Ben van Buren

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...

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/...

YouTube video by SeeingScience How to Hack a Magic Eye Stereogram!

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>

❗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...

YouTube video by SeeingScience @SeeingScience waits out the Earth's rotation in Boston!

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.

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/...

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

YouTube video by Tom Lehrer - Topic A Christmas Carol

Here are some xmas songs that I can make it through; hope they help:

youtu.be/8oIzyl6-T60?...

www.youtube.com/watch?v=2qKH...

www.youtube.com/watch?v=ylHK...

www.youtube.com/watch?v=TOLM...

www.youtube.com/watch?v=a0dJ...

www.youtube.com/watch?v=J5ae...

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

The new VSAC logo. © 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...

In case it's of interest, here we argue that subjective reports are OK for studying perception — 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)

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...

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...

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....

YouTube video by Benn Jordan I Saved a PNG Image To A Bird

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...

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.

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...

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.

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

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

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!

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

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

#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.

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.

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

Spotted some appropriate public art in Wiesbaden on the way from VSAC to ECVP.

#ECVP
#VSAC2025

Maya Theresia Laughton presenting a beautiful film weaving together ideas from science and Hindu spirituality, called ‘Noumenon’. She made the film in collaboration with Janna Kyllästinen, as part of the Science New Wave Festival.

#VSAC2025

Maarten Leemans using image aesthetic mapping to explore the impact of details on the visual inspection of art photographs and paintings.

#VSAC2025

Dirk Walther presenting his lab’s work demonstrating an inverse relationship between the metabolic cost of visual processing and aesthetic judgments.

#VSAC2025