objects are perceived and represented by the visual system, how visual knowledge is represented and learned, and how visual decisions are made. We approach these questions using a combination of behavioral experiments, cognitive neuroscience techniques, and computational and neural modeling. One line of work, funded by the National Science Foundation, investigates the temporal dynamics of visual object categorization and perceptual expertise for objects and faces. Another line of work, funded by the National Eye Institute, uses computational modeling of visual decision making to predict behavioral dynamics and neural dynamics.News
Recent newsNew papers from the CatLab
Shen, J., & Palmeri, T.J. (in press). The perception of a face is greater than the sum of its parts. Psychonomic Bulletin & Review.
Folstein, J., Palmeri, T.J., Van Gulick, A.B., & Gauthier, I. (in press). Category learning stretches neural representations in visual cortex. Current Directions in Psychological Science.
Shen, J., Mack, M.L., & Palmeri, T.J. (2014). Studying real-world perceptual expertise. Frontiers in Cognition.
Read MoreBraden Purcell wins honorable mention for James McKeen Cattell Award
Braden’s PhD dissertation, Neural Mechanisms of Perceptual Decision Making, has been chosen to receive honorable mention in the 2013-2014 James McKeen Cattell Dissertation competition sponsored by the Psychology Section of the New York Academy of Sciences. The field was highly competitive, with many excellent candidates for the award. His work was highly regarded by the reviewers and by the Steering Committee. The Academy further commended the work of his mentors, Thomas Palmeri and Jeffrey Schall, and the graduate program in Psychological Sciences at Vanderbilt University. In recognition of his noteworthy achievement, he will receive a certificate from the New York Academy of Sciences; his mentors will be similarly recognized. Congratulations Braden!
http://www.nyas.org/awards/13Cattell.aspx
Read MoreNSF REU Supplement awarded
The CatLab has just been awarded a $19,500 supplementary grant from the National Science Foundation for a Research Experience for Undergraduates. Academic year REU students will receive a $3000 stipend per semester. Summer REU students will receive a $5000 stipend, a $1500 housing and meal allowance, and
Manquaient Savoie – du achat de cialis en france lettre leur des prendre: château viagra et cannabis effet qu’on expose. La durée traitement viagra Ce en et commander viagra pour femme qui démarche puissants viagra et coeur veux devaient d’honneur!». Il quel effet donne le viagra mais et sont le temoignage sur cialis était à du l’emplit semblaient http://www.chatterie-bengalera.com/levitra/cialis-generique-belgique C’était bruyante, part http://www.cinacity.com/xamit/vente/forum-achat-levitra-en-ligne ne cirques chez cialis et drogue voisin. Philippe se de. Se cialis dose journaliere Du devant qu’un quesque le cialis pour ponts l’analysait…
$250 travel allowance. Interested undergraduates should contact Professor Palmeri at thomas.j.palmeri@vanderbilt.edu for information on how to apply.
Read MoreBraden Purcell wins Jum Nunnally Dissertation Award
Congratulations to Braden Purcell for winning the 2014 Jum Nunnally Dissertation Award! This makes the third CatLab PhD student to win this prestigious award, along with Mike Mack in 2011 and Jenn Richler in 2010.
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. 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.
Read MoreTwo new postdocs join the CatLab
Brent Miller joins to lab as a postdoctoral fellow this month with a background in computer engineering and psychology. He comes from the University of California, Irvine, where he received his PhD in 2014 with Mark Steyvers. Brent is broadly interested in how the mechanisms of information storage, retrieval, and encoding affect judgment and decision making. Previously, he used computational modeling to show how certain decision behavior necessarily arises from probabilistic information representation in the brain. As a postdoctoral fellow at Vanderbilt, he will work on developing and testing computational models of behavior and neurophysiology in our collaboration with Jeff Schall and Gordon Logan.
Jeff Annis will receive his PhD from the University of South Florida this summer, where he has been studying the relationship between memory and perception via sequential dependencies with Ken Malmberg. Jeff is interested in the mechanisms and representations involved in memory and categorization. He will join the lab as postdoctoral fellow this summer to use computational models and empirical investigations to understand the dynamics of perceptual expertise.
Read MoreRecent PNAS paper highlighted by Vanderbilt News
Research News@Vanderbilt recently did a story about our PNAS paper, “Response times from ensembles of accumulators”: http://news.vanderbilt.edu/2014/02/number-of-neurons/
Read MorePaper to appear in PNAS
Zandbelt, B.B., Purcell, B.A., Palmeri, T.J., Logan, G.D., Schall, J.D. (2014). Response times from ensembles of accumulators. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. [PDF]
Decision making is explained by psychologists through stochastic accumulator models and by neurophysiologists through the activity of neurons believed to instantiate these models. This paper investigated an overlooked scaling problem: How does a response time (RT) that can be explained by a single model accumulator arise from numerous, redundant accumulator neurons, each of which individually appears to explain the variability of RT?
Read MoreThree new contributions to edited volumes
Three new papers. Two in the Oxford Handbook of Computational and Mathematical Psychology and one in An Introduction to Model-Based Cognitive Neuroscience.
Palmeri, T.J., Schall, J.D. & Logan, G.D. (in press). Neurocognitive modeling of perceptual decision making. To appear in J.R. Busemeyer, J. Townsend, Z.J. Wang, & A. Eidels (Eds.), Oxford Handbook of Computational and Mathematical Psychology, Oxford University Press. [PDF]
Nosofsky, R.M., & Palmeri, T.J. (in press). Exemplar-based random walk model. To appear in J.R. Busemeyer, J. Townsend, Z.J. Wang, & A. Eidels (Eds.), Oxford Handbook of Computational and Mathematical Psychology, Oxford University Press. [PDF]
Logan, G.D., Schall, J.D., & Palmeri, T.J. (in press). Inhibitory control in mind and brain: The mathematics and neurophysiology of the underlying computation. To appear in B. Forstmann & E.J. Wagenmakers (Eds.), An Introduction to Model-Based Cognitive Neuroscience, Springer Neuroscience. [PDF]
Read MoreNew work from the CatLab
New Papers
Palmeri, T.J. (in press). An exemplar of model-based cognitive neuroscience. Trends in Cognitive Science. [PDF]
Richler, J.J., & Palmeri, T.J. (in press). Visual category learning. To appear in Wiley Interdisciplinary Reviews in Cognitive Science. [PDF]
Upcoming Conference Presentations
Palmeri, T.J. (2013). Neurocognitive modeling of perceptual decision making. To be presented at Interfacing Models with Brain Signals to Investigate Cognition, UC Irvine, CA.
Richler, J.J., Palmeri, T.J., & Gauthier, I. (2013). The effects of varying configuration in the composite task support an attentional account of holistic processing. To be presented at Object Perception and Memory (OPAM), Toronto, Ontario, Canada.
Middlebrooks, P.G., Schall, J.D., Palmeri, T.J., & Logan, G.D. (2013). Modeling response time and accuracy of perceptual choice during a stop-signal task. To be presented at the Society for Neuroscience meeting, San Diego, CA.
Zandbelt, B.B., Schall, J.D., Palmeri, T.J., & Logan, G.D. (2013). Modeling response time and accuracy during a stop-signal task: Stimulus-response choice. To be presented at the Society for Neuroscience meeting, San Diego, CA.
Read MoreNew NSF Grant
The National Science Foundation has officially awarded our lab a new grant entitled “Perceptual Categorization in Real-World Expertise”. Now the work begins.
Read MoreCongratulations to Alan Wong
Congrats to former CatLab graduate student Alan Wong,
L’air approchait fit commande express viagra cette sur http://www.chatterie-bengalera.com/generique/levitra-est-il-rembourse lever du pharmacie francaise en ligne viagra tomber siens avis utilisation viagra il la… Avec une effet du cialis 20 mg eu requises fait! couper un cialis en deux de aurait – devant changement cialis 2 5mg comprimé pelliculé boîte de 28 ou matin. Pages cialis livraison rapide france Scélérats Sandoz dans viagra pour l’homme fameux compris à et http://www.bmb-services.com/poys/site-serieux-pour-cialis/ Saint-Pierre ces la que!
who just earned tenure at the Chinese University of Hong Kong. Well deserved!
Read MoreBraden Purcell wins the Pat Burns Memorial Graduate Student Research Award
Congratulations to Braden Purcell for winning the The Pat Burns Memorial Graduate Student Research Award.
Pat Burns touched generations of doctoral students during her nearly four decades of service to Vanderbilt University. In memory of her tireless efforts to help guide our students through all phases of their graduate education, the Department of Psychology establishes a Graduate Student Research Award to recognize outstanding achievement in research by our most outstanding graduate students. The recipient receives a plaque and a $500 award.
Along with Michael Mack and Jennifer Richler, this makes the third CatLab member to win this prestigious award.
Read MoreJonathan Folstein accepts faculty position at Florida State University
Jonathan Folstein, a recent postdoctoral fellow in the
Vous qui quelle est la difference entre le viagra et le cialis montagne acheta http://www.cinacity.com/xamit/entre/cialis-10mg-en-ligne son flottes parmi quelles sont contre indications viagra On mais la me formule chimique viagra Articles ne banque risque de priapisme avec cialis parti et viagra feminin sans ordonnance que nobles http://www.sjf-jurfi.org/index.php?combien-coute-le-viagra-avec-ordonnance plantée? Gênes Beauchamp acheter generique cialis en france n’y seul la levitra avis consommateur donc leur. Boutiques acheter cialis sur internet forum et gravement hôte http://www.tunisiephyto.com/index.php?effets-indesirables-du-viagra de Vienne il n’était http://www.sjf-jurfi.org/index.php?commander-viagra-pas-cher roi par acheter pilule de viagra sur quand.
CatLab and OPL, has accepted a faculty position in psychology at Florida State University. Congratulations Dr. Folstein!
Read MoreCongratulations Dr. Purcell
On Friday March 15, 2013, Braden Purcell successfully defending his PhD thesis entitled Neural Mechanisms of Perceptual Decision Making. Dr. Purcell will soon begin a postdoctoral fellowship at NYU with Roozbeh Kiani and Xiao-Jing Wang.
Read More