Psychology seminars

Retinal projections often poorly represent the structure of the physical world: well-defined boundaries within the eye may correspond to irrelevant features of the physical world, while critical features of the physical world may be nearly invisible at the retinal projection. Visual cortex is equipped with specialized mechanisms for sorting these two types of features according to their utility in interpreting the scene, however we know little or nothing about their perceptual computations. I will present novel paradigms for the characterization of these processes in human vision, alongside examples of how the associated empirical results can be combined with targeted models to shape our understanding of the underlying perceptual mechanisms. Although the emerging view is far from complete, it challenges compartmentalized notions of bottom-up/top-down object segmentation, and suggests instead that these two modes are best viewed as an integrated perceptual mechanism.

It is a truth universally acknowledged that relational reasoning is important for learning in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) disciplines. However, much research on relational reasoning uses examples unrelated to STEM concepts (understandably, to control for prior knowledge in many cases). In this talk I will discuss how real STEM concepts can be profitably used in relational reasoning research, using fraction concepts in mathematics as an example.