LYNN A. OLZAK

 

                                                                                    Department of Psychology, Miami University                                            3440 Aston Place

          of Ohio, Oxford, OH 45056                                                            Cincinnati, OH  45241

(513) 529-1754                                                                           (513) 936-9460

 

EDUCATION

 

1969‑1973         B.A.  with  honors, Psychology, June, 1973.  University of California, Santa Barbara. 

1974‑1975         M.A. Psychology, August, 1975.  San Jose State University (learning and memory, experimental methods).

1976‑1981         Ph.D. Psychology, March, 1981. University of California, Los Angeles.  (Cognitive: visual perception and psychophysics.  Minor areas: quantitative psychology and statistics; developmental psychology).  James P. Thomas,  Advisor.  

1982‑1983         NIMH Postdoctoral Trainee.  Department of Psychology, Stanford University (Color Vision)  Brian Wandell, Sponsor

 

 

                                                   EXTERNAL GRANTS & CONTRACTS

       

            "Linear Structural Equation Models of Target Acquisition Performance".  Human Factors Branch, Naval Weapons Center, China  Lake, CA.  Contract No. N60530‑78‑C‑0240 with Hughes Aircraft Co.  Oct 1978‑Oct.1979; Direct Costs: $80,000.  Principal Investigator.

            "Scale of Chromatic/Luminance Contrast for Visual Aids to Navigation  Mission for the U. S. Coast Guard".  Department of Transportation, United States Coast Guard (Contract No. DTCG39‑ 85‑C‑80205 with UCLA; Award:  Oct. 1985‑Oct. 1988; Direct Costs: $120,481.  Principal Investigator.  (James P. Thomas, co-PI).

            "Mechanisms of Spatial Pattern Vision".  Department of Health and  Human Services,  Public Health Service, National Eye Institute NEI  grant  EY00360 with UCLA.  Award (5 yrs):  Aug. 1, 1989 ‑ July 31, 1994, Direct Costs: $417,292.  Co‑PI with James P. Thomas. 

"Mechanisms of Spatial Pattern Vision. NEI  grant  EY00360 with UCLA.  Award  (3 yrs): Aug. 1, 1994 ‑ July 31, 1997.  Direct Costs:  $331,572.  Co‑PI with James P. Thomas.  No cost extension through July 1998.

            "Cortical Mechanisms of Spatial Pattern Vision".  Department of Health and  Human Services,  Public Health Service, National Eye Institute NEI grant EY13953 with Miami University).  Award  (2 yrs) April 1, 2002-March 31, 2004.  Direct Costs:  $100,000.  Principal Investigator.

 

                                                               INTERNAL GRANTS

                                                                             

“Neural Mechanisms Underlying Visual Shape Perception”.  Miami University Committee on Faculty Research  Summer Research Appointment.  May 10-July 19, 1999.  $5000.

 

 

Faculty Mentorships

 

2000 Summer Scholarship Sponsor, Miami University (Jessica High)  $500 to sponsor, $300 to student

2002  Undergraduate Research Award for Senior Honor thesis (Andrew Clark)  $500 to student

 

 

FELLOWSHIPS, HONORS AND AWARDS

 

Fellow, Optical Society of America, Elected 2000

Alpha Delta Pi/Alpha Xi Delta Teaching Dedication Award, Miami University of Ohio,  April, 1999

University Medal, University of Helsinki,  Feb. 1995

National Institute of Mental Health Postdoctoral Fellowship, Stanford University, 1982‑83.

National Research Council Research Associate, 1981 (Declined)

UCLA Dept. of Psychology Distinguished Dissertation Award, 1981

Howard Hughes Fellow, 1977‑1980

 

                                                     PROFESSIONAL ASSOCIATIONS

 

Association  for  Research  in Vision and Ophthalmology,  Optical  Society  of America, Sigma Xi, Vision ScienceS

 

                                                            RESEARCH INTERESTS

 

Visual Psychophysics & Cognitive Neuroscience:  Neural mechanisms underlying:  spatial pattern perception, complex pattern processing, texture discrimination/segregation, scene/object segregation, illusory and occluded contours, intermediate-level mechanisms underlying form and object discrimination and recognition (including reading and reading disorders); color & lightness perception, constancy, visual attention, decision processes.  Collaborative Interests:  functional brain maps of visual processes in normal and abnormal populations (fMRI, single-cell recording in behaving monkeys), development of functional visual brain modules.                    

 

Quantitative Modeling: Analytic, biologically plausible quantitative models; multidimensional signal detection, geometric/vector, statistical/association, multivariate (parallel/hierarchical), log‑linear, structural (LISREL), nonlinear processes, interests in neural networks & other computational approaches to low- and intermediate-level visual processing.

   

                                                             TEACHING INTERESTS

 

Undergraduate:  Perception, Cognitive Psychology, Attention, Perceptual & Cognitive Development & Aging, Statistics, Research Methods, Introduction  to  Psychology,  Quantitative Modeling of sensory processes, Psychophysical Methods, Linear Models.   

 

Seminars (graduate or advanced undergraduate):  perceptual processes, vision, spatial vision & pattern perception, color vision, attention, basic and/or applied psychophysics, human factors, signal detection theory, quantitative/multidimensional/computational models in vision.  Interests in co-teaching courses in biological and functional mechanisms of vision, the visual processing hierarchy (low, intermediate and high level visual phenomena and mechanisms of vision), perceptual/visual development.

 

                                                                             

EMPLOYMENT HISTORY

 

1998-present     Associate Professor, Department of Psychology, Miami University of Ohio

1994-1998         Adjunct Associate Professor; Associate Research Psychologist, Department of

                        Psychology, UCLA

1992‑1994         Adjunct Assistant Professor; Assistant Research Psychologist, Department of Psychology, UCLA. 

1984‑1992         Assistant Research Psychologist; Lecturer, Department of Psychology, UCLA.

1985‑1986         Visiting Assistant Professor, Department of Psychology, Harvey Mudd College, Claremont, CA.

1983‑1985         Visiting Assistant Professor, Department of Psychology, Scripps College, Claremont,  CA.

1982‑1983         NIMH Postdoctoral Trainee, Department of Psychology, Stanford University.

1981‑1982         Visiting Lecturer and Postdoctoral Scholar, Department of Psychology, UCLA.

1980‑1982         Associate editor/contracts manager for Handbook of Perception and Human Performance, Wiley, 1986, as Consultant to University of Dayton Research Institute.  Located at UCLA.

1979‑1980         Research Associate, Dept. of Psychology, UCLA

1977‑1980         Member of Technical Staff, Hughes Aircraft Co., Display Systems Department, CA.

1976‑1977         Teaching Associate, Department of Psychology, UCLA

1976                 Consultant to Hughes Aircraft Company.  On‑site representative at NASA‑Ames Research Center.

1974‑1975         Teaching Assistant, Department of Psychology, San Jose State University

 

 

                                                   OTHER PROFESSIONAL ACTIVITIES

Invited Addresses

 

July, 1988         Mathematical Psychology Annual Meeting, Evanston, IL.  T. D.  Wickens & L. A. Olzak, "Models for ratings in a concurrent detection task.  Symposium on Probabilistic Multidimensional Models of Perception.   

Feb., 1990         Department of Psychology, UC Santa Barbara.  "Orthogonal orientations are not processed independently."

July, 1993         College of Optometry, University of Houston, Houston, TX.  "Building spatially complex percepts from simple neural signals". 

July, 1993         School of Optometry, University of Missouri, St. Louis, Mo. "Building spatially complex percepts from simple neural signals."

Feb., 1994         Department of Cognitive Sciences, UC Irvine.  "Edge and texture processors in human vision."

Feb., 1994         Department of Psychology, UC Santa Cruz. "From sensation to perception:  The role of second layer mechanisms in spatial pattern vision." 

June, 1994        Department of Psychology, UC Santa Barbara.  "Edge and texture mechanisms in spatial vision:  characteristics and consequences."

Oct., 1994         Department of Psychology, University of Southern California. "Edge and texture mechanisms in human pattern vision:  characteristics and consequences."

Feb., 1995         Department of Psychology, University of Helsinki, Finland.  "Building spatially complex percepts from simple neural signals." 

Oct., 1995         Optical Society of America Annual Meeting, Portland, OR.  J. P. Thomas & L. A. Olzak , “Psychophysical specification of contrast gain control mechanisms. 

Nov., 1995         College of Optometry, UC Berkeley.  "Recoding sensations into percepts: Model and mechanisms of human pattern vision."

Nov., 1995         Department of Psychology, Stanford University.  "Recoding sensations into percepts:  Model and mechanisms of human pattern vision."

Sept, 1996        Center for Vision and Visual Cognition, Department of Psychology, University of Durham, UK.  "Complex pattern discriminations:  Orientation information is integrated across spatial scale; spatial frequency and contrast information are not."

Dec, 1996         Smith-Kettlewell Research Institute, San Francisco, CA.  "Higher-order mechanisms of human pattern vision"

Aug., 1997        European Conference on Visual Perception 20th Anniversary Symposium, Helsinki, Finland. L. A. Olzak and T. D. Wickens,  "Assessing interactions through concurrent judgment techniques."

Mar., 1998         Department of Psychology, Miami University of Ohio.  “Recoding sensations into percepts.”

Feb., 1999         College of Optometry, Ohio State University.  “Neural recoding in human pattern perception:  model and mechanisms."

Nov., 1999         Visual Sciences Center, University of Chicago.  Neuroscience Lecture:    "Neural recoding processes underlying object edge and surface texture perception."

Aug., 2000        European Conference on Visual Perception, Groningen, Netherlands:  "An early-noise model of complex pattern discrimination.

Feb., 2001         Department of Psychology, Oberlin College.  "Context effects in visual perception:  What they can tell us about the workings of the visual system."

Oct., 2002         Department of Psychology, University of Indiana.  “Neural recoding in the perception of edges and surfaces:  A model.” 

Feb, 2002          Department of Psychology, Purdue University.  “Recoding sensations into percepts:  A  quantitative model.”

June, 2003        Centre for Visual Sciences, York University “Signal Detection Theory.”

 

 

Extracurricular Teaching

 

1992                 Optometry Review for California Optometry Board Exam:  Module in Visual Perception.  (6‑week module on Visual Perception as part of a Federal Retraining Program).  Directed by UCLA Extension in conjunction with Kaiser Permanente Hospitals.  Invited.

1981-1993         UCLA Extension, summer session courses: Cognitive Psychology, 1981, 1987, 1988, 1990;  Psychological Statistics:  1989, 1990;  Laboratory  in  Cognitive

                        Psychology,  1993.

 

Consulting Activities

 

1976                 Hughes Aircraft Co. at NASA‑AMES Research Center.  Research in role of visual accommodation in pilot landing error.

1980                 Department of Psychology, Northwestern University (Dr. Robert Sekuler) Applications of linear structural equations to visual processes.

1986                 MacAulay‑Brown Publishing Co., Inc.  Review and selection of material for inclusion in Engineering Data Compendium, AMRL, Wright‑Patterson AFB (1988).

1992‑1995         Optimetrics, Inc. (Ann Arbor, MI)  Theoretical and technical advisor to contracting company for SARDA Target Acquisition Model Improvement Program. Under direction of the Office of the Secretary of the Army for Research, Development, and Acquisition, The Pentagon.

1995-pres.         Member, Expert Network, Crew Systems Ergonomics Analysis Center (CSERIAC),  Dept. of Defense, Human Engineering Division, Armstrong Laboratory, Wright-Patterson Air Force Base.                   

 

 

Editing and Reviewing Activities

 

1980‑82             University of Dayton Research Institute.  Associate Editor/Contracts Manager for Handbook of Perception and  Human Performance, Wiley (1986).

 

2000-2001         Guest Editor for special issue "2nd -order Processes in Vision" in Journal of the Optical Society of America A (2001), 18(9),  2171-2370.

 

Journal Reviews:            Journal of the Optical Society of America; Vision Research, Perception and  Psychophysics; Perception; Spatial Vision; Investigative Ophthalmology &                                                                              Visual Science; Psychological Bulletin; Science

 

Grant Reviews:              National Science Foundation, National Institutes of Health (NEI)

 

Text Reviews:                Simon & Schuster Publishing Co. (Statistics); John Wiley & Sons (Perception)

 

 

Professional Service

 

Association  for  Research in                  Session Chair, regularly;  Fight for Sight Awards Committee.

Vision and Ophthalmology:                     Program Committee, Visual Psychophysics/Physiological Optics Scientific Section.  Elected term:  2000-2004

            Symposium Organizer, 2002 Annual Meeting "Long-range Interactions in the Visual System"

 

European Conference on Visual

Perception:                                            Session Chair; regularly

                                                            Member, Organizing Committee ECVP 2004, Budapest, Hungary

Optical Society      

of America:                                            Session Chair; regularly

                                                            1994 Edgar D. Tillyer Award Committee.

                                                            Vice-Chair (1994-95), Vision Technical Group

                                                            Chair (1996-97; 98-99), Vision Technical Group

                                                            Symposium Organizer, 1996 Annual Meeting "Image  Segmentation"

Technical Program Committee, 1996, 1997, 1999 Annual  Meetings.

                                                            Symposium Organizer, 1997 Annual Meeting "Far-Flung Interactions:  Long-Range Facilitation and Inhibition.