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Biographical Sketch
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Irving Biederman is the Harold W. Dornsife Professor of Neuroscience at the University of Southern California, where he is a member of the Departments of Psychology, Computer Science, and Neuroscience and Director of the Image Understanding Laboratory. Prior to his appointment at the University of Southern California, he was the Fesler-Lampert Professor of Artificial Intelligence and Cognitive Science at the University of Minnesota. Author of over 200 scientific publications, Professor Biederman has developed a comprehensive neurocomputational theory of real-time human object and scene recognition that posits that recognition of objects and scenes is based on a representation that specifies simple viewpoint-invariant shape primitives, termed geons. The theory, implemented as a neural network, is widely regarded as the premier account of shape recognition and has undergone extensive testing in psychophysical and fMRI experiments with humans and single unit recording experiments in monkeys. The original theoretical paper is the fifth most widely cited paper of all time in vision science. In another line or research, Biederman and his associates have been developed a neurocomputational account of the differences in the representation of faces and objects. More recently, Biederman has proposed a theory, tested with behavioral and neuroimaging techniques, of the neural basis of perceptual and cognitive pleasure, a drive that explains the spontaneous allocation of attention serving to make us infovores. Irving Biederman has been a featured, distinguished, or keynote speaker at over 40 National and International Scientific Meetings. He has received the USC Associates Award for Creativity in Research and has been identified as one of the most influential cognitive psychologists in the world on the basis of peer ratings and citation counts. Professor Biederman has been a member of panels for the National Science Foundation, National Institutes of Health, National Research Council, and the Air Force Office of Scientific Research, where he served as the first Program Manager (consulting) for the Cognitive Science Program.
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Education
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 Ph.D. , University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, 1/1966
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Academic Appointment, Affiliation, and Employment History
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Tenure Track Appointments
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Fesler-Lampert Professor of Artificial Intelligence and Cognitive Science, University of Minnesota, 09/01/1987-07/31/1991
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Professor of Psychology, State University of New York at Buffalo, 09/01/1973-08/31/1987
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Associate Professor of Psychology, State University of New York at Buffalo, 09/01/1971-08/31/1973
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Assistant Professor of Psychology, State University of New York at Buffalo, 09/01/1965-08/31/1971
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Visiting and Temporary Appointments
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Visiting Associate Professor of Psychology, Stanford University, 2007-2008
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Visiting Professor of Psychology, University of Trento, Trento Italy, 02/01/2006-04/30/2006
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Visiting Professor of Psychology, Stanford University, 06/01/1979-12/31/2001
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Visiting Professor of Psychology, University of Munich, Munich, Germany, 01/15/2000-03/15/2000
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Visiting Professor of Psychology, Hebrew University, Jerusalem, 02/01/1988-04/30/1988
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Consulting Program Manager, Air Force Office of Scientific Research, 01/01/1985-12/31/1986
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Visiting Professor of Psychology, Hebrew University, Jerusalem, 01/15/1981-08/15/1981
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Description of Research
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Summary Statement of Research Interests
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"Beauty is in the eye of the beholder,” goes the old cliché. Poetic, to be sure, but hardly exacting enough for neuroscientists. Biederman might rephrase it: "The pleasure of perceptual novelty and richness is in the opiate receptors of the cerebral cortex.” Biederman focuses on the brain's role in vision, investigating the brain processes underlying humans' ability to quickly recognize and interpret what they see. Biederman's new theory might go a long way toward explaining how we cast our attention on our surroundings and why we find one thing more interesting at first blush than another. His research includes shape, object, and scene perception/recognition by human beings and face recognition.
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Research Keywords
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Basic: Neural Basis of Higher Level Vision: Shape, Object, Face, and Scene Perception; Cognitive Neuroscience: Perceptual and Cognitive Pleasure; Evolutiionary Psycholology, Cognitive Psychology; Intelligence.
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Funded Research
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Contracts and Grants Awarded
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Mid-Level Vision Systems for Low Vision (NIH), Norberto Grzywacz, Irving Biederman, $5,816,039, 11/15/2007-11/14/2012
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NEURAL AND BEHAVIORAL ANALYSES OF THE REPRESENTATION OF SHAPE (NSF), Irving Biederman, $545,894, 09/01/2006-08/31/2009
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Fmri And Behavioral Analysis Of The Representation Of Shape (National Science Foundation), Biederman, Irving, $200,000, 09/01/2005-08/31/2008
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PERCEPTUAL BASIS OF VISUAL CONCEPTS (MIMH), Edward Wasserman, Irving Biederman, $1,150,000, 09/01/2003-08/31/2008
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Acquisition Of An Fmri Basic Research Imaging System At The (National Science Foundation), Biederman, Irving, $1,240,504, 08/01/2004-07/31/2008
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FMRI AND BEHAVIORAL ANALYSIS OF THE REPRESENTATION OF SHAPE (NSF), Irving Biederman, $200,000, 09/01/2005-08/31/2007
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ACQUISITION OF AN FMRI BASIC RESEARCH IMAGING SYSTEM AT THE (NSF), Irving Biederman, Raine, Itti, Lu, Arbib, $1,240,504, 08/01/2004-07/31/2007
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DEVELOPMENT OF AN AUTOMATED ULTRAMICROTOME FOR BRAIN RECONSTRUCTION (Harvard University), Irving Biederman, $4,000, 08/01/2006-12/31/2006
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SGER: ASSESSMENT OF THE REPRESENTATION OF SHAPE IN INDIVIDUALS FROM A CULTURE WITH MINIMAL, REGULAR (NSF), Irving Biederman, $45,017, 09/01/2004-08/31/2006
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Affiliations with Research Centers, Labs, and Other Institutions
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Image Understanding Lab,http://geon.usc.edu/
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Conferences and Other Presentations
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Conference Presentations
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"The Neural Basis of Face Recognition", 2007 Vision Train Winter School, Talk, Les Houches, France, Invited, 2007-2008
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"The Neural Basis of Face Recognition", Symposium on Brains, Faces, and Beliefs, Talk, Cardiff, Wales, UK, Invited, 2007-2008
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"The Neural Basis of Object Recognition", 13th Joint Symposium on Neural computation, Talk, San Diego, CA, Invited, 2007-2008
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"The Neural Basis of Shape (Parts) Recognition", 2007 Vision Train Winter School, Talk, Les Houches, France, Invited, 2007-2008
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"Neural Evidence for Structural Descriptions", IEEE 4th International Workshop on Object Categorizatoin, Talk, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, Invited, 2007
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"Evidence for relative position coding in lateral occipital and posterior fusiform areas. ", Society for Neuroscience, Talk, San Diego, CA, Refereed, 11/06/2007
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"Predicting the psychophysical discriminability of faces and other complex stimuli based on a measure of image similarity. ", Society for Neuroscience, Talk, San Diego, CA, Refereed, 11/06/2007
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"Perceptual Pleasure and the Brain", 7th Conference on Emotion and Motivation, Talk, Hammamet, Tunesia, Invited, 10/26/2007
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"A Cross-Cultural Test of the Independence of the Representation of Generalized-Cone Dimensions ", Vision Sciences Society, Poster, Sarasota, FL, Refereed, 2006-2007
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"A Test of the Consistency of Scene Preferences across Cultures", Vision Sciences Society, Poster, Sarasota, FL, Refereed, 2006-2007
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"Minimal scenes, maximal challenges", Vision Sciences Society, Talk, Sarasota, FL, Invited, 2006-2007
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"Shape Recognition and the Brain", Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience, Talk, Taipei, Taiwan, Invited, 2006-2007
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"Some tests of the standard model ", Vision Sciences Society, Poster, Sarasota, FL, Refereed, 2006-2007
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"The Neural Basis of Object Recognition", Interdisciplinary Conference, Talk, Andalsnes, Norway, Invited, 2006-2007
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"The Neural Basis of Object Recognition. ", Symposium on Object Recognition 20 Years Later, Talk, Sarasota, FL, Invited, 2006-2007
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"The Neural Basis of Perceptual and Cognitive Pleasure", Whitehead Lecture, University of London, Talk, London, England, Invited, 2006-2007
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"The neural basis of preference for natural scenes", Vision Sciences Society, Poster, Sarasota, FL, Refereed, 2006-2007
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"A lateral occipital complex (LOC) localizer with precisely matched local feature composition in intact and scrambled images", Vision Sciences Society, Poster, Sarasota, FL, Refereed, 2005-2006
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"Laterality effects in the LOC", Vision Sciences Society, Poster, Sarasota, FL, Refereed, 2005-2006
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"Predicting psychophysical similarity of complex shapes from measures of physical similarity", Vision Sciences Society, Poster, Sarasota, FL, Refereed, 2005-2006
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"The Neural Basis of Object Recognition. ", Conference on Early Vision: Computational and Biological, Talk, Bertinoro, Italy, Invited, 2005-2006
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"The neural representation of shape in humans and macaques", Society for Research on Child Development, Talk, Atlanta, GA, Invited, 2005-2006
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Other Presentations
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"Neural Basis of Shape Recognition", Invited Colloquium, CNRS and Paris V, Paris, France, 2007-2008
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"The Neural Basis of Perceptual and Cogntive Pleasure", Invited Colloquium, University IUAX, Venice Italy, 2007-2008
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"Face Recognition", Invited Colloquium, University oif London, Institute for Cognitive Neuroscience, London, England, 2006-2007
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"Neural Basis of Face Recognition", Invited Colloquium, National Taipei University, Taipei, Taiwn, 2006-2007
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"Neural Basis of Face Recognition", Invited Colloquium, National Taipei University, Taipei, Taiwn, 2006-2007
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"Neural Basis of Object Recognition", Invited Colloquium, Universite de Provence , Marseilles, France, 2006-2007
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"Neural Basis of Object Recognition", Invited Colloquium, National Taipei University, Taipei, Taiwan, 2006-2007
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"Object Recognition", Invited Colloquium, University oif London, Institute for Cognitive Neuroscience, London, England, 2006-2007
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"Perceptual and Cognitive Pleasure and the Brain", Invited Colloquium, Universtiy of Geneva, Geneva, Switzerland, 2006-2007
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"Perceptual and Cognitive Pleasure and the Brain", Invited Colloquium, University of London, Goldsmiths, London, UK, 2006-2007
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"Perceptual Organization and Object Recognition", Invited Colloquium, University of Padova, Padova, Italy, 2006-2007
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"Shape Recognition in Mind and Brain", Colloquium, University of Parma, Parma, Italy, 2006-2007
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"The Neural Basis of Face Recognition", Colloquium, University of Glasgow, Glasgow, Scotland, UK, 2006-2007
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"The Neural Basis of Object Recognition", Colloquium, Oxford University, Oxford, England, 2006-2007
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"The Neural Basis of Object Recognition", Colloquium, University of Bologna, Bologna, Italy, 2006-2007
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"The Neural Basis of Shape Recognition", Colloquium, University of Birmingham, Birmingham, England, 2006-2007
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"The Neural Basis of Shape Recognition", Colloquium, CNRS, Marseilles, France, 2006-2007
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"The Neural Basis of Shape Recognition", Colloquium, University of Cardiff, Cardiff, Wales, UK, 2006-2007
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"Three-Dimensional Perception and Perceptual Pleasure", Colloquium, University of Bolzano, Bolzano, Italy, 2006-2007
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Publications
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Book
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N. Osaka, I. Rentchler, I. Biederman (Ed.).
(2007).
Object Recognition, Attention, & Action. Tokyo: Springer.
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Book Chapter
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Biederman, I.
(2007).
Recent psychophysical and neural research in shape recognition. Object Recognition, Attention, & Action.
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Journal Article
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Biederman, I., Kim, J. G.
(2007).
17,000 Years of Depicting the Junction between Two Smooth Shapes. Perception.
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Yue, X., Vessel, E. A., Biederman, I.
(2007).
The neural basis of scene preferences. NeuroReport.
Vol. 18, pp. 525-529.
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Nederhouser, M., Yue, X., Biederman, I., Mangini, M. C.
(2007).
The deleterious effect of contrast reversal on recognition is unique to faces, not objects. Vision Research.
Vol. 47, pp. 2134-2142.
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Russell, R. R., Biederman, I., Nederhouser, M., Siniha, P.
(2007).
The utility of surface reflectance for the recognition of upright and inverted faces. Vision Research.
Vol. 47, pp. 157-165.
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Lazareva, O. F., Wasserman, E. A., Biederman, I.
(2007).
Pigeons’ recognition of partially occluded objects depends on specific training experience. Perception.
Vol. 36, pp. 33-48.
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Hayworth, K. J., Biederman, I.
(2006).
Neural evidence for intermediate representations in object recognition. Vision Research/Elsevier Science.
Vol. 46, pp. 4024-4031.
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Yue, X., Tjan, S. B., Biederman, I.
(2006).
What makes faces special?. Vision Research/Elsevier Science.
Vol. 46(22), pp. 3802-11, doi:10.1016/j.visres.2006.06.017 (.
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Martin-Malivel, J., Mangini, M. C., Joel, F., Biederman, I.
(2006).
Do humans and baboons use the same information when categorizing human and baboons faces. Psychological Science/American Psychoologicl Society.
Vol. 17, pp. 599-607.
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Biederman, I., Vessel, E. A.
(2006).
Perceptual pleasure and the brain. American Scientist.
Vol. 94, pp. 247-253.
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Russell, R., Sinha, P., Biederman, I., Nederhouser, M.
(2006).
Is pigmentation important for face recognition? Evidence from contrast negation. Perception.
Vol. 35, pp. 749-759.
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Peissig, J. J., Kilpatrick, K., Young, M. E., Wasserman, E. A., Biederman, I.
(2006).
Effects of varying stimulus size on object recognition in pigeons. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Animal Behavior Processes.
Vol. 32, pp. 419-430.
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Biederman, I.
(2005).
Tuning for shape dimensions in macaque inferior temporal cortex. European Journal of Neuroscience/Blackwell.
Vol. 22 212-224
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Biederman, I.
(2005).
Representation of regular and irregular shapes in macaque inferotemporal cortex. Cerbral Cortex.
Vol. 15, pp. 1308-1321.
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Biederman, I.
(2005).
The role of edges in object recognition by pigeons. Perception.
Vol. 34, pp. 1353-1374.
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Vogels, R., Biederman, I.
(2002).
Vogels, R., & Biederman, I. (2002). Effects of illumination intensity and direction on object coding in macaque inferior temporal cortex. Cerebral Cortex, 12, 756-766.
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Biederman, I.
(2001).
Inferior temporal neurons show greater sensitivity to nonaccidental than metric differences. Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience 134:. Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience.
Vol. 13, pp. 444-453.
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Bar, M., Biederman, I.
(1999).
Localizing the cortical region mediating visual awareness of object identitiy. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
Vol. 96, pp. 1790-1793.
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Guest Lectures in Courses
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NEUR 524: Advanced Neurosciences 1 Two hour lecture on neural basis of high-level vision,
Fall
2007
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PSYC 301: Cognitive Processes Two hour lecture on Dorsal-Ventral cortical visual systems.,
Fall
2007
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PSYC 506: Learning and Cognition Three hour lecture on the neural basis of visual cognition,
Spring
2007
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BME 671: Late Visual Processing Two two-hour lectures; one on the Neural Basis of Shape Recognition and the other on the Neural Basis of Face Recognition.,
Spring
2006
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New Courses Developed
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Cognitive Neuroscience, PSYC 540, An examination of the major components of cognition (e.g., perception, memory, intelligence) in terms of the neural coding characteristic of the relevant brain areas.,
Spring
2009
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Current Topics in Cognitive Neuroscience, Psychology, Examines recent research in the neural basis of perception, memory, judgment and decision making, intelligence, and evolutionary psychology.,
Fall
2005
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Honors and Awards
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Endowed Chair, Harold Dornsife Chair in Neurosciences, 9/1/1999-
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Named first Visiting Professor to the University of Bolzano, Italy's first Cognitive Neuroscience Program , 2006-2007
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USC Associates Award For Creativity In Research And Scholarship, 1999
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Service to the University
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Committees
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Graduate Admissions Committee, Neuroscience Program, 2007-2008
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Member, Curriculum Committee, Neuroscience Program, 2007-2008
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Member, Management Committee, Dornsife Neuroimaging Center, 2007-2008
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Member, Graduate Admissions Committee, Neuroscience Program, 2006-2007
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Member, Curriculum Committee, Neuroscience Program, 2006-2007
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Member, Management Committee, Dornsife Neuroimaging Center, 2006-2007
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Review Panels
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National Institutes of Health, Biobehavioral and Behavioral Processes IRG, 2007-2008
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National Science Foundation, Cognitive Neuroscience, 2007-2008
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National Science Foundation, Cognitive Neuroscience, 2006-2007
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Riken (Japan's Premier Research Institute), Cognitive Neuroscience Review Panel, 2006-2007
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American Psychological Association, Chair, Early Career Awards Committee, Division Three, Experimental Psychology, 2006-2007
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Other Service to the University
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Hosted Neuroscience Colloquium speaker Prof. Oliver Braddick, Oxford University. (July 2007) , 2007-2008
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Hosted Neuroscience Colloquium speaker Dr. Manabu Tanifuji, Riken, Japan. (November, 2007)., 2007-2008
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Hosted Neuroscience Colloquium speaker Prof. Glyn Humphreys, University of Birmingham, UK. (Nov. 2007)., 2007-2008
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Hosted Neuroscience Collqouium speaker Prof. Jane Riddoch, University of Birminhgham, U.K. (November, 2007)., 2007-2008
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Hosted Neuroscience Colloquium speaker Dr. Anitha Pasupathy, MIT (October, 2006)., 2006-2007
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Give USC's Annual Valentine's Day Love Shack Lecture: The Neural Basis of Love--and What to Do About It. , 2006-2007
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Hosted Psychology/Neuroscience colloquium speaker Dr. Bradley Duchaine, University College, London, UK (December, 2006), 2006-2007
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Service to the Profession
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Editorships and Editorial Boards
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Associate Editor, European Journal of Cognitive Psychology, 07/01/2001-12/31/2005
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Review Panels
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National Institutes of Health, Biobehavioral and Behavioral Processes IRG, 2007-2008
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National Science Foundation, Cognitive Neuroscience, 2007-2008
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National Science Foundation, Cognitive Neuroscience, 2006-2007
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Riken (Japan's Premier Research Institute), Cognitive Neuroscience Review Panel, 2006-2007
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American Psychological Association, Chair, Early Career Awards Committee, Division Three, Experimental Psychology, 2006-2007
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Reviewer for Publication
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Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception and Performance, APA, Reviewed ms., 2007-2008
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Nature Neuroscience, Reviewed five ms., 2007-2008
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Psychonomic Bulletin & Review, Psychonomics Society, Reviewed 1 ms., 2007-2008
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Science, AAAS, Reviewed ms., 2007-2008
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Social Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience, Oxford University Press, Reviewed one ms., 2007-2008
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Transactions in Cognitive Science, Reviewed two mss., 2007-2008
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Cerebral Cortex, Reviewed two mss., 2006-2007
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Current Biology, Reviewed two mss., 2006-2007
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Journal of Vision, Vision Sciences Society, Reviewed 30 abstracts., 2006-2007
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Psychological Science, Association for Psychological Science, Reviewed two mss., 2006-2007
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Media, Alumni, and Community Relations
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Five media interviews, 2007-2008
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Four media interviews, 2007-2008
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Faculty may update their profile by logging into the College portal from a computer on campus or off-campus via a VPN connection.
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