To reflect the range of interests and career goals of VSS attendees, we are pleased to offer our popular ‘Connect with Industry’ event at VSS 2023. This is an opportunity for our members to interact with representatives of industry and government agencies. Representatives from a range of organizations and industries will be present to discuss opportunities for vision scientists in their companies and to answer questions about collaborating with, and working within, their organizations. No advance sign-up is required.
Representatives from companies including Apple, Exponent, Magic Leap, and Meta, will be present to discuss opportunities for vision scientists in their companies and to answer questions about collaborating with and working within, their organizations.
Over the past 22 years, VPixx has become known for our innovative hardware for vision research. The PROPixx DLP LED video projector, supporting refresh rates up to 1440Hz, has become the standard for neuroimaging, neurophysiology, and behavioral vision research applications. The TRACKPixx3 2kHz binocular eye tracker and the DATAPixx3 I/O hub offer microsecond-precise data acquisition synchronized to stimulus presentation. Our new LabMaestro software is now making these instruments even easier to use!
Visit our booth to see demonstrations of our LabMaestro suite of psychophysics software. LabMaestro Builder is your intuitive GUI application for designing and running psychophysics experiments in your lab. LabMaestro Pack&Go is your solution for quickly running psychophysics experiments on remote subject populations. LabMaestro Simulator emulates VPixx hardware, allowing you to develop and test experiment protocols in the absence of your physical instruments. Visit our booth to discuss your research with our Staff Scientists!
Peter April, Jean-Francois Hamelin, Sophie Kenny, and Jonathan Tong wish you well.
SR Research Ltd (Silver Sponsor)
SR Research produces the EyeLink family of high-speed eye trackers and has been enabling scientists to perform cutting-edge research since the early 1990s. EyeLink systems are renowned for their outstanding technical specifications, temporal precision, and superb accuracy. The EyeLink 1000 Plus has the world’s lowest spatial noise and can be used in the laboratory and in EEG/MEG/MRI environments. The EyeLink Portable Duo offers the same high levels of data quality in a small, portable package. SR Research also provides sophisticated experiment delivery and analysis software, and a truly legendary support service.
Exponent (Silver Sponsor)
Exponent is a leading scientific and engineering consulting firm. Our multidisciplinary organization of brings together more than 90 technical disciplines to address complicated issues facing industry and government today. Among myriad other specialized services, we provide user experience and human factors support across the entire product lifecycle informed by five decades of experience in failure analysis. We are always looking for qualified PhDs, postdocs, and early-career faculty interested in technical consulting.
Brain Vision LLC (Bronze Sponsor)
Brain Vision LLC is the leading team for EEG in Vision Science. We offer full integration of EEG with many leading eye-tracking and video systems we also provide flexible and robust solutions for both stationary and mobile EEG. All of our systems are available with a variety of electrode types such as saline-sponge nets, active gel, passive, and dry electrodes, which are easily expandable with bio-sensors like GSR, ECG, Respiration, and EMG. Our team is specialized in using EEG with other modalities such as fMRI, fNIRS, MEG, TMS, and tDCS/HDtDCS.
If you want to know how EEG and Vision Science improve each other, please feel free to contact us:
Phone: +1.877.EEG 4 MRI Email:
Cambridge Research Systems (Bronze Sponsor)
At Cambridge Research Systems, our reputation is founded on values of scientific rigour and integrity. For over 30 years, our unique range of Tools for Vision Science, Functional Imaging and Clinical Research has been ubiquitous in laboratories throughout the world, and cited in thousands of papers.
We design and develop innovative new tools that enable the advancement of science by combining engineering expertise with innovation, cutting edge technology, and ongoing collaboration with our valued academic partners. Our products are market leaders, our people committed and knowledgeable. Our ambition is to continue setting standards in the vision science community, of which we are proud to be a part.
We look forward to seeing you again at VSS! Please call at our booth to see our latest products for visual stimulation, eye tracking, vision assessment, and MRI; or contact .
NIRx Medical Technologies (Bronze Sponsor)
NIRx Medical Technologies, LLC is a globally recognized leader in providing comprehensive solutions for functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) research. The versatility of fNIRS has seen a significant increase in its application in vision science. The technique allows for the measurement of neural activity in the visual cortex and large-scale cortical networks and is useful in investigating the neural mechanisms underlying visual attention and perception. Additionally, fNIRS is employed in studying the effects of visual deprivation or visual training. Its non-invasive and user- and subject-friendly nature makes it an ideal tool for monitoring changes in neural activity during the development of the visual system in infants and children. Furthermore, it is increasingly used in researching changes in neural activity related to visual disorders and the changes resulting from treatment.
NIRx offers a complete range of research solutions, including a versatile multimodal hardware platform, advanced online and offline analysis software, expert technical and scientific support, and comprehensive training programs.
We are committed to supporting fNIRS researchers through our offices in Orlando, New York and Berlin, Germany. For further details on our solutions, please do not hesitate to contact us at +49 308 1453 5990 (EU), (+1) 321-352-7570 (US/Canada), or come and visit our booth at the VSS meeting.
Open Science Tools (Bronze Sponsor)
Open Science Tools created and maintains PsychoPy, PsychoJS and Pavlovia. These tools are designed to make it as easy as possible to create high-precision experiments for lab-based or online studies, even running vision-science experiments and providing gamma-correction in browser-based studies. Stop by the booth to find out what’s now possible – you might be surprised!
PsychoPy and PsychoJS are unusual in being open-source tools that are supported by a revenue stream, from our hosting and consultancy services, which means the tools are developed and supported by a full-time professional team. The best of both worlds!
We now also provide consultancy services, either to help generate your studies, or to provide training for your department or team. If you don’t have time to write that next experiment, or to port your code over from SomeOtherPackage, but you do have some left over funding, then get in touch on
Psychology Software Tools (Bronze Sponsor)
Psychology Software Tools – Developers of E-Prime 3.0 stimulus presentation software. E-Prime 3.0 now includes E-Prime Go for remote data collection! Integrate E-Prime with eye tracking and EEG with E-Prime Extensions for Tobii Pro, EyeLink, Net Station, and Brain Products. Use Chronos for millisecond-accurate responses, sound output, and triggers to external devices. Chronos Adapters provide a simple connection to external devices, including Brain Products, ANT Neuro, BIOPAC, BioSemi, Neuroscan, MagstimEGI, NIRx, g.tec, Smart Eye and more. PST also provides solutions for fMRI research, such as Fiber Optic and Wireless Response Systems, Digital Projection System, and an MRI Simulator with head motion tracking. PST has a 35-year company history with 100,000+ users in 75 countries!
Psychonomic Society (Bronze Sponsor)
The Psychonomic Society is a community of over 4,300 cognitive and experimental psychologists from more than 60 countries around the world. Members include some of the most distinguished researchers in the field. Many are concerned with the application of psychology to health, technology, and education. What brings us together is that we study the basic, fundamental properties of how the mind works by using behavioral techniques to better understand mental functioning.
Our most innovative research uses converging methods from behavioral measurement, neuroscience, computational modeling and other fields to achieve our research goals. Members of the Society conduct research on questions concerning memory, learning, problem solving, decision making, language, attention, and perception. We also connect with research in biology, chemistry, statistics, computer science, medicine, law, and business.
We achieve our objectives by hosting meetings around the world, publishing seven world-class, peer-reviewed journals, disseminating our research, and funding workshops and symposia.
Rogue Research has been your partner in neuroscience research for over 20 years. As developers of the Brainsight® family of neuronavigation systems for non-invasive brain stimulation, we have helped make transcranial magnetic stimulation more accurate and more reproducible while keeping it simple and effective. 20 years and over 1000 laboratories later, Brainsight® continues to evolve to meet the needs in non-invasive brain stimulation.
Rogue Research has expanded beyond navigation to develop our own, next-generation, TMS device: Elevate™ TMS. Elevate™ TMS offers control over the pulse shape to ensure more reproducible excitatory or inhibitory effects on the targeted network. While Brainsight® ensures accurate targeting and Elevate™ TMS ensures reliable circuit interaction, Rogue Research is also developing a robotic positioner to ensure that the plan is accurately and efficiently carried out. The unique design ensures accuracy, repeatability and simplicity.
Rogue Research also offers our Brainsight® Vet line of neurosurgical and neuronavigation tools for animal research. Come see our navigated microsurgical robot, which is the most accurate animal stereotaxic system on the market. We also offer custom MRI compatible implants and a line of MRI coils and testing platforms.
WorldViz (Bronze Sponsor)
For 20 years, WorldViz VR has helped over 1500 universities, businesses and government organizations to conduct leading edge research with Virtual Reality.
Over the years, WorldViz VR has developed Vizard, a python-based platform that enables users to rapidly build 3D virtual reality applications that solve real world business and research challenges.
WorldViz will present SightLab VR, a fully GUI based tool that allows users to collect, review and analyze eye tracking data with support for all the major PC based VR eye tracking devices including HP Reverb Omnicept, Vive Pro Eye, Pupil Labs and Tobii VR. It will allow drag and drop adding of videos and 3D models, and many of the most used analytics methods are included into the provided templates.
Build a scene, run your experiment and review in minutes. Fully expandable and modifiable by using the GUI configurator or python code.
The WorldViz components allow integration of highly targeted VR labs, and we are happy to help customers configure their own labs, tailored to their specific needs.
Organizers: Claudia Damiano, KU Leuven; Stephanie Shields, The University of Texas at Austin; Maruti V Mishra, University of Richmond Moderator: Claudia Damiano, KU Leuven Panelists: Angelica Godinez, Humboldt Universität zu Berlin; Sabrina Hansmann-Roth, University of Iceland; Madhu Mahadevan, Magic Leap; N Apurva Ratan Murty, Massachusetts Institute of Technology; Alex White, Barnard College
Career transitions are both exciting and scary. Some of the uncertainty regarding a new role, however, can be reduced by talking to others who have made similar transitions. This year VSS-SPC and FoVea together present a two-part ‘Career Transitions Workshop’ on navigating these diverse pathways, with Part 1: Early Career Panel and Part 2: Where do I go from here? Round-Table Discussion.
Part 1 will feature a panel discussion on early career transitions, from the undergraduate level up through securing faculty positions and jobs outside of academia. A panel of vision scientists with a variety of chosen career paths will discuss their stories, the transitions they’ve gone through in their careers, and how they made the key decisions that led them to their current jobs. After each panelist gives an overview of their story, audience members will be invited to participate in a question-and-answer session with the panel. The panel will include representatives from both academia and industry, so attendees will hear firsthand perspectives both on navigating academia and on transitioning between academia and industry. Especially given the recent layoffs in industry and the pandemic’s lasting impact on hiring in higher education, we hope the panel will provide useful insights into current trends affecting early career researchers and ideas for how trainees can increase their chances of success in today’s professional landscape.
Following this panel discussion, participants will be invited to attend Part 2 of the Career Transitions Workshop, where they can take part in small group discussions and enjoy light snacks and drinks.
Note: All are welcome to attend both parts of this workshop, to only attend Part 1, or to only attend Part 2.
Angelica Godinez
Postdoctoral Researcher, Humboldt Universität zu Berlin
Angie, is a vision scientist and postdoctoral researcher working in Martin Rolfs’ Active perception and Cognition lab at Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin and in the German Excellence cluster Science of Intelligence. As part of the cluster, her research is aimed at understanding visual processing for perception and action as an attempt to improve current models of perceptual processing and contribute insights to AI and robotics. Prior to her postdoc, Angie received a BS in Psychology and MS in Human Factors and Ergonomics from San Jose State University. During this time, she worked in the Visuomotor Control Lab at NASA Ames Research Center where she conducted low-level vision research (i.e., eye-movement responses to changes in stimulus contrast and luminance) and applied research on the physiological changes due to vibration and acceleration. For her PhD in vision science at the University of California, Berkeley, she worked with Dennis M. Levi on the impact, recovery and possible adaptations of poor binocular vision. While at Berkeley, she completed an internship at NVIDIA where she applied her knowledge of visual processing to gaze-contingent rendering in an attempt to reduce bandwidth and increase rendering speed in computer graphics.
Sabrina Hansmann-Roth
Assistant Professor, University of Iceland
Sabrina Hansmann-Roth, is an Assistant Professor at the University of Iceland and a Co-PI of the Icelandic Vision Lab. She obtained her PhD from Université Paris Descartes followed by postdoctoral positions at the University of Iceland and the University of Lille. She is interested in the mechanisms used to represent information in visual memory. For that, she investigates probabilistic representations of visual ensembles, visual priming and perceptual biases such as serial dependence. She was a former member of the VSS Student-Postdoctoral Advisory Committee and looking forward to this year’s career transitions workshop, sharing her experiences and discussing with ECRs and the other panelists.
Madhu Mahadevan
Research Scientist, Magic Leap
Dr. Madhu Mahadevan is a vision research scientist at Magic Leap, Inc. She started her career as a clinical optometrist in India with a primary focus on low vision eye care and contact lens management. She then completed her PhD working with Dr. Scott Stevenson on visual attention and eye movements from the University of Houston, College of Optometry, TX. During her doctoral program, she was a research intern at Nvidia, Santa Clara, CA working on auto calibration of eye trackers in virtual reality headsets. After graduation, she joined as a user experience researcher at Human Interfaces, Austin, TX where she used product research methods to help multiple stakeholders interested in enhancing user experience across consumer and enterprise products. She is currently working at Magic Leap, Inc on their augmented reality headset where she uses applied vision concepts and optometric principles in conjunction with product research methods to evaluate design decisions and make optimal choices to help users have a comfortable viewing experience.
N Apurva Ratan Murty
Research Scientist, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Ratan received his PhD in Neuroscience from the Center for Neuroscience, Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore. His PhD research with Prof. S.P. Arun elucidated the computational mechanisms underlying viewpoint invariant representations in the monkey inferotemporal cortex. He is currently a NIH K99/R00 Pathway to Independence fellow and Research Scientist at MIT with Profs. Nancy Kanwisher and Jim DiCarlo. In his current research, he uses methods from cognitive neuroscience, human neuroimaging, electrophysiology, and artificial intelligence, to investigate the development and cortical organization of human visual intelligence.
Alex White
Assistant Professor, Barnard College
Alex White has been studying vision since he first attended VSS as an undergraduate in 2006. He is particularly interested in visual word recognition, selective attention, eye movements, and awareness. He got his PhD working with Dr. Marisa Carrasco at NYU in 2013. After a meandering but fruitful postdoctoral journey, he started a faculty position at Barnard College in 2021. An NIH K99/R00 award facilitated that transition. For more information on his current research, see his lab website. Alex also co-organizes the Visibility events at this conference.
Claudia Damiano
Postdoctoral Researcher, KU Leuven
Claudia Damiano holds a PhD from the University of Toronto (2019) and is currently a Marie Skłodowska-Curie postdoctoral fellow at the University of Leuven (KU Leuven) in Belgium, specializing in scene perception and visual aesthetics. Broadly, her research aims to understand how visual features impact aesthetic preferences and guide attention. In her current project, she explores the cognitive and emotional benefits of interacting with nature using eye-tracking and virtual reality techniques. Her work contributes to our understanding of the relationship between human perception and the appreciation of natural environments. Claudia has served as a panelist on similar early-career panels, offering advice to Master’s and PhD students about transitioning to a postdoc position. As a moderator, she will ensure that the panel offers valuable insights and actionable advice to attendees.
The Vision Sciences Society is honored to present Brian A. Anderson with the 2023 Elsevier/VSS Young Investigator Award.
The Elsevier/VSS Young Investigator Award, sponsored by Vision Research, is given to an early-career vision scientist who has made outstanding contributions to the field. The nature of this work can be fundamental, clinical, or applied. The award selection committee gives highest weight to the significance, originality and potential long-range impact of the work. The selection committee may also take into account the nominee’s previous participation in VSS conferences or activities, and substantial obstacles that the nominee may have overcome in their careers. The awardee is asked to give a brief presentation of her/his work and is required to write an article to be published in Vision Research.
Brian A. Anderson
Associate Professor, Department of Psychological & Brain Sciences, Texas A&M University
The 2023 Elsevier/VSS Young Investigator Award goes to Professor Brian A. Anderson for his seminal contributions to understanding of visual attention and cognition. Dr. Anderson is an Associate Professor with tenure in the Department of Psychological & Brain Sciences at Texas A&M University, where he also serves as the Director of Human Imaging. After graduating summa cum laude at the University of Maine at Augusta with a degree in Social Science, Dr. Anderson obtained an M.S. in Psychology working with Charles Folk at Villanova University and then a Ph.D. in Psychological and Brain Sciences with Steven Yantis at Johns Hopkins, where he also completed a short postdoctoral fellowship.
Dr. Anderson’s research has provided fundamental insights into the mechanisms of visual attention. He pioneered a method for studying how the relationship between reward and visual stimuli in one task setting can impact the allocation of attention in other contexts. This resulted in the striking discovery that visual features previously associated with rewards continue to draw attention even when those features are neither relevant nor salient. This value-driven form of attentional capture also provides a useful model for understanding failures of value-based cognitive control, such as in addiction. Dr. Anderson’s work has further examined the relationship of value-based attention to dopamine signaling and to the processing of both aversive and rewarding stimuli. Dr. Anderson has had an immense impact of the field, having published over 80 original research articles and 10 review articles, and earning recognitions from the American Psychological Association, the Association for Psychological Science, and the Psychonomic Society. He has mentored many graduate, masters and undergraduate students, postdocs, and postbacs, who themselves have first authored many papers and received many awards. Dr. Anderson’s accomplishments illustrate how insights from basic vision science can impact multiple disciplines and translate to the clinic and beyond.
Dr. Anderson will speak during the Awards session.
First authors are required to register and present their talk in their assigned session. VSS policy holds that if the first author is unable to attend the meeting, the abstract must be withdrawn. See Abstract Withdrawal for more information.
Presentation Instructions
All talk sessions at VSS 2023 will be recorded and made available to VSS attendees. The talk session recordings will be posted after the VSS meeting and available on the VSS website through August 31, 2023.
Each presenter will present their slides from their own laptop. As in the past, each speaker’s laptop will be connected to a switch box that controls sending the video feed to the projector. The switchbox is controlled by the AV Technician.
A video camera will be pointed at the lectern to capture video of you speaking. The video of you speaking will be inset into the upper right corner of the video from your laptop. This “picture-in-picture” video is what will be recorded and made available on the VSS website after VSS. It’s important that speakers remain at the lectern while presenting so they remain within the frame of the inset recording.
Important: You should leave some open space in the upper right corner of your slides so the video inset (picture-in-picture) does not overlap your slide content.
There will be a large (70 inch) comfort monitor on the floor in front of you as you present. This monitor will display the same content as is being displayed on the screen in the room. The purpose of this monitor is two-fold. First, this makes it easier for speakers to present while facing the audience (not looking at the projection screen), which will result in a better picture-in-picture recording. Second, for many presenters, moving your laptop to the lectern may not be necessary.
If you require ‘Presenter View’ on your laptop screen while you present, then you will need to move your laptop to the lectern. If not, you can leave your laptop on the table and control the advancing of your slides using an ‘air mouse’ connected to your laptop via a USB dongle. If you don’t have an air mouse, we can provide one.
Because we are recording the display from your laptop merged with the inset of you speaking, we discourage the use of using a physical laser pointer to point to locations on the projection screen as this will not be visible in the recording. Instead, you should use your on-screen mouse pointer. You may also wish to use words or slide animations to clarify where the viewer should focus their attention on your slides.
Prior to Your Talk
You must arrive at the talk room no less than 30 minutes before the start of your session to check in, receive final instructions, and test your presentation on the projector.
Presentations are made from your Mac or PC laptop. Laptops are connected to the projector through a switch box via a numbered HDMI cable, where the number on the cable corresponds to the presentation order.
The Setup Process
The technician will connect your laptop to a HDMI switch box in the presentation order. If your laptop does not have a HDMI port, you will need an adapter. If you did not bring an adapter, check with the technician in the room. A limited number of adapters are available.
If you are playing audio, plug the audio cable into your headphone jack and test it.
Test the microphone at the lectern. Ensure that you can adjust the height correctly. A Lavaliere (wireless lapel microphone) is also available. See Tips for Using the Lavaliere below.
The technician will control the switch box that sends your laptop’s video to the projector.
Perform a quick test of your slides. Verify the following:
Slides project onto the screen correctly, fill the screen, and do not extend off the screen.
Slides are legible and not missing any text or graphics.
If color is important, verify how colors are projected.
Test embedded videos to verify that they play correctly.
Test audio. The technician in the room can make volume adjustments.
Test the remote control used for forwarding your slides.
Tips for Using the Lavaliere
If you cannot adjust the lectern microphone to your height, you may want to use the wireless lapel microphone (Lavaliere). Ask the technician in the room to help you with the Lavaliere. For best sound pickup, mount the Lavaliere as high as possible on your shirt/blouse, positioned to face your mouth. Turn the Lavaliere off when connecting/disconnecting as handling it while on makes a lot of noise.
Giving Your Talk
Speakers typically sit in the front row while waiting for their turn to present. When the previous talk has ended, the technician will put your laptop screen live, displaying the title slide (first slide) of your presentation. The moderator will step to the lectern and announce your talk.
Wait until the moderator has introduced you and started the talk timer, then step to the lectern to begin your presentation. It’s important that you remain at the lectern during your presentation so that you will be within the frame of the video camera.
Use the ‘air mouse’ to advance your slides. The ‘air mouse’ can also be used to point at items on your slide.
When your talk has ended, leave the lectern so the moderator can introduce the next speaker.
Talk Timing
Talk timing is the same as in previous years. Each talk is twelve minutes followed by a three-minute question and answer period. A timer is provided to help you keep time. There is no transition time allotted between talks, so it’s important that your talk start and end on time.
VSS has talk timers to help keep talks on schedule. The moderator is responsible for setting/starting/stopping the timers. The timer at the speaker podium has an LCD time display and colored lights. The talk timer counts UP from zero to 15. Here’s what the talk timing lights mean:
Talk Time – From 0 to 10 minutes: The GREENlight is on during your talk time.
Wrap Up – At 10 minutes: The YELLOW light displays and two-short beeps indicate that 2 minutes of talk time remains.
Discussion – At 12 minutes: The REDlight displays and two short beeps indicate that talk time has ended and the 3-minute question and answer period has started.
Talk Ended – At 15 minutes: The FLASHING REDlight and two long-beeps indicate that your presentation time has ended. You must stop immediately to allow the next speaker to start on time.
To facilitate the next speaker starting on time, we suggest that the next speaker go to the stage and prepare to set up during the previous speaker’s 3-minute question and answer period.
Slides Format
VSS 2023 is using widescreen projection (16:9 aspect ratio) in the main talk rooms. To take full advantage of the new larger screens, you should prepare your talk presentation using widescreen slides. The projection screens are 14 feet wide by 8 feet high.
You can still use standard (4:3 aspect ratio) slides. Your slides will fill the height of the screen, but there will be blank space on each side of your slides. We will not be able to make adjustments between speakers to accommodate differing slide aspect ratios; the projection screen will be set only for widescreen slides.
Only the screens in Talk Room 1 and Talk Room 2 are widescreen. If you are giving a presentation in another room where a pop-up screens is used, the aspect ratio is 4:3. For the best quality display, set your video resolution to widescreen 1080p resolution (1920×1080). This is the native resolution of the video projector. Other resolutions will work, but the projector will need to adjust the resolution for projection. This can sometimes result in a lower quality image.
Meeting Room Equipment
Each of the main talk rooms is equipped with:
Data/video projector with eight-port video switch box.
Wireless Lavaliere (lapel microphone), lectern microphone, and audience microphones.
Talk timers (see Talk Timing above).
Recommendations
As a precaution, always bring two copies of your presentation with you to the meeting. Bring a copy of your presentation with you to the talk room on a USB flash drive. Should you encounter a problem using your own computer, this facilitates presenting on another computer. A spare PC laptop is available in each talk room and connected to the projector.
We recommend that no critical information be near the edge of your slide. Alignment of the video projector and screen can vary, which can cause the edge of the projected image to be cut off.
Your laptop must have a way to connect to a standard HDMI cable. If your laptop requires a HDMI adapter, be sure to bring it and know how to use it; otherwise, connection to the projector may not be possible. VSS has a limited number of HDMI adapters, and we cannot guarantee that we will have the one you need.
Insure that you know how to activate the external video port of the laptop. Instructions should be in your operator’s manual. Generally on PCs, a Function Key (or Shift plus a Function Key) activates the external port.
If you use a Macintosh laptop, be sure you know how to keep the external port active. Macintosh computers automatically detect the presence of a video projector when the computer boots and the external port is activated. Unfortunately, if the projector is disconnected while the computer is awake, the port is deactivated and a time-consuming reboot is necessary. To avoid this problem, test your presentation before your session and, before disconnecting the projector from the computer, put the computer into Sleep mode. If you do not wake the computer before the projector is reattached, the external port will stay active.
Technical Assistance
A technician is in each talk room at all times during the talk sessions (and 30 minutes before). If you have a problem of any kind, let the technician and the session moderator know.
To reach the VSS Technical Manager, please call Jeff Wilson at 415-302-4107, or send someone to the Registration Desk. The Registration Desk can also be reached by calling 727.367.6461 extension 7814, or dialing 7814 from a house phone.
The Vision Sciences Society is honored to present Mary A. Peterson with the 2023 Davida Teller Award
Congratulations to Mary A. Peterson, the eleventh recipient of the Davida Teller Award. The Teller Award was created to honor the late Davida Teller’s exceptional scientific achievements, commitment to equity, and strong history of mentoring. The award is given to a female vision scientist in recognition of her exceptional, significant, or lasting contributions to the field of vision science.
Mary A. Peterson
Professor of Psychology and Director of the Cognitive Science Program at the University of Arizona
Dr. Mary A. Peterson is a Professor of Psychology and Director of the Cognitive Science Program at the University of Arizona. Following a B.A. in English Literature from Marymount Manhattan College, where she graduated summa cum laude in 1972, Mary decided to change direction. Ultimately, she decided to study visual perception with Julian Hochberg at Columbia University (1978-1983). After starting as an Assistant Professor at SUNY Stony Brook, she moved the University of Arizona in 1988.
Dr. Peterson is a leader in the study of perceptual organization and a pioneer in the modern study of figure-ground processing. She has employed clever behavioral experiments, neuroimaging, and patient work to demonstrate that perceptual organization is an iterative process in which past experience impacts all “stages” of perception. Although her revolutionary ideas and compelling data initially went against the grain of the then-prevailing theories of perception as a serial bottom-up process, her innovative perspective has now become the predominant way that vision scientists think about perception. Her research contributions have been widely recognized, including her election to fellow status in the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), the American Psychological Association (APA), the Association for Psychological Science (APS), the Society of Experimental Psychologists (SEP), and the International Neuropsychological Symposium (INS).
Dr. Peterson has been exemplary in her commitment to diversity, equity, and inclusion. Spurred by discussions at VSS 2015, she and a team of other women co-founded Females of Vision et al. (FoVea) to advance the visibility, impact, and success of women in vision science, with Mary spearheading a National Sciences Foundation grant to fund travel & networking awards, mentorship events, and other initiatives. FoVea events have become a vital part of the annual VSS meeting and have continually ensured that the mandate serves a range of marginalized groups. Mary has also been an advocate and ally to marginalized groups through service to her University, the Psychonomic Society, and Women in Cognitive Science (WiCS).
Mary has been widely recognized as a supportive and influential mentor, both to individuals and communities. In 2019, she was awarded an Excellence in Mentoring Award from the University of Arizona and the Early Career Psychologist Champion Award from the APA.
Dr. Peterson has been a member of the Board of Directors for VSS, served as Chair of the Governing Board of the Psychonomic Society, was co-founder and President of the Configural Processing Consortium, and has been active in the Federation of Associations in Behavioral & Brain Sciences (FABBS). She received the Psychonomic Society’s highest honor, the Clifford T. Morgan Distinguished Leadership Award.
