Prof. Felice L. Bedford
Department of Psychology, University of Arizona
Curriculum Vitae (bibliographic information)
Publications NEW- includes brief summaries of articles
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Top 10 List
1) Effects of experience on perception and varieties of perceptual learning, plasticity, and adaptation.
2) How perceptual learning compares to other learning processes, e.g. Pavlovian conditioning, memory, development, immune system.
3) Parallels between perception of space and perception of time (including physics and perception).
4) Development of vision, audition, and motor-system and its effect on perception; perceptual plasticity required by growth (see under-review papers in publications section).
5) Phenomena of prism adaptation, ventriloquism, and other cross-modal conflicts.
6) Numerical /object identity and individuation in adults and infants (see 2001 theory paper in publications section).
7) Simple elegant mathematical concepts in psychology (e.g. Rescorla/Wagner model, Fuzzy Logic Model, SDT) and abstractions in perception and psychology generally.
8) Evolutionary approaches to perception and cognition.
9) Phenomena of McCollough Effect and other contingent aftereffects, apparent motion.
10) Practical applications of perception - medical (imagery, immune system), law psych (eyewitness identification, 
"other race effect" and national security).
Note to undergraduates, graduate students and postdocs: Interested in pursuing any of these research topics in my lab? Feel free to email me with questions.
Genealogy
Including Genetic Genealogy
Electronic mail address
: bedford@u.arizona.edu (best way to contact)Web address
: www.u.arizona.edu/~bedfordOffice phone number : (520) 621-7447 Fax number : (520) 621-9306
Mailing address: University of Arizona, Department of Psychology, Tucson, AZ 85721
Cell phone:
520-404-2669
All levels of the curriculum from Freshman to Graduate student - Introductory Psychology (award winning!), Perceptual Learning and adaptation, laboratory classes, Sensation and Perception, Learning (human and animal), Cognitive Psychology, Mathematics for Psychology, Evolution and Psychology, Cognitive Development, Experimental Methods. Special interest in Introductory Psychology and in students with financially disadvantaged backgrounds.
No two versions of a course are ever identical. Sample Syllabus:
Sensation and PerceptionPerceptual Learning and Adaptation
Class reading (html) Class reading (pdf) Note to students: some readings will be available as html files and others as pdf. Check both links for this week's reading and/or listen in class for announcement. To read pdf files you'll need to download Adobe Reader (free) if you don't have it already. Bring a copy of the reading to class for discussion.
Feedback Click here to see if feedback is available for your assignments.
Class Picture-another perceptual learning class Happy Class
Born: 19xx, Brooklyn, New York
B.A. University of Pennsylvania, Summa Cum Laude, Phi Beta Kappa, Psychology Major, Mathematics Minor, 1982
Ph.D. University of Pennsylvania, 1988
Manuscripts under review:
Bedford, F. L. A simple mathematical model for assessing developmental recalibration of accurate visual-motor pointing. (61 pages) Abstract
Bedford, F. L. & Mansson, B. Object Identity, Apparent Motion, Transformation geometry. (44 pages)
AbstractMansson, B. E. & Bedford, F. L. Illusory misidentification of human faces (16 pages)
AbstractBedford, F. L. & Harvey, E.M. What plasticity is required in development for manual pointing in space? (44 pages)
AbstractBedford, F. L. & Panagos, M.. Perceptual learning in the Other Race Effect.
In Print Or In Press:
Bedford, F. L. (2007) Is prism adaptation for growth? Perceptual and Motor Skills 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. The article will be available on-line as a pdf file when copyright allows. The pdf version is available on the Perception website for subscribers and I can also email a pdf reprint to the first 50 people that ask.Bedford, F. L. (October 2, 2005). A broken watch is right twice a day. Letter to the editior, New York Times, Sunday Magazine. (contact author if interested)
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. (contact author if interested)
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.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 lostBedford, 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)
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 distortions. 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 pereception is ever changed by experience in cross-modal discrepeancies such as aftereffects of ventriloquism)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 a more cognitive system. 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. (1991). The McCollough Effect: A measure of sleepiness. Sleep Research,
Bedford, F. L. (1989) Constraints on learning new mappings between perceptual dimensions. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception and Performance, 15, 232-248.
Article NOTE: THIS LINK WILL BE REPAIRED SHORTLY. CONTACT AUTHOR IF UNAVAILABLE. (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.)
