Presenter

Ben studies the perception of higher-level visual properties. What causes visual forms and events look more or less alive, emotionally expressive, or aesthetically pleasing? His research connects these features of visual experience with mental processes which are better understood by psychologists, such as attention, memory, and perceptual organization. Ben's recent projects have focused on how dynamic visual cues drive the perception of animacy, intentionality, and physical forces, and on the role of visual attention in aesthetic judgments preferences. Ben has also written about what visual illusions tell us about our mental architecture, and about meta-psychological questions, such as how to best study perceptual states. Ben teaches at the New School for Social Research, and directs the New School Perception Lab. He teaches a UX research methods course at Parsons School of Design, together with Prof. Colleen Macklin.