Current position

• Professor, Dept. of Psychology, Center for Cognitive Science, Rutgers University - New Brunswick

Education

• Ph.D. (1992), Dept. of Brain and Cognitive Science, M.I.T. (Supervisor: Prof. Whitman Richards)
• A.B. (1986) Dept. of Psychology and Social Relations, Harvard College (Supervisor: Prof. Stephen Kosslyn)

Awards and grants

• NIH (NEI) R01 021494, “An integrated probabilistic framework for shape and surface interpretation” (joint with Manish Singh) (2011–2015).
• NIH (NEI) R01 EY015888, “The Formation of Visual Objects” (2005–2008, continued to 2010)
• NSF EITM-0339062, "Minimization of Complexity in Human Concept Learning" (2004–2007)
• NSF CAREER Award SBR-9875175, "The Logic of Grouping and Perceptual Organization" (1999–2004)
• Troland Research award, National Academy of Science (2005)
• George Miller award for best paper in general psychology, American Psychological Association (2002)

Selected Papers 

• Feldman, J. (2013) Tuning your priors to the world. Topics in Cognitive Science, 5, 13–34.
• Singh, M. & Feldman, J. (2012). Principles of contour information: A response to Lim & Leek (2012). Psychological Review, 119(3), 678-683.
• Feldman, J. (2012) Symbolic representation of probabilistic worlds. Cognition, 123, 61–83.
• Mathy, F. and Feldman, J. (2012) What’s magic about magic numbers? Chunking and data compression in short-term memory. Cognition, 122, 346–362.
• Wilder, J. D., Feldman, J. and Singh, M. (2011) Superordinate shape classification using natural shape statistics. Cognition, 119, 325–340.
• Briscoe, E. and Feldman, J. (2011) Conceptual complexity and the bias/variance tradeoff. Cognition, 118, 2–16.
• Mathy, F. and Feldman, J. (2009). A rule-based presentation order facilitates category learning. Psychonomic Bulletin & Review, 16(6), 1050–1057.
• Feldman, J. (2009) Bayes and the simplicity principle in perception. Psychological Review, 116(4), 875–887.
• Harrison, S. and Feldman, J. (2009) The influence of shape and skeletal axis structure on texture perception. Journal of Vision, 9(6), 1–21.
• Harrison, S. and Feldman, J. (2009) Perceptual comparison of features within and between objects: a new look. Vision Research, 49(23), 2790–2799.
• Kim, S. and Feldman, J. (2009) Globally inconsistent figure/ground relations induced by a negative part. Journal of Vision, 9(10), 1–13.
• Goodman, N. D., Tenenbaum, J. B., Feldman, J. and Griffiths, T. L. (2008). A rational analysis of rule-based concept learning. Cognitive Science, 32(1), 108–154.
• Feldman, J. (2007) Formation of visual “objects” in the early computation of spatial relations. Perception & Psychophysics, 69(5), 816-827.
• Barenholtz, E. and Feldman, J. (2006) Determination of visual figure and ground in dynamically deforming shapes. Cognition, 101(3), 530–544.
• Feldman, J. (2006) An algebra of human concept learning. Journal of Mathematical Psychology, 50, 339–368.
• Feldman, J. and Singh, M. (2006) Bayesian estimation of the shape skeleton. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 103(47), 18014–18019.
• Feldman, J. and Tremoulet, P. (2006) Individuation of visual objects over time. Cognition, 99, 131–165.
• Tremoulet, P. D. and Feldman, J. (2006) The influence of spatial context and the role of intentionality in the interpretation of animacy from motion. Perception & Psychophysics, 68(6) 1047–1058.
• Cohen, E. H., Barenholtz, E., Singh, M. and Feldman, J. (2005) What change detection tells us about the visual representation of shape. Journal of Vision, 5(4), 313-321.
• Feldman, J. and Singh, M. (2005) Information along curves and closed contours. Psychological Review, 112(1), 243-252.
• Feldman, J. (2004) How surprising is a simple pattern? Quantifying "Eureka!" Cognition, 93, 199-224.
• Barenholtz, E. and Feldman, J. (2003) Perceptual comparisons within and between object parts: evidence for a single-part superiority effect. Vision Research, 43(15), 1655-1666.
• Barenholtz, E., Cohen, E., Feldman, J. and Singh, M. (2003) Detection of change in shape: an advantage for concavities. Cognition, 89(1), 1-9.
• Feldman, J. (2003) What is a visual object? Trends in Cognitive Sciences, 7(6), 252-255.
• Feldman, J. (2003) Perceptual grouping by selection of a logically minimal model. International Journal of Computer Vision, 55(1), 5-25.
• Feldman, J. (2003) The simplicity principle in human concept learning. Current Directions in Psychological Science, 12(6), 227-232.
• Feldman, J. (2003) A catalog of Boolean concepts. Journal of Mathematical Psychology, 47(1), 98-112.
• Feldman, J. (2001) Bayesian contour integration. Perception & Psychophysics, 63(7), 1171-1182
• Scholl, B., Pylyshyn, Z. and Feldman, J. (2001) What is a visual object? Evidence from target merging in multiple-object tracking. Cognition, 80(1-2), 159-177.
• Feldman, J. (2000) Minimization of Boolean complexity in human concept learning. Nature, 407, 630-633.
• Feldman, J. (2000) Bias toward regular form in mental shape spaces. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception and Performance, 26(1), 1-14.
• Tremoulet, P. D. and Feldman, J. (2000) Perception of animacy from the motion of a single object. Perception, 29, 943-951.
• Vishwanath, D., Kowler, E., and Feldman, J. (2000) Saccadic localization of occluded targets. Vision Research, 40, 2797-2811.
• Feldman, J. (1999) The role of objects in perceptual grouping. Acta Psychologica, 102, 137-163.
• Feldman, J. & Richards, W. A. (1998)  Mapping the mental space of rectangles. Perception, 27, 1191-1202.
• Feldman, J. (1997) Regularity-based perceptual grouping. Computational Intelligence, 13(4), 582-623.
• Feldman, J. (1997) The structure of perceptual categories. Journal of Mathematical Psychology, 41, 145-170.
• Feldman, J. (1997) Curvilinearity, covariance, and regularity in perceptual groups. Vision Research, 37(20), 2835-2848.
• Feldman, J. (1996) Regularity vs. genericity in the perception of collinearity. Perception, 25 335–342.
• Richards, W. Jepson, A. & Feldman, J. (1996) Priors, preferences, and categorical percepts. In D. Knill & W. Richards (eds.) Perception as Bayesian Inference, Cambridge University Press.

Full curriculum vitae