About the Iowa Attention and Perception Lab
We address questions about how the eye and brain translate patterns of light into internal representations of objects and events, and how those representations are used to guide our actions within the world.
Did you see the visual "illusion" with the blue versus gold dress that went viral in the Spring of 2015? (If not check out the Wikipedia discussion.) This made many people think about the role that we as active perceivers play in what it is that we actually perceive. Different people interpreted the same clues to the lighting conditions differently, which lead to dramatically different perceptions of the dress color. The dress itself of course is what it is. But our perception of what the dress is depends critically on our interpretation of the surrounding context.
Broadly, our lab seeks to understand the visual processes that resolve ambiguity in light information at the eye, and how the current goals, biases, and motivations of the perceiver (attentional factors) change those processes and their outcome.
Please visit our Research pages to learn more about what we do.