Arthur Shapiro
Departments of Psychology and Computer Science, American University, Washington, DC
Visual illusions: Why are we surprised by only some of the things that we see?
Saturday, May 18, 2024, 1:00 – 2:00 pm, West Community Library at the St. Pete College Gibbs campus, room L-101. Located at 6700 8th Ave N, St. Petersburg, 33710.
Visual illusions play tricks on our perception. Illusions often go viral on the internet because people enjoy examining visual puzzles that tell us our perceptions are not the same as what we designate “reality.” In this talk, I will show some visual illusions created in my laboratory and others, and I will explain how and why they were created. Research on visual illusions – which sits at the crossroads of many academic disciplines (neuroscience, psychology, math, physics, computer science, philosophy, and art) – addresses fundamental questions about how the brain constructs our perceptions of reality.
Arthur Shapiro is Professor of Psychology and Computer Science at American University in Washington, D.C. He is co-editor of the Oxford Compendium of Visual Illusions (2017) and has won international awards for visual illusions he has created. His research focuses on color and color contrast perception, motion perception, perceptual organization, and low-light-level vision, but he is interested in any question that relates to how the brain constructs our perceptual world. He is actively involved in public engagement in science, he has appeared on Nat Geo’s Brain Games, and was the presenter scientific consultant for two seasons of shows on visual illusions produced by CuriosityStream. He received his undergraduate degree from U.C. San Diego (Math and Cognitive Science) and his Ph.D. from Columbia University, and was a Postdoc at the University of Chicago.
About the VSS Public Lecture
The annual public lecture represents the mission and commitment of the Vision Sciences Society to promote progress in understanding vision and its relation to cognition, action and the brain. As scientists we are obliged to communicate the results of our work, not only to our professional colleagues, but also to the broader public. This lecture is part of our effort to give back to the community that supports us.
Attending the VSS Public Lecture
Admission to the Public Lecture is free. The lecture will be held on Saturday, May 18 at 1:00 pm at the at the West Community Library at the St. Pete College Gibbs campus. Located at 6700 8th Ave N, St. Petersburg, 33710.
The West Community Library is a five mile drive from the TradeWinds Island Grand Resort (see directions). Free Parking is available.
The Public Lecture is co-sponsored by the St. Petersburg Library System, whose help we gratefully acknowledge.
Roland Fleming, PhD
Following the completion of his doctorate (investigating velocity aftereffects) at the University of Cambridge in 1976, Peter Thompson was awarded a Harkness post-doctoral Fellowship from the Commonwealth Fund to study with Jack Nachmias at the University of Pennsylvania. Returning to England in 1978 he took up a lectureship at the University of York, where he has taught for 40 years.
Admission to the Public Lecture is free. The lecture will be held on Sunday, May 19 at 2:00 pm at the 
Nancy Kanwisher received her B.S. and Ph.D. from MIT working with Molly Potter. After a postdoc as a MacArthur Fellow in Peace and International Security, and a second postdoc in the lab of Anne Treisman at UC Berkeley, she held faculty positions at UCLA and then Harvard, before returning to MIT in 1997, where she is now an Investigator at the McGovern Institute for Brain Research, a faculty member in the Department of Brain & Cognitive Sciences, and a member of the Center for Minds, Brains, and Machines. Kanwisher’s work uses brain imaging to discover the functional organization of the human brain as a window into the architecture of the mind. Kanwisher has received the Troland Award, the Golden Brain Award, and a MacVicar Faculty Fellow teaching Award from MIT, and she is a member of the National Academy of Sciences and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. You can view her short lectures about human cognitive neuroscience for lay audiences here: 
Allison Sekuler is Canada Research Chair in Cognitive Neuroscience, Professor of Psychology, Neuroscience & Behaviour, and Associate Vice-President and Dean of Graduate Studies at McMaster University, in Hamilton, Ontario. She received her B.A. with a joint degree in Mathematics and Psychology from Pomona College, and her Ph.D. in Psychology from the University of California, Berkeley. An outstanding teacher and internationally-recognized researcher, Dr. Sekuler has been recognized as an Alexander von Humboldt fellow and an Ontario Distinguished Researcher, and she was named one of Canada’s “Leaders of Tomorrow” in 2004. Her primary areas of research are vision science and cognitive neuroscience. Prof. Sekuler has served on numerous national and international boards in support of science, and is a former Treasurer and Member of the Board of Directors for the Vision Sciences Society. She is a passionate advocate for science outreach, frequently appearing in the media to discuss scientific issues, and currently representing the scientific community on the national Steering Committee for the Science Media Centre of Canada.
Jeremy Wolfe became interested in visual perception during the course of a summer job at Bell Labs in New Jersey after his senior year in high school. He graduated summa cum laude from Princeton in 1977 with a degree in Psychology and went on to obtain his PhD in 1981 from MIT, studying with Richard Held. His PhD thesis was entitled “On Binocular Single Vision”. Wolfe remained at MIT as a lecture, assistant professor, and associate professor until 1991. During that period, he published papers on binocular rivalry, visual aftereffects, and accommodation. In the late 1980s, the focus of the lab shifted to visual attention. Since that time, he has published numerous articles on visual search and visual attention. He is, perhaps, best known for the development of the Guided Search theory of visual search. In 1991, Wolfe moved to Brigham and Women’s Hospital where he is Director of the Visual Attention Lab and of the Radiology Department’s Center for Advanced Medical Imaging. He is Professor of Ophthalmology and Radiology at Harvard Medical School.