girl in hoodie and collie in the oceanh

Beginning June 1, 2023, any updates to this website will appear only at https://psy1.psych.arizona.edu/~bedford.

  Prof. Felice L. Bedford

  Department of Psychology, University of Arizona                              

book cover image  perceptul learning book   corona virus 1 booklet   coronavirus 2  

Paperback & Tabletl      Kindle reflow      COVIID19 booklet 1   COVID-19 booklet 2
 
                             

TRIBUTE



William (Bill) Ittelson (1920-2017)

Univeristy of Arizona

 There's still always someting I want to tell you about.

 Bill Ittelson, Martha Ittelson (seated), Felice  Bedford. (and Sam and Sheeba). Truchas, New Mexico

 

 

 

CONTENTS

COVID-19

 Research

 Teaching

 Publications

  Me

 You

 Contact

 

COVID-19

Very early in the pandemic,I analyzed the genetic sequences of coronavirus (SARS-CoV2) that were publicly available to see how they were related to one another. The results  were useful for tracking the geographic origins of an outbreak, keeping track of strains, and determining the rate of viral mutation. For example, the results suggested the virus was mutating much more rapidly than had been claimed at the time  See links below. for the trees (neighbor joining networks).

Then starting April 2020, I had gathered evidence for what I think is the solution, grounded in evolution of the bat, to the mystery that was growing for the seemingly baffling range of characteristics that made serious and fatal, infection COVID-19 more likely, such as being male, obese, a person of color, and elder, or certain pre-exisiting medical conditions such as hypertension.  I had to leave the project for a while but got back to it and finished it up in late Septermber 2020  COVID-19 article,  It has been viewed over 2,000 times.

The following year, I elaborated on my COVID-19  severity theory of oxidative stress, especially through NADPH oxidase levels, and argued for an ancient simple medicinal approach to control of the virus.

"Old" Tree info with descriptions:

 

March 6, 2020 tree There are 48 publically available sequences. We can see the Illinois/CA 2 cluster may have been developing there for weeks, something not talked about in the news. Also note the greatest genetic diversity in the USA is in California; placement in the tree suggests this is not from community spread but from multiple independent episodes of infection from elsewhere.

 

 March 25, 2020 tree There are now 104 genetic sequences made publically available for SARS-CoV2  (104) . Notably absent are USA new sequences, including New York, New Jersey and Pennsylvnaia. Why aren't these being deposited to Genbank as is standard for genetic data? Sequences from Valencia are striking with differences from other regions and each other. Valencia is all the way to the East of Spain, with Italy next door. Perhaps their sources are Italy whose explosion in cases may have allowed many surviving variants  Note perhaps NY would look just as diverse, were they to be availailable (most Italy sequences not available either). This alread;y increaseing diversity of the DNA from Valencia, whether from Italy or local, raises issue of new more virulent or deadly strains lurking within and also may limit the time that those recovered from a COVID-19 infection can enjoy immunity, especially with travel.  Finally, inspecting sequences from USA cruise ship finds many identical to original Chinese source virus. However, at least one is ve;ry diffrent and whether this reflects infection not actually from the curise ship or rapid mutation on the ship itself is unknown.   

 

 

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RESEARCH

1) Genetics in psychology, evolution, and medicine  including

viruses,chronic fatigue syndrome, and sickness behavior

2) Perception applied to "well-being" including mindfulness, guided imagery, and the immune system as the sixth perceptual sense

3) Effects of experience on perception and varieties of perceptual learning, plasticity, and adaptation (including prism adaptation, ventriloquism, MCCollough Effect, wine tasting (see book)

4) Mitochondrial DNA in population genetics, disease, and energy, especially haplogroup T

5)  Genetics of Jewish populations, especially Sephardim, Conversos, CryptoJews, Mizrahi, Romaniot, Latin Americans, and merchants along the Silk Road to China

6) Application of perception to society including expert testimony on cross-racial perceptual ID  eyewitness identification, "other race effect"

                           

7) Parallels between perception of space and time

8) Mathematical models including perceptual-motor development, pointing in adults, children, and non-humans, learning, pandemics

9) Spatial challenges such as getting lost, left-right confusion, trouble assembling puzzles

10) The puzzles of “object identity”  in perception and cognition  (Little-known publication) and the “Not the Liver Fallacy”

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ME

Early photos scanned and or colorized by Bob Bedford

Dr. Bedford was born in Brooklyn, New York from ancestors in the Ottoman Empire, Turkey, Grece, Spain, southern Italy, Yorkshire England, Alsace, and pre-revolutionary USA. Her Ph.D.is from the University of Pennsylvania.

summa small.jpg Ancestry & DNA

Brooklyn, NY

 

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YOU

 

Do any of the following describe you?  CONTACT

 

Took the 23andme genetic test and have one of the following conditions: Long Covid, Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (CFS/ME), dysautonomia

 

Descended from Isabel de Castro y Figueroa,  circa 1570 eho migrated from Spain to Mexico (or from her daugher Inez de la Cerda y Castro?)

 

Have mitochondrial DNA haplogroup T2e

 Do research or are interested in the metabolism of tyrosine, tyramine, other mono-amines

Interested in using mindfulness meditation and imagery to heal illness (especially autoimmunity)

 

 AUDIO SAMPLE OF OUR HEALING VISUALIZATION TRAINING

 

Knowledge or interest in the gene WNK4

 

Sephardic or Romaniote and interested in genetic testing

 (Projects not actively recruiting currently: Hereditary hemochromatosis, no sense of direction and/or left-right confusion)

 

And finally, are you Kim Jong-Kook? 

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 Contact Information

Email: bedford@arizona.edu

SMail: University of Arizona, Department of Psychology, PO Box 210068, Tucson, AZ 85721

Web: www.u.arizona.edu/~bedford

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Teaching

Web courses: Perceptual Learning, Intro Psych, Genetics in Psychology

Interested in developing: Longevity and age reversal 

The brick and mortar version of the Intro Psych course won a creative teaching award. I estimate I have taught Intro Psych to at least 5,000 students.

Perceptual Learning and Adaptation

Perceptual Learning Class Picture

Class Picture - another class Happy Class

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PUBLICATIONS

Bedford, F. L. (2022 Kindle reflow Kindle, 2019 fire tablet, 2013 print edition, all major retailers,). All Cab Drivers Look Alike: The Science of Changing Perception Through Experience. Tivoli Press. 380 pages, 71 illustrations Print version:  Amazon Barnes & Noble  Bulk Sales   See also Percptual Learning and Adaptqation

Fun reviews:

"I haven't had a chance to actually read your book yet, but it looks fascinating." ALAN ALDA, award-winning actor, director, and science educator

 

"Your book was very inspirational and I kept putting it down to jot down ideas."DR. MARK S. RIDER, Clinical Psychologist, Texas

 

"I read the book (Cab Drivers), really loved it! I especially like how your tone in the book is casual, a few times I laughed out loud. That is my preferred way of reading and I bet student's will like it also in the case that it becomes assigned reading for someone." SABRINA PETERSON, graduate student, University of California, Riverside

 

"I was reading and reading and re reading and it looks like you were writing my mind. How

curious and original PEDRO MARTINEZ Info Technologist

 

 

Bedford, F L (2021) Removing Fuel from Coronavirus Fire: Blocking Superoxide with NOX Inhibitor Apocynin. Coronavirus & Infectious Disease Research eJournal  Click on download or viiew in browser for the entire article  See also An Argument for White Peony Root as a Safe, Effective, and Available Treatment (and Prevention) for Coronavirus (COVID-19) First online

 

Bedford, F.L. & Greshake Tzovaras, B.  (2021) Re-analysis of genetic risks for Chronic Fatigue  Syndrome from 23andMe data finds few remain. Frontiers in Pediatrics, Pediatric Neurology,  9 1-4.| 9:590040.doi: 10.3389/fped.2021.590040  Article without abstract first online med preprint server: with abstract

 

Bedford, F.L. (2020). The COVID-19 Mortality Puzzle: A Single Explanation for Why Men, Elders, People of Color, and Hypertensives are Dying from Coronavirus (First online September 24, 2020), elsevier server Version sept 24, 2020 See also  Bat evolution, demographic data, and pre-existing conditions solve mystery of who dies from Coronavirus Infectious Disease-19.  Journal of Phylogenetics & Evolutionary Biology JPEB First online

 Bedford, F.L. 6-degrees of Lassie (2020): The population genetics of the collie dog. Newsletter of the Collie Rescue of Southeastern Pennsylvania, Winter 2020.  Reprinted by Collie Health Foundation, 2021 Collie Rescue    One of the original versions with pictures

 Bedford, F.L. (2019) Jack the Ripper or Ripoff: mtDNA analysis of Jack the Ripper forensic evidence. Journal of Forensic Sciences   article may be behind paywall contact Dr. Bedford if need a copy

Abstract  A widely publicized study claimed to finally identify the infamous serial killer Jack the Ripper based on a forensic analysis using mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) extracted from a possession of a victim. However, only control regions of mtDNA were sequenced which greatly raises the odds of a match to a purported relative from chance alone. In addition, rather than simply stating  the locations of the DNA polymorphisms or even the number of variants found as would be expected, they show only confusing crude graphical blocks that are further misleading about the odds of a chance match and do not allow independent verification of calculations. The  haplogroup (for example, outlaw Jesse James is Haplogroup T2)  is also withheld despite its usefulness towards evaluating a claim that the identified murderer was of Russian Jewish descent, as well as of public interest that they claim was a  purpose of their report. They attribute all the secrecy to the Data Protection Act of 2018 but our search of the 354 page document does not preclude (or even mention) prohibition of publishing at the nucleotide level as claimed and if it did, hundreds of thousands of mtDNA sequences in publications would be in violation.  Overall, no evidence is presented from mtDNA to implicate the identity of Jack the Ripper. Even mitochondrial DNA is innocent until proven guilty.

 

 Bedford, F.L. (2018) Does miochondrial DNA T2e reflect traces of Judaism on the "down-low"? Journal of Phylogenetics & Evolutionary Biology DOI: 10.4172/2329-9002.1000207   

 

 Bedford, F. L. (2017 A prism-adaptation based theory of psychological treatment for autoimmune disorders.  Autoimmune Diseases and Therapeutic Approaches

 

Yacobi & Bedford (2016) Evidence of early gene flow between Ashkenazi Jews and non-Jewish Europeans in mitochondrial DNA haplogroup H7, Journal of Genetic Genealogy,  8(1):21-34 Research Gate

 

Bedford, F.L., (2016) Perceptual mindfulness and imagery for chronic pain and skin disorders in a busy college population In Merrick, J (ed.), Health and Human Development, Pain Management Nova Science Publishers, Chapter 5, 61-72.

 

Bedford, F.L. (2015). Perceptual mindfulness and imagery for chronic pain and skin disorders in a busy college population. Journal of Pain Management, 8 (1), 55-63   article   pdf in case link behind a paywall

 

Bedford, F. L. & Yacobi, D. (2014) On two Jewish clades in mitochondrial DNA. European Journal of Human Genetics. doi: 10.1038/ejhg.2014.231 Online ahead of print, Nov 5, 2014 .article

 

Bedford, F. L. (Dec. 22, 2013). Announcement of a new publication on Sephardic genetics. eSefarad: Noticias del Mundo Sefaradi article

 

Bedford, F. L., Yacobi, D., Felix, G., & Garza, F. (2013). Clarifying mitochondrial DNA subclades of T2e from Mideast to Mexico. Journal of Phylogenetics and Evolutionary Biology, 2, 4, 1-8. article

 

Bedford, F. L. (2012). A perception theory in mind-body medicine: guided visual imagery and mindful meditation as cross-modal adaptation. Psychonomic Bulletin and Review (DOI: 10.3758/s13423-011-0166-x) article �� ffull textt

 

Bedford, F. L. (2012) Sephardic Signature in Haplogroup T mitochondrial DNA. European Journal of Human Genetics (DOI: 10.1038/ejhg.2011.200) article

 

Bedford, F. L. (2011) The missing sense modality: The immune system. Perception, 40, 1265-1267. (DOI:10.1068/p7119). article

 

Bedford, F.L. (2011) Mystery of the anti-McCollough Effect. Attention, Perception, and Psychophysics. (DOI: 10.3758/s13414-011-0163-1). article

 

Bedford, F. L. (November 2011). Imagine your pain away. Arizona     Daily Star, Science supplement. newspaper article scroll to page 529, bottom

 

Bedford, F. L. & Mansson, B. (2010) Object Identity, Apparent Motion, Transformation geometry. Current Research in Psychology,1, 35-52.

Bedford, F. L. (2007) Is prism adaptation for growth? Perceptual and Motor Skills, 105, 351-354. Abstract

Bedford, F. L. (2007) Can a space perception conflict be solved using three sense modalities? Perception, 36, 508-515. Article (html) Note: footnotes and some formatting lost in the html version.

Bedford, F. L. (October 2, 2005). A broken watch is right twice a day. Letter to the editior, New York Times, Sunday Magazine.

Bedford, F. L. (2004) Analysis of a constraint on perception, cognition, and development: One object, one place, one time. Journal of Experimental Psychology, Human Perception and Performance, 30, 907-912. Article (pdf file) Article (html file) ( Abstract only) (This article discusses is there such a constraint? What does it mean to have such a constraint? What are its implications? When might it arise?)

Bedford, F. (Sept. 5, 2004). The cost of cost analysis. Letter to the editor, New York Times, Sunday Business.

Bedford, F. L. (2003). More on the Not-the-Liver Fallacy: Medical, neuropsychological, and perceptual dissociations. Cortex, 39, 170-173. Article (pdf file) or Cortex website (This article is a follow up on my 1997 paper. Both articles argue that inferring mental organs from dissociations (and double dissociations) leads to false categories in psychology that would be like inferring we have a physical organ "not the liver").

Bedford, F. L. (2002). Generality, mathematical elegance, and evolution of numerical/object identity. Brain and Behavioral Sciences. Special issue on the work of Roger Shepard, 24, Article-BBS website (if link is missing, contact author) (This commentary on Shepard's classic paper in part summarizes my theory of numerical/object identity (see below)

Bedford, F. L. (2001). Towards a general law of numerical/object identity. Cahiers de Psychologie Cognitives/Current Psychology of Cognition, 20, 113-175. (whole issue with commentaries, volume 3-4). [Target article] Target Article (pdf) Target article (html file) (This is a very important article which argues for a new theory that integrates space perception, time perception, cross modal interactions, apparent motion and many other issues in perception and cognition. All the phenomena involve a core issue of how it's decided if two samples originate from the same source or two different sources).

See also Table of contents for issue 20, volume 3,4,5 (including titles/authors of commentaries): Table of contents (html)

Bedford, F. L. (2001). Object Identity Theory and the nature of general laws. Cahiers de Psychologie Cognitives/Current Psychology of Cognition, 20, 277-293. (Reply to commentaries) First reply (html) Note: some formatting lost

Bedford, F. L. (2001) The role of object identity and Klein's geometry in cross-modal and other discrepancies. . Cahiers de Psychologie Cognitives/Current Psychology of Cognition, 20, 381-(Reply to additional commentaries) Second reply (html) Note: some formatting lost

Bedford, F. L. (1999). Keeping perception accurate. Trends in Cognitive Sciences, 3, 4-12. Article (pdf) (This article is a concise summary of my views on spatial adaptation and how perception is changed by experience generally.)

Bedford, F. L. (1997). False categories in cognition: The Not-the-Liver fallacy. Cognition, 64, 231-248. Article (pdf) (This article argues that inferring mental organs from dissociations (and double dissociations) leads to false categories in psychology that would be like inferring we have a physical organ "not the liver".)

Bedford, F. L. (1997). Are long-term changes to perception explained by Pavlovian associations or Perceptual Learning Theory? Cognition, 64, 223-230. Article (pdf) (This is a reply to a published attack on my theory of how experience changes perception as applied to the McCollough Effect).

McClosky, M. & Bedford, F. L. (1996) A left-right confusion deficit under dark-room test conditions. (unpublished)

Bedford, F. L. (1995). Localizing the spatial localization system: Helmholtz or Gibson? Psychological Science, 6, 387-388. Article (pdf) (Asks which of two spatial localization systems, egocentric or exocentric, goes away with a spatial deficit.)

Bedford, F. L. (1995) Constraints on perceptual learning: Objects and dimensions. Cognition, 54, 253-297. Article (pdf) (Important article which presents my theory on the McCollough Effect and other contingent aftereffects and how they are connected to prism adaptation in a unified theory of how experience changes perception.)

Bedford, F. L. (1994) Of computer mice and men. Cahiers de Psychologie Cognitvies/ Current Psychology of Cognition, 13, 405-426. Article (pdf) (This article uses an empirical paradigm of writing on a digitizing table, which works like a computer mouse, to better explore adaptation to visual-motor distortion in 2-D space rather than 1-D . One question addressed is whether dimensions of space are independent of one another.)

Bedford, F. L. (1994) A pair of paradoxes and the perceptual pairing process. Cahiers de Psychologie Cognitvies/Current Psychology of Cognition, 13, 60-68. Article (pdf) (Discusses how a paradox can be resolved on how perception is ever changed by experience if all experience comes through perception. Is applied to cross-modal conflicts such as aftereffects of ventriloquism effect.)

Bedford, F. L. (1993) Perceptual and Cognitive Spatial Learning. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception and Performance, 19, 517-530. Article (pdf) (Shows how different patterns of generalization and learning occur in two different spatial learning mechanisms- one genuine perceptual adaptation and the other reflecting a more cognitive system. And more on linear constraints in perceptual adaptation.)

Bedford, F. (1993) Perceptual Learning. In D. Medin (Ed.) The Psychology of Learning and Motivation, 30, 1-60. Article (pdf) (Important chapter which lays out my theories of how learning affecting perception compares to other learning processes and what genuine perceptual change is. Empirical results from different paradigms summarized. Also covers my Kleinian transformation geometry work in spatial adaptation and what happens when trying adapting to mappings that are many to one and distort the topology of space.)

Bedford, F. L. & Reinke, K. S. (1993) The McCollough Effect: Dissociating retinal from spatial coordinates. Perception and Psychophysics, 54, 515-526. Article (pdf) (This article shows that a McCollough Effect aftereffect is contingent on retinal orientation and not spatial orientation of the stimulus when the exposure is ambiguous, and moreover cannot be made contingent on spatial orientation when the retinal contingency between color and orientation is removed.)

Bootzin, R. R., Dikman, Z., Perlis, M., Manber, R., & Bedford, F. L. The McCollough Effect: A measure of sleepiness. Sleep Research,

Bedford, F. L. Constraints on learning new mappings between perceptual dimensions. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception and Performance, 15, 232-248. Article NOTE: link may be broken. (Shows how space adaptation is not learning a list of visual-motor associations and how there is a preference for linear mappings between visual space and proprioceptive space.)

Other:

Bedford, F. L. Visual-motor spatial pointing and growth: A mathematical model Abstract

Mansson, B. E. & Bedford, F. L. Illusory misidentification of human faces Abstract

Bedford, F. L. & Harvey, E.M. What plasticity is required in development for pointing in space? Abstract

Bedford, F. L. & Panagos, M. Perceptual learning in the Other Race Effect.

 

BONUS

 Jewish DNA (pdf)

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