[visionlist] May 11 VSS Symposium on individual differences in vision

[Jeremy Wilmer]

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                             Special VSS symposium

      How to use individual differences to isolate functional,
                neural and genetic mechanisms of vision

                http://visionsciences.org/symposia5.html

                  Friday, May 11th, 2007, 3:30 - 5:30pm

                               Hyatt, Sarasota, Florida

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Organizer:   	Jeremy Wilmer, University of Pennsylvania

Speakers:    	David H. Peterzell, University of California at San Diego
		Galit Yovel, Tel Aviv University
		Jeremy B. Wilmer, University of Pennsylvania
		Edward K. Vogel, University of Oregon
		Michael A. Webster, University of Nevada, Reno
		Ken Nakayama, Harvard University


Overview:

Individual differences provide a powerful source of information for  
fractionating and associating behavioral mechanisms and for tying  
them to their biological bases (Kosslyn et al, 2002; Plomin &  
Kosslyn, 2001).  However, the study of individual differences in  
vision is still in its infancy.  This symposium showcases recent work  
isolating basic functional and biological mechanisms of vision  
through a consideration of individual differences.  This work  
encompasses a broad range of techniques (psychophysics, eye-tracking,  
event-related potentials, fMRI, behavioral genetics) as well as topic  
areas (motion, color, faces, objects, attention, stereopsis,  
contrast, oculomotor control, and visual working memory).

Individual differences are useful to researchers with a variety of  
goals:   At the level of behavior, our speakers use individual  
differences to demonstrate that diverse aspects of vision, for  
example perception and action, rely upon common mechanisms; and that  
potentially seamless aspects of vision, for example face and object  
processing, rely upon distinct mechanisms.  At the level of  
underlying biology, our speakers correlate individual differences  
with genetic and neural variation to uncover biological substrates of  
functions such as stereopsis and visual working memory.

It is worth emphasizing that individual differences not only inform  
us about basic functional and biological mechanisms.  They also  
enhance our understanding of how such mechanisms vary, easing the  
translation of basic science for clinical use while helping to answer  
the question:  “What is this visual mechanism good for?

This symposium is the first demonstration of the broad utility of  
individual differences-based methods to vision science.  Our target  
audience: Anyone who is curious about the origins or consequences of  
individual differences observed in their own research, or who wants  
to know what can be learned about basic visual mechanisms by  
systematically studying such differences.  Attendees from a variety  
of content areas should come away with ideas for how to make use of  
individual differences in their own work.



For more information, contact Jeremy Wilmer:  wilmer at sas.upenn.edu

VSS annual meeting home page: http://www.visionsciences.org


_________________________
Jeremy Wilmer, PhD
http://www.sas.upenn.edu/~wilmer
Kirschstein-NRSA Postdoctoral Fellow
Department of Psychology
University of Pennsylvania