Research programs in the UCLA Human Perception Laboratory address a broad range of topics in visual perception and cognition. A core concern is to understand processes and mechanisms of human object, space, and motion perception, especially the ways in which the visual system produces coherent and stable representations of contours, surfaces, and objects from input that is fragmentary in space and time. Another set of projects involves perceptual learning, visual cognition, and their applications to education and training. On the basic research side we are interested in understanding and modeling the perceptual learning of abstract relationships. Our more applied work involves using concepts of perceptual learning and novel training algorithms to improve learning in educational domains, such as mathematics and science learning, as well as in commercial and military applications.

Our basic visual perception research is currently supported by the National Eye Institute (NEI), the National Science Foundation (NSF). Our applied efforts in perceptual learning and visual cognition are supported by Office of Naval Research (ONR) and the National Aeronautical and Space Administration (NASA).