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Ben van Buren

@bvb373

Assistant Professor of Psychology at The New School in NYC studying visual perception and cognition: https://scholar.google.com/citations?hl=en&user=99SDXHoAAAAJ&view_op=list_works&sortby=pubdate

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Latest posts by Ben van Buren @bvb373

48th ECVP 2026 Bournemouth

🎟 Registration is now open for ECVP 2026
πŸ—“ 23–27 August 2026
πŸ“ Bournemouth, UK
Join the vision science community for five days!
We look forward to welcoming researchers from across Europe and beyond.
πŸ”— Register here: ecvp2026.uk/index.html
#ECVP2026 #VisionScience #PerceptionScience

03.03.2026 14:57 πŸ‘ 8 πŸ” 3 πŸ’¬ 0 πŸ“Œ 0
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What behavioral relevance is (not) We are thankful for the thoughtful commentaries of our colleagues. In our discussion article, we argued for a course correction to how the field approaches the organization of visual function in oc...

Our reply to 11 commentaries on our article ("Rethinking category-selectivity in human visual cortex") is out in Cognitive Neuroscience! Thanks to @susanwardle.bsky.social @maryamvaziri.bsky.social Dwight Kravitz @cibaker.bsky.social and all who contributed! 1/x www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....

25.02.2026 02:46 πŸ‘ 29 πŸ” 11 πŸ’¬ 1 πŸ“Œ 3
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The Rise of Eyes Began With Just One

Vision Science makes the front page of NYT!!
featuring work from @neurofishh.bsky.social and @denilsson.bsky.social with comments from Berkeley's own @karthikshekhar.bsky.social
#visionscience

www.nytimes.com/2026/02/23/s...

24.02.2026 03:15 πŸ‘ 40 πŸ” 16 πŸ’¬ 0 πŸ“Œ 1
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New preprint:

Do expectations about how a face moves depend on its shape?

Using reverse correlation and generative face models, we show that face shape changes expectations of natural expression dynamics.

osf.io/preprints/ps...

20.02.2026 21:38 πŸ‘ 14 πŸ” 3 πŸ’¬ 2 πŸ“Œ 1
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Can you recognize two words at once? When you look around, you see a world full of objects. But can you truly identify multiple things at once, or are you limited to focusing on one at a time? This study investigates that limit using a s...

When you look around, you see a world full of objects. But can you fully identify multiple objects at once? In this new study, we revived and updated a classic experimental test: the redundant target paradigm. link.growkudos.com/1elj6rh9o8w
doi.org/10.1037/xhp0...

04.02.2026 19:25 πŸ‘ 2 πŸ” 1 πŸ’¬ 1 πŸ“Œ 0
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Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging in Awake Infants: Insights From More Than 750 Scanning Sessions Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) in awake infants has the potential to reveal how the early developing brain gives rise to cognition and behavior. However, awake infant fMRI poses signifi...

Congratulations to @lillianbehm.bsky.social, Nick Turk-Browne, and a huge team for putting together this paper (out today) on lessons from a decade of attempts to study awake infants with fMRI:
onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...

31.01.2026 18:44 πŸ‘ 60 πŸ” 13 πŸ’¬ 2 πŸ“Œ 0
How to Hack a Magic Eye Stereogram!
How to Hack a Magic Eye Stereogram! YouTube video by SeeingScience

I've got a new #visionscience video for you! Today I'm showing off how to see the hidden object in Magic Eye stereograms without worrying about getting your eyes lined up the right way.

If you're interested in reading why this works... <1/2>

04.02.2026 14:58 πŸ‘ 21 πŸ” 5 πŸ’¬ 4 πŸ“Œ 0
ScienceDirect.com | Science, health and medical journals, full text articles and books.

❗New paper published in Cognition❗ "A common signal-strength factor limits awareness and precise knowledge of multiple moving objects across the adult lifespan" from Iris Wiegand, Igor S. Utochkin, Ava Mitra, Chia-Chien Wu, and Jeremy M. Wolfe

authors.elsevier.com/sd/article/S...

28.01.2026 14:46 πŸ‘ 5 πŸ” 3 πŸ’¬ 0 πŸ“Œ 1
@SeeingScience  waits out the Earth's rotation in Boston!
@SeeingScience waits out the Earth's rotation in Boston! YouTube video by SeeingScience

This past weekend, I was excited to visit @museumofscience.bsky.social to start my work as a Science Communication fellow. Now that I'm back home, the #scicomm begins, starting with a new YouTube channel! Just published my 1st video & stay tuned for #visionscience content coming soon.

21.01.2026 17:40 πŸ‘ 16 πŸ” 4 πŸ’¬ 0 πŸ“Œ 1

Ran across this interesting research today (I forget what the original search was for).

Wishing everyone many joyful screams in 2026.

www.news.uzh.ch/en/articles/...

01.01.2026 06:26 πŸ‘ 4 πŸ” 0 πŸ’¬ 0 πŸ“Œ 0
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a black cat is sitting in the snow with the words still waiting below it . ALT: a black cat is sitting in the snow with the words still waiting below it .

Many things in the world move, and can even move behind other things. When will the cat reappear? To predict this, remembering the cat’s speed will likely help. But... how do people remember something like speed, which is defined by displacement over both (🀯) space and time? TWEEPRINT ALERT! 🚨🧡1/n

17.12.2025 16:23 πŸ‘ 23 πŸ” 6 πŸ’¬ 1 πŸ“Œ 0
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Memorability of visual stimuli and the role of processing efficiency Nature Reviews Psychology - Certain items are better remembered than others across individuals, a property known as memorability. In this Review, Bainbridge and colleagues detail memorability...

What makes visual stimuli memorable? Wilma Bainbridge, @keisukefukuda.bsky.social, Lore Goetschalckx, and I investigate the role of processing fluency for memorability in a new review paper in Nature Reviews Psychology. Check it out!

rdcu.be/eSyjz

01.12.2025 15:06 πŸ‘ 36 πŸ” 15 πŸ’¬ 1 πŸ“Œ 0
The new VSAC logo. Β© Marella Campagna. Citation: Art & Perception 13, 4 (2025); 10.1163/22134913-bja10072.

The new VSAC logo. Β© Marella Campagna. Citation: Art & Perception 13, 4 (2025); 10.1163/22134913-bja10072.

The new Art & Perception issue with all VSAC2025 abstracts is out!
Hosted in the stunning MRE Wiesbaden, VSAC brought 227 contributors, 20+ artists, and immersive art–science events together.

Dive into the talks, posters & performances that made VSAC2025 unforgettable:
brill.com/view/journal...

01.12.2025 15:45 πŸ‘ 10 πŸ” 2 πŸ’¬ 1 πŸ“Œ 2

In case it's of interest, here we argue that subjective reports are OK for studying perception β€” but only if the reports conflict with what subjects reason they should say (e.g. when not directly perceiving the stimulus and just imagining it):

tinyurl.com/ym5k96dt

(see also: tinyurl.com/amu9kbfd)

29.11.2025 21:50 πŸ‘ 2 πŸ” 0 πŸ’¬ 0 πŸ“Œ 0

We read that paper in lab meeting this semester and found it compelling. Addressing the strengths and weaknesses of subjective reports in emotion research sounds like a very worthy writing project...

29.11.2025 21:50 πŸ‘ 1 πŸ” 0 πŸ’¬ 1 πŸ“Œ 0
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Quick on their paws: mice living in human-disturbed areas are faster problem-solvers than mice in strictly protected areas - Animal Cognition Animal Cognition - Cognitive and behavioural flexibility can be crucial in determining the success of animals facing fast-changing, altered, or disturbed conditions. Innovative problem-solving is...

Score 1 for Aesop's town mouse: link.springer.com/article/10.1...

21.11.2025 17:31 πŸ‘ 0 πŸ” 0 πŸ’¬ 0 πŸ“Œ 0
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Posing popes: A question of left and right Portraits of human faces, from Renaissance artworks to social media selfies, often show a so-called left cheek bias, with the left half of the face put forward more frequently. This is thought to c...

Interesting paper investigating posing biases in pope portraiture: www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....

10.11.2025 18:21 πŸ‘ 1 πŸ” 0 πŸ’¬ 0 πŸ“Œ 0
I Saved a PNG Image To A Bird
I Saved a PNG Image To A Bird YouTube video by Benn Jordan

Holy shit. This guy saved a PNG to a bird.

(he drew a bird into a spectrogram, played that sound to a starling, and the starling reproduced it back to him with enough accuracy he got his bird drawing back in their call's spectrogram) www.youtube.com/watch?v=hCQC...

28.07.2025 15:25 πŸ‘ 4381 πŸ” 1365 πŸ’¬ 106 πŸ“Œ 328
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Vision Demos: Gelb Staircase Vision Demos: Gelb Staircase Things you will need: Paper in a range of grayscale values, ideally spanning black to white. Lots of art vendors will have these, but it’s useful to have a heavier weigh...

Another #VisionScience demo for your Halloween over at my teaching website. This time, a very basic version of the Gelb Staircase. This one has a reputation for being tricky, but I've found it to be pretty successful.

31.10.2025 13:45 πŸ‘ 5 πŸ” 2 πŸ’¬ 1 πŸ“Œ 1
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Hands-on Vision Science - Practical Vision Science textbook I'm passionate about developing hands-on learning experiences to support vision science education in undergraduate classrooms and informal learning for all ages. Practical Vision Science is my attempt...

A quick webpage update to showcase my textbook PRACTICAL VISION SCIENCE! If you're thinking about options for your Spring course in #visionscience, check it out! sites.google.com/view/hands-o...

22.10.2025 16:07 πŸ‘ 5 πŸ” 3 πŸ’¬ 0 πŸ“Œ 0
By creating an Account with Academia.edu, you grant us a worldwide, irrevocable, non-exclusive, transferable license, permission, and consent for Academia.edu to use your Member Content and your personal information (including, but not limited to, your name, voice, signature, photograph, likeness, city, institutional affiliations, citations, mentions, publications, and areas of interest) in any manner, including for the purpose of advertising, selling, or soliciting the use or purchase of Academia.edu's Services.

By creating an Account with Academia.edu, you grant us a worldwide, irrevocable, non-exclusive, transferable license, permission, and consent for Academia.edu to use your Member Content and your personal information (including, but not limited to, your name, voice, signature, photograph, likeness, city, institutional affiliations, citations, mentions, publications, and areas of interest) in any manner, including for the purpose of advertising, selling, or soliciting the use or purchase of Academia.edu's Services.

I'm sorry, worldwide, irrevocable, non-exclusive, transferable permission to my voice and likeness? For what now? In any manner for any purpose???

This is in academia/.edu's new ToS, which you're prompted to agree to on login. Anyway I'll be jumping ship. You can find my stuff at hcommons.org.

17.09.2025 17:16 πŸ‘ 1681 πŸ” 858 πŸ’¬ 58 πŸ“Œ 171
Group of people in the rotunda of the Cannon House Office Building

Group of people in the rotunda of the Cannon House Office Building

Group of people in business attire in front of the office of Senator Schumer

Group of people in business attire in front of the office of Senator Schumer

Four vision nerds in front of the US Capitol Building

Four vision nerds in front of the US Capitol Building

Advocating for vision research on Capitol Hill! With the National Alliance for Eye & Vision Research + Research to Prevent Blindness + fellow vision scientists. Thanks to Congress for currently planning to maintain NIH & NEI funding! #seewhatmatters @corticalcavanaugh.bsky.social
www.rpbusa.org

17.09.2025 22:14 πŸ‘ 9 πŸ” 1 πŸ’¬ 1 πŸ“Œ 0

This 'sense of motion' may be desirable sometimes, but it could cause trouble in situations where the icon is meant to indicate that the *present* location is accessible. Come to Marina's talk to hear more reflections about her collaboration w/ Tessa linking vision science, design and public policy!

27.08.2025 21:31 πŸ‘ 0 πŸ” 0 πŸ’¬ 0 πŸ“Œ 0

Marina finds that these icons β€” especially the increasingly popular Accessible Icon Project icon β€” are strong directional cues. For example, they automatically orient spatial attention in the direction that they are facing.

27.08.2025 21:26 πŸ‘ 0 πŸ” 0 πŸ’¬ 1 πŸ“Œ 0
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Tomorrow (Thurs) at 9am in HS19, Marina Pace will present a series of studies that she ran with Tessa Bury, to test whether observers perceive *implied motion* in accessibility icons.

#ECVP2025

27.08.2025 21:20 πŸ‘ 8 πŸ” 0 πŸ’¬ 1 πŸ“Œ 0
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#ECVP2025 In addition to yesterday's Illusion Night we would like to mention the contribution of @elinevg.bsky.social and @lisa-kossmann.bsky.social about Open-Source Toolboxes for aesthetics and perception.

27.08.2025 12:59 πŸ‘ 14 πŸ” 5 πŸ’¬ 0 πŸ“Œ 1
Human Vision and Electronic Imaging 2026 (HVEI) The HVEI conference explores the role of human perception and cognition in the design, analysis, and use of electronic media systems.

Hey #VisionScience friends - If your work has connections to topics like #dataviz, art, computer vision, or applied vision, consider submitting to HVEI 2026! The deadline was extended to Sept. 12 & it's a really wonderful conference. Happy to answer questions if you want to know more.

26.08.2025 19:14 πŸ‘ 4 πŸ” 2 πŸ’¬ 0 πŸ“Œ 0
Hong B. Nguyen (@hongbnguyen.bsky.social) PhD student @TheNewSchool, NYC

At 9:15 in HS19, hongbnguyen.bsky.social will present her work demonstrating an advantage predicting the behavior of simple shapes which look alive and goal-directed!

#ECVP

26.08.2025 06:40 πŸ‘ 7 πŸ” 1 πŸ’¬ 0 πŸ“Œ 0
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Spotted some appropriate public art in Wiesbaden on the way from VSAC to ECVP.

#ECVP
#VSAC2025

26.08.2025 06:37 πŸ‘ 9 πŸ” 0 πŸ’¬ 0 πŸ“Œ 0