Mentor Areas
My research interest is to understand how our visual percept of the world is shaped by our beliefs and expectations about what there is to be perceived. More specifically, research in my laboratory is currently exploring (1) how the statistical properties of our visual environment shape our expectations (i.e. objective expectations), and (2) the degree by which our expectations reflect our own previous perceptual decisions (i.e. subjective expectations). How are these expectations formed? What are the computations by which they are combined with sensory information in order to generate our percepts? And what are the underlying neural processes that perform these computations?
We approach these questions with the combined effort of theory and experiment. Theory provides the hypotheses necessary to derive models that then can be validated with carefully targeted psychophysical and (through collaboration) physiological experiments. The theory of evolution motivates us to consider vision as an optimal inference problem. Using the frameworks of probability theory and machine learning, our goal is to derive meaningful computational models that can quantitatively account for perceptual behavior of human subjects over a wide range of visual tasks.
Description:
Responsibilities vary depending on the project, and your skills and interests. In principle, you have the opportunity to contribute on any level of a research project. That includes programming and running psychophysical experiments, formulating models and running computer simulations, analyzing experimental data, and presenting the results.
Specific projects are currently available in 1) visual adaptation, 2) illusionary percepts, and 3) visual working memory.
Preferred Qualifications
Sophomores to seniors are encouraged to apply. A good computational background, programming skills, and willingness to commit for a longer period are a big plus.
Project Website
Learn more about the researcher and/or the project here. Computational Perception and Cognition (CPC) Laboratory
Details:
Preferred Student Year
Junior, Senior
Academic Term
Fall, Spring
I prefer to have students start during the above term(s).Volunteer
Yes
Yes indicates that faculty are open to volunteers.Paid
Yes
Yes indicates that faculty are open to paying students they engage in their research, regardless of their work-study eligibility.Work Study
Yes
Yes indicates that faculty are open to hiring work-study-eligible students.