معرفی
Mary Peterson is a Professor in the Department of Psychology at the University of Arizona, serving as Director of the Cognition Science Program and Chair of the Cognitive Science Graduate Interdisciplinary Program. She also holds roles in the Evelyn F. McKnight Brain Institute and the School of Mind, Brain and Behavior, leading the Visual Perception Laboratory. Her research focuses on perceptual organization, figure-ground perception, and the interplay between memory and visual processing. She investigates how semantic information, context, and prior experience influence object detection and spatial cognition.
Dr. Peterson’s work spans developmental, computational, and neuroscientific perspectives, addressing topics like aging effects on perception, attentional mechanisms, and the neural underpinnings of visual segmentation. She employs methodologies such as eye tracking, EEG, and fMRI, collaborating across disciplines to bridge cognitive psychology and neuroscience. Her lab explores how humans segment objects from backgrounds, integrate sensory input with conceptual knowledge, and adapt perceptual strategies based on context and task demands.
Key areas include the role of inhibition in figure-ground competition, the impact of semantic priming on visual attention, and the development of object perception in infancy. She has contributed to debates on predictive coding, hierarchical Bayesian models, and the influence of memory on perception. Her recent work examines aging-related changes in perceptual processing, linking neural mechanisms to behavioral outcomes in older adults.
