Graduate Center for Vision Research
 research

  Benjamin Backus, Ph.D.

 


SUNY State College of Optometry
Vision Sciences
33 West 42nd Street, New York, NY 10036
Office: 212 938-1541
Fax: 212 938-5760
bbackus@sunyopt.edu

Personal Page

 

RESEARCH DESCRIPTION:

The main research focus of the Backus Lab is cue recruitment, a form of associative learning in human perception that optimizes the brain’s use of sensory signals, that was recently demonstrated in the Backus Lab using virtual reality displays.  Cue recruitment occurs unconsciously.  We are not generally aware that our visual systems are learning all the time how to interpret our retinal images.  However, the result of this natural process is that visual perception is highly reliable, so things usually appear within our visual percepts more or less as they should appear for us to act appropriately. 

In a cue recruitment experiment, some arbitrarily chosen new signal is put into correlation with cues that the visual system already trusts for perception, so the new signal becomes an “artificial cue.”  For example, binocular disparity is a trusted cue for depth perception that can be put into correlation with an artificial cue of whether an object moves up or down.  If the artificial cue acquires the ability to affect appearance (perceived depth, for example), it is said to have been recruited.  Our current work is aimed at understanding, within a Bayesian statistical framework, why visual cues are sometimes recruited quickly and sometimes slowly or not at all.  Other work in the lab aims to understand stereoscopic depth perception and motion perception from theoretical/basic and, especially recently, clinical perspectives. 

Dr. Backus currently has active grants to work on projects for the National Institutes of Health (“Cue reliability and depth calibration during space perception”), the National Science Foundation (“Pavlovian conditioning of visual perception”) and the Human Frontier Science Program (“Mechanisms of associative learning in human perception”).  

CURRICULUM VITAE

CAREER HISTORY | GRANT SUPPORT | PUBLICATIONS |
INVITED TALKS | TEACHING | STUDENTS | SERVICE |
PROFESSIONAL AFFILIATIONS

CAREER HISTORY

  • Associate Professor, Vision Sciences, SUNY Optometry, 2007-present
  • Assistant Professor, Dept. of Psychology, University of Pennsylvania, 2000-2007
  • National Inst. of Health Postdoctoral Fellow (NRSA), Stanford University, 1998-2000
  • Ph.D., Vision Science, University of California at Berkeley, 1997
  • California Teaching Credential, Secondary Mathematics, Holy Names University, 1991
  • M.A., Cognitive Psychology, University of Pennsylvania, 1987
  • B.A., Mathematics, Swarthmore College, 1985

GRANT SUPPORT

National Institutes of Health, "Cue reliability and depth calibration during space perception", NEI # R01 EY013988, $1,125,000 (direct costs), 2003 - 2012.

National Science Foundation, "Pavlovian conditioning of visual perception", BCS-0617422, $306,055 (total costs), 2007 - 2010.

Human Frontiers Science Program, "Mechanisms of associative learning in human perception", Principle Investigator, with co-investigators Marc Ernst (Max Planck Institute, Tuebingen, Germany), Guy Wallis (University of Queensland, Australia), and Michael Kearns (University of Pennsylvania, USA).  $1,046,500 (direct costs) 2006 - 2010.

University of Pennsylvania Research Foundation, "Rate of recalibration of motion parallax for depth perception", $24,281 (2003-2004).

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PUBLICATIONS

Wilmer, J.B., & Backus, B.T. (2009). Genetic and environmental contributions to strabismus and phoria: evidence from twins. Vision Research, in press.

Wallis, G., Backus, B.T., Langer, M., Hübner, G., Bülthoff, H. (2009). Learning illumination- and orientation-invariant representations of objects through temporal association. Journal of Vision, 9(7):6, 1-8.

Backus, B.T. (2009). The Mixture of Bernoulli Experts: a theory to quantify reliance on cues in dichotomous perceptual decisions. Journal of Vision, 9(1):6, 1-19.

Wilmer, J.B., & Backus, B.T. (2008). Self-reported Magic Eye stereogram skill predicts stereoacuity. Perception, 37, 1297-1300.

Saunders, J. A., & Backus, B. T. (2007).  Both parallelism and orthogonality are used to perceive 3D slant of rectangles from 2D images. Journal of Vision, 7(6):7, 1-11.

Backus, B. T., & Haijiang, Q. (2007). Competition between newly recruited and pre-existing visual cues during the construction of visual appearance.  Vision Research,47, 919-924.

Saunders, J. A., & Backus, B. T. (2006). Perception of surface slant from oriented textures.  Journal of Vision, 6, 882-897.

Saunders, J. A., & Backus, B. T. (2006). The accuracy and reliability of perceived depth from linear perspective as a function of image size. Journal of Vision, 6, 933-954.

Haijiang, Q., Saunders, J.A., Stone, R.W., & Backus, B.T. (2006). Demonstration of cue recruitment: Change in visual appearance by means of Pavlovian conditioning. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A, 103, 483-488.

Duke, P.A., Oruc, I., Qi, H., & Backus, B.T. (2006). Depth aftereffects mediated by vertical disparities: Evidence for vertical disparity driven calibration of extraretinal signals during stereopsis. Vision Research, 46 (1-2), 228-241.

Backus, B.T., & OruÁ, I. (2005). Illusory motion from change over time in the response to contrast and luminance. Journal of Vision, 5, 1055-1069.

Zabulis, X. & Backus, B.T. (2004). Starry night: a texture devoid of depth cues.  Journal of the Optical Society of America,21:2049-2060.

Backus, B. T. & Matza-Brown, D. (2003). The contribution of vergence change to the measurement of relative disparity. Journal of Vision, 3:737-750.

Backus, B.T. (2002). Perceptual metamers in stereoscopic vision. In Advances in Neural Information Processing Systems 14, ed. T.G. Dietterich, et al.  MIT Press.  1223-1230.

Banks, M.S., Backus, B.T. & Banks, R.S. (2002). Is vertical disparity used to determine azimuth? Vision Research 42:801-807.

Backus, B.T., Fleet, D.J., Parker, A.J. & Heeger, D.J. (2001).  Human cortical activity correlates with stereoscopic depth perception. Journal of Neurophysiology, 86: 2054-2068.

Banks, M.S., Hooge, I.T.C. & Backus, B.T. (2001). Perceiving slant about a horizontal axis from stereopsis. Journal of Vision, 1: 55-79.

Ress, D., Backus, B.T. & Heeger, D.J. (2000).  Activity in primary visual cortex predicts performance in a visual detection task.  Nature Neuroscience,3: 940-945.

Wandell, B.A., Chial, S. & Backus, B.T. (2000).  Visualization and measurement of the cortical surface.  Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience, 12: 739-752.

Backus, B.T. & Banks, M.S. (1999). Estimator reliability and distance scaling in stereoscopic slant perception.  Perception, 28: 217-242.

Backus, B.T., Banks, M.S., van Ee, R. & Crowell, J.A. (1999).  Horizontal and vertical disparity, eye position, and stereoscopic slant perception.  Vision Research, 39: 1143-1170.

Van Ee, R., Bank, M.S. & Backus, B.T. (1999a).  An analysis of binocular slant contrast.  Perception, 28: 1121-1145.

Van Ee, R., Banks, M.S. & Backus, B.T. (1999b).  Perceived visual direction near an occluder.  Vision Research, 39: 4085-4097.

Banks, M.S. & Backus, B.T. (1998).  Extra-retinal and perspective cues cause the small range of the induced effect.  Vision Research,  38:187-94.

Banks, M.S., van Ee, R. & Backus, B.T.  (1997).  The computation of visual direction: A re-examination of Mansfield and Legge (1996).  Vision Research,37:1605-13.

Banks, M.S., Ehrlich, S.M., Backus, B.T. & Crowell, J.A. (1996).  Estimating heading during real and simulated eye movements.  Vision Research,  36: 431-444.

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Other writing

Backus, B.T. (2007). Does television cause autism? A theoretical account. University of Pennsylvania Institute for Research in Cognitive Science Technical Report No. IRCS-07-01, http://repository.upenn.edu/ircs_reports/201/.

Backus, B.T. (2000).   Stereoscopic vision: Whatís the first step?  Current Biology, 10:R701-3. 

Banks, M.S. & Backus, B.T. (1999).  Horizontal and vertical disparity, and eye position, in stereoscopic slant perception.  Chapter 3 in Vision and Action.  L.R. Harris and M. Jenkin, Eds.  Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press.  33 pages.

Backus, B.T. (1997).  Uses of dynamic geometry software for teaching and research in optometry and vision science.  Chapter in Geometry Turned On: Dynamic Geometry, Theory and Application. James King, Ed.  New York: Mathematical Association of America.  7 pages.

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INVITED TALKS

University of Arizona
Rutgers University
University of Texas, Austin
Harvard University
Vanderbilt University
University of Pennsylvania
MIT
New York University
UC Berkeley
National Institutes of Health
Salk Institute
Stanford University
Smith-Kettlewell Eye Research Institute
Utrecht University

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TEACHING

Courses

Perception
Research Experience in Perception
Methods in Experimental Psychology
Sensory and Perceptual Adaptation
Perceptual Learning
Probabilistic Approaches to Perception

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STUDENTS

Postdoctoral students and collaborators

Sarah Harrison (SUNY)
Stuart Fuller (SUNY)
Anshul Jain (SUNY)
Peter Scarfe (SUNY)
Jeremy Wilmer (SUNY)
Jeffrey Saunders (U. Penn.)
Ipek Oruc (U. Penn.)
Xenophon Zabulis (U. Penn.)

Graduate students

Kelly Chajka (Vision Sciences, SUNY)
R. Ben Meade (Vision Sciences, SUNY)
Qi Haijiang (Bioengineering, University of Pennsylvania)

SERVICE

Reviewing for journals

Journal of Vision
Vision Research
Perception
Nature Neuroscience
Perception & Psychophysics
Journal of the Optical Society of America A
Proceedings of the Royal Society Biological
Journal of Neurophysiology
Journal of Neuroscience

Grant reviewing

National Science Foundation
Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (UK Government)
Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada

PROFESSIONAL AFFILIATIONS

Vision Sciences Society
Association for Research in Vision and Ophthalmology
Society for Neuroscience
Sigma Xi
Association for Psychological Science
Optical Society of America

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