Johan Wagemans is a Belgian experimental psychologist. He is a full professor at the KU Leuven in Leuven (Belgium). He directs a long-term Methusalem project[1] that focuses upon the psychology and neuroscience of visual perception and most recently art perception.
Johan Wagemans | |
|---|---|
| Born | 1963 |
| Citizenship | Belgium |
| Alma mater | KU Leuven |
| Known for | Revision of Gestalt Psychology |
| Scientific career | |
| Fields | experimental psychology |
| Thesis | (Ph.D. 1991) |
| Doctoral advisor | Géry van Outryve d'Ydewalle |
| Website | https://gestaltrevision.be/ |
Biography
editWagemans obtained his PhD in 1991 at KU Leuven. As a postdoc he worked with Michael Kubovy at the University of Virginia. He is a professor at KU Leuven since 1993.
Wagemans is known for his work on so-called mid-level vision, which deals with organising the rich but not yet very useful representation of visual images in earlier processing stages into a more coherent and meaningful organisation. In several review articles he brought together the leading scholars on perceptual organisation in order to integrate early century-old views of Gestalt psychology with modern viewpoints inspired by modern cognitive psychology and neuroscience.[2][3] He formalised several important factors that influence perceptual organisation, such as the role of symmetry in perceptual grouping.[4] His work also resulted in applications to theories on autism,[5] art perception, and the perception of magic.[6]
Honors
edit- Member of the Royal Flemish Academy of Belgium, 2010[7]
- Laureate of the Research Foundation Flanders "Hearnest-John Solvay" Excellence Prize, 2020, the highest scientific Prize in Belgium known as the "Flemish Nobel Prize"[8]
- Member of the Board of Directors of the Vision Sciences Society, 2018-2022
- Wolfgang Metzger Award of Gestalt Theory Association, 2013[9]
References
edit- ^ "Overview Methusalem funding at KU Leuven". KU LEUVEN.
- ^ Wagemans, Johan; Elder, James H.; Kubovy, Michael; Palmer, Stephen E.; Peterson, Mary A.; Singh, Manish; von der Heydt, Rüdiger (2012). "A century of Gestalt psychology in visual perception: I. Perceptual grouping and figure–ground organization". Psychological Bulletin. 138 (6): 1172–1217. doi:10.1037/a0029333. ISSN 1939-1455. PMC 3482144. PMID 22845751.
- ^ Wagemans, Johan; Feldman, Jacob; Gepshtein, Sergei; Kimchi, Ruth; Pomerantz, James R.; van der Helm, Peter A.; van Leeuwen, Cees (2012). "A century of Gestalt psychology in visual perception: II. Conceptual and theoretical foundations". Psychological Bulletin. 138 (6): 1218–1252. doi:10.1037/a0029334. ISSN 1939-1455. PMC 3728284. PMID 22845750.
- ^ Wagemans, Johan (1997-12-01). "Characteristics and models of human symmetry detection". Trends in Cognitive Sciences. 1 (9): 346–352. doi:10.1016/S1364-6613(97)01105-4. ISSN 1364-6613. PMID 21223945. S2CID 2143353.
- ^ "APA PsycNet". psycnet.apa.org. Retrieved 2021-11-26.
- ^ Ekroll, Vebjørn; Wagemans, Johan (2016-07-01). "Conjuring Deceptions: Fooling the Eye or Fooling the Mind?". Trends in Cognitive Sciences. 20 (7): 486–489. doi:10.1016/j.tics.2016.04.006. ISSN 1364-6613. PMID 27212588. S2CID 3618208.
- ^ "Member details Royal Flemish Academy of Belgium".
- ^ "Laureates FWO-Excellence Prizes".
- ^ "Wolfgang Metzger Award prize winners".