Jozsef Fiser

Jozsef Fiser is a Professor in the Department of Cognitive Science at Central European University (CEU), where he serves as Director of the Center for Cognitive Computation. His research bridges human psychophysical experiments, computational modeling, and neurophysiological studies to explore how visual statistical learning shapes internal representations for cognition and behavior. He holds advanced degrees in Psychology (D.Sc., Hungarian Academy of Sciences; Dr. habil., Janus Pannonius University), Computer Science (Ph.D., University of Southern California), and Electrical Engineering (Diploma, Technical University of Budapest).

• D.Sc. in Psychology, Hungarian Academy of Sciences (2007)
• Dr. habil. in Psychology, Janus Pannonius University (2004)
• Ph.D. in Computer Science, University of Southern California (1997)
• M.A. in Psychology, University of Southern California (1992)
• Diploma in Electrical Engineering, Technical University of Budapest (1986)

His research focuses on hierarchical object representations, active learning, probabilistic computation in the brain, and the link between beliefs and knowledge. Key themes include temporal processing, cross-modal integration, attention, and neural variability during perceptual learning. His work often examines how low-level visual processes (e.g., orientation coding) relate to higher-level cognitive functions.

Analysis of his recent publications reveals trends in visual statistical learning, probabilistic inference, and neural sampling as frameworks for understanding cognition. Many studies investigate how uncertainty, memory consolidation, and attention modulate learning across species (humans, honeybees, chicks) and contexts (naturalistic vision, sleep effects).

As Director of CEU's Center for Cognitive Computation, Fiser leads interdisciplinary research linking computational models with empirical studies of perception, decision-making, and neural dynamics.