What we do
In the visual cognition laboratory, led by Dr. Bruno G. Breitmeyer, researchers are interested in several aspects of spatiotemporal vision. We take a dual, sustained-transient channel approach, in which sustained and transient channels relate to the parallel parvocellular and magnocellular pathways of the visual system, to investigate the microgenesis of object perception. Here we investigate various properties and mechanisms of visual masking experimentally and through neural network modeling. Of ongoing interest are investigations of similarities and differences of the perceptual microgenesis of objects defined by 1st-order (e.g., light-dark) as compared to 2nd-order (e.g., texture) contrasts. We also use visual masking as a technique to render stimuli invisible and then investigating how information about stimuli that are rendered invisible by a mask differs from information of visible/unmasked stimuli. We are particularly interested in the types and levels of nonconscious visual processing, how the processing of the form and surface features of objects differ at both levels of processing, and the comparison of the deployment of space-based and feature-based attention at nonconscious and conscious levels of processing. Our work is done in collaboration with Drs. Haluk Ögmen and Bhavin Sheth of the University of Houston Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering. We are also affiliated with the Center for Neuroengineering and Cognitive Science at the University of Houston.
See our publications page for more information about our work.
