VS298: Unsolved Problems in Vision

One of the goals of vision science is to understand the nature of perception and its neural substrates. There are now many well established techniques and paradigms in both psychophysics and neuroscience to address problems in vision. However, knowing how to frame these questions for investigation is not necessarily obvious. Nervous systems present us with stunning complexity, and the purpose of perception itself is deeply mysterious. The goal of this seminar course is to step back and ask, what are the important problems that remain unsolved in vision research, and how should these be approached empirically? The course will consist of alternating weeks of discussion and guest lectures by vision scientists who will frame their views of the core unsolved problems. Interdisciplinary groups of students will devise a practical research plan to address an unsolved problem of their choice.

Instructors: Stan Klein, Jerry Feldman, Bruno Olshausen, and Karl Zipser
GSI: Dan Coates

Enrollment information:

VS 298 (section 2), 2 units
CCN: 66478

Meeting time and place:

Tuesday 6-8, 489 Minor

Email list:

vs298-unsolved-problems@lists.berkeley.edu subscribe

Weekly schedule:

Date	Topic/Reading
Sept. 2	Introduction Gibson's unsolved problems
Sept. 9	Methodology in vision science (Klein) Double-judgment psychophysics: problems and solutions [1] Read pp 1560-1567 This will give a glimpse into some of the issues involved with the relationship between detecting and identifying an object. The second part of the paper is more complicated. Marcus background discussion Marcus readings...
Sept. 19 (Friday)	Gary Marcus lecture - 12:00, 5101 Tolman
Sept. 23	Marcus discussion Gallant background discussion Gallant papers...
Sept. 30	Gallant lecture
Oct. 7	Gallant discussion Malik background discussion Malik papers...
Oct. 14	Malik lecture (tentative date)
Oct. 21	Malik discussion Nakayama background discussion Nakayama, K. (1999). Mid-level vision. In R. A. Wilson & F. C. Keil (Eds.), The MIT encylopedia of the cognitive sciences Cambridge: MIT Press pdf Nakayama, K. (2010) "Vision going social." The science of social vision. Adams, R.B. Jr., Ambady, N., Nakayama, K. & Shimojo, S. (Eds) Oxford University Press pdf Nakayama, K. and Martini, P. (2011) Situating Visual Search. Vision Research, 51, 1526-1537. pdf (All Nakayama pubs available here)
Oct. 28	Nakayama lecture
Nov. 4	Nakayama discussion Regier background discussion Regier papers...
Nov. 11	Regier lecture (tentative date)
Nov. 18	Regier discussion Feldman background discussion Feldman papers...
Nov. 25	Feldman lecture (tentative)
Dec. 2	Student presentations