EDUCATION | GRANT SUPPORT | PUBLICATIONS |
RECENT CONFERENCE ABSTRACTS | INVITED TALKS | TEACHING |
STUDENTS | SERVICE | PROFESSIONAL AFFILIATIONS

EDUCATION

GRANT SUPPORT

National Science Foundation, "Pavlovian conditioning of visual perception", BCS-0617422, $306,055 (total costs), August 2007-July 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).  $1,050,000 (total costs) July 2006 - July 2009.

National Institutes of Health, "Cue reliability and depth calibration during space perception", NEI # R01 EY013988-01, $525,000 (direct costs), May 2003 - January 2008.

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

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PUBLICATIONS

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., & Oruç, 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: What’s 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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RECENT CONFERENCE ABSTRACTS

Backus, B.T. & Haijiang, Q. (2007).  Bayesian model of cue combination for bistable percepts.  Vision Sciences Society, Sarasota, FL.

Backus, B.T., Garrigan, P.,  Haijiang, Q., & Balasubramanian, V. (2006).  Positive and negative aftereffects.  Vision Sciences Society, Sarasota, FL. 

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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

Peter Scarfe (SUNY)
Jeremy Wilmer (SUNY)
Jeffrey Saunders (U. Penn.)
Ipek Oruc (U. Penn.)
Xenophon Zabulis (U. Penn.)

Graduate student

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

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