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.On Friday May 20, Mike Mack successfully defended his dissertation entitled "The Dynamics of Categorization: Rapid Categorization Unraveled". Mike is moving on to a postdoctoral fellowship at UT Austin with Brad Love and Allison Preston.
Read MoreMichael Mack – The Dynamics of Categorization: Rapid Categorization Unraveled
Jonathan Folstein – Category learning causes differentiation of psychological dimensions in dimensional but not polar morphspaces
David Ross – Face Adaptation: Comparing Norm- and Exemplar-Based Models
Read MoreOur lab has just been awarded a two-year Vanderbilt University Discovery Grant entitled "Online Web-based Experiments of Real-World Perceptual Expertise".
Read MorePalmeri was part of a group that was a awarded an NSF grant (Revitalizing Computing Education Through Computational Science) to develop an undergraduate minor in Scientific Computing at Vanderbilt. The minor is now officially on the books: New Minor in Scientific Computing Launched.
It also has a web site: http://www.vanderbilt.edu/scientific_computing/
Students in the program in Scientific Computing are taught techniques for understanding complex physical, biological, and social systems. Students are introduced to computational methods for simulating and analyzing models of complex systems, to scientific visualization and data mining techniques needed to detect structure in massively large multidimensional data sets, to high performance computing techniques for simulating models on computing clusters with hundreds or thousands of parallel, independent processors and for analyzing terabytes or more of data that may be distributed across a massive cloud or grid storage environment.
Read MoreAt the February 2011 meeting of the National Science Board, the governing body of the National Science Foundation, the TDLC was approved for renewal for five year of additional funding: "RESOLVED that the National Science Board authorize the Director, at his discretion, to make
an award to the University of California, San Diego for the Temporal Dynamics of Learning Center (TDLC) for an amount not to exceed $18,840,000 over 60 months."
Read MoreWe have begun a new project recruiting and testing birding experts from around the country and beyond. After months of development and pilot testing, our web site for online tests of perceptual expertise is now up and running:
expertise.psy.vanderbilt.edu. After just a few weeks, with only cursory recruitment efforts, we have had well over 50 participants. Mike Mack deserves all the credit for his hard work putting this site together.
As part of this project, we have also created a new blog called This is Your Brain on Birds. Our goal is to share some of the past and current scientific findings with the birding community and other interested readers, as well as reflect on the insights of birders and their unique expertise. We hope that this blog will also serve as a gateway to interest and encourage even more birders to participate in our online experiments.
Read MoreMack, M.L., Richler, J.J., Gauthier, I., & Palmeri, T.J. (in press). Indecision on decisional separability. Psychonomic Bulletin & Review.
Folstein, J., Gauthier, I., & Palmeri, T.J. (2010). Mere exposure alters
category learning of novel objects. Frontiers in Cognitive Science.
Read MoreA new paper published in Psychological Review by Purcell, Palmeri
and colleagues is highlighted in this Vanderbilt news story: http://news.vanderbilt.edu/2010/10/neurons-cast-votes-to-guide-decision-making/
Read MorePalmeri is a co-PI on grants recently funded by NSF and Vanderbilt to create a GPU computational cluster at Vanderbilt. GPU’s promise 10-100 fold speedups in simulations of computational models developed by the lab. For more information on this project, check out this recent new article: http://www.vanderbilt.edu/myvu/news/2010/07/29/more-computer-power-for-university.120764
Read MoreMack, M.L., & Palmeri, T.J. (in press). Decoupling object detection and categorization. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception and Performance.
Mack, M.L., & Palmeri, T.J. (in press). Modeling categorization of scenes containing consistent versus inconsistent objects. Journal of Vision.
Nelson, M.J., Boucher, L., Logan, G.D., Palmeri, T.J., Schall, J.D. (in press). Impact of nonstationary response time in stopping and stepping saccade tasks. Attention, Perception, & Performance.
Purcell, B.A., Heitz, R.P., Cohen, J.Y., Schall, J.D., Logan, G.D., & Palmeri, T.J. (in press). Neurally-constrained modeling of perceptual decision making. Psychological Review.
Gauthier, I., Wong, A.C.-N., Palmeri, T.J. (in press). Manipulating visual experience: Comment on Op de Beeck and
Baker. Trends in Cognitive Science.
Read MoreJennifer Richler, co-advised by Gauthier and Palmeri, successfully passed her doctoral dissertation defense today. Her thesis is entitled "Automaticity of basic-level categorization accounts for naming effects in recognition memory". Congratulations Dr. Richler! Now you get to learn the ultra-secret, very special handshake.
Read MoreMike 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.
Read MoreAt 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.
Read MoreA 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.