Perceptual Expertise

Isabel Gauthier is from Longueuil, Québec. She received her PhD (advised by Michael Tarr) at Yale University, and is a Professor of Psychology in the department of Psychology at Vanderbilt University where she directs the Object Perception Laboratory. She directs the Perceptual Expertise Network since 2000 (now co-directed with Tom Palmeri).Michael J. Tarr hails from Pittsburgh, PA and is still a loyal Steelers fan. He received his PhD in Brain and Cognitive Sciences from MIT and was an Assistant Professor at Yale until 1995, when he moved to Brown. At Brown University he is a Professor of Cognitive and Linguistic Sciences, the Fox Professor of Ophthalmology and Visual Sciences and the Co-Director of the Brown Center for Vision Research. Daniel Bub was born in Capetown, South Africa. He obtained his Ph.D. from the University of Rochester, New York and was an Associate Professor at McGill University and a member of the Laboratoire Théophile Alajouanine at the University of Montréal

This volume is an excellent summary of the views expressed in independent journal articles by the Perceptual Expertise Network group. Whether one agrees with them or not, these views influenced the theory of visual perception and challenged the veracity of widely accepted brain mechanisms accounting for the human ability to easily distinguish between exemplars of visually homogeneous categories such as individual faces. It is a pleasure to read, a must for scholars interested in visual object recognition.