Howard S. Hock

Professor
Ph.D. - Johns Hopkins University '71
Research Area: Cognitive


Contact Information:
Office: 213 Behavioral Science
Telephone: (561) 297-3363
Fax: (561) 297-2160
E-mail: hockhs@fau.edu

General Research Interests

The main focus of my research laboratory is on the perception of motion. This entails the identification of mechanisms responsible for the detection of motion as well as the neural interactions among local motion detectors that result in the formation of global motion patterns. Our experimental work, which is informed by current knowledge of visual neurophysiology, involves psychophysical studies with adult, human observers. It is generally concerned with how stable motion percepts are formed and how they evolve in time through changes in stimulation, adaptation, and effects of random fluctuations. Nonlinear dynamics, which constitutes the unifying theoretical framework for these studies, is the basis for the computational models through which we simulate our experimental results. Current projects are aimed at identifying the motion-specifying information in apparent motion stimuli, distinguishing between dynamical and non-dynamical perceptual boundaries, introducing dynamical concepts into current motion detection models, studying links between different levels of description in motion perception, and developing experimental techniques for measuring attentional fluctuations and their influence on dynamical phenomena.

Representative Publications

Hock, H.S., & Gilroy, L. (2005). A common mechanism for first- and second order apparent motion. Vision Research, 45, 661-675.pdf

Nichols, D.F., Hock, H.S., & Schöner, G. (2006). Linking dynamical decisions at different levels of decription in motion pattern formation: Computational simulations. Perception & Psychophysics, 68, 515-533.pdf

Hock, H.S., Gilroy, L., & Harnett, G. (2002). Counter-changing luminance: A non-Fourier, non- attentional basis for the perception of single-element apparent motion. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception and Performance, 28, 93-112.pdf

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