State University of New York SUNY State College of Optometry


Backus Perception Lab
SUNY Optometry
33 W. 42nd St.
New York, NY 10036
212-938-5597
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Other labs at SUNY Optometry:

Jose-Manuel Alonso
Visual cortex

Harold Sedgwick
Visual perception

Qasim Zaidi
Visual perception

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The Backus Lab

- People

/Backuslab/media/images/people/BenWithPaper_.jpg

Benjamin T. Backus, Ph.D.

Principal Investigator

Curriculum Vitae (PDF 30.6 KB)

Joined: September 1, 2000

I'm working to understand why things appear the way they do. An important aspect of this problem is how the perceptual apparatus tunes itself over time to improve its utilization of visual signals. We can catch it in the act using associative learning paradigms: experiments in which we cause the appearance of some visual stimulus to become contingent on a signal that did not previously have this effect before training. I am also interested in stereoscopic depth perception and all aspects of binocular vision, especially the rehabilitation of binocular function in people with a history of strabismus.

33 West 42nd Street
New York, NY 10036
(W) 212-938-1541
(F) 212-938-5760
bbackus [@ symbol] sunyopt.edu
http://sunyopt.edu/research/backus

Publications+

  1. Backus, B.T. (2009) The Mixture of Bernoulli Experts: a theory to quantify reliance on cues in dichotomous perceptual decisions. Journal of Vision, 9(1):6, 1-19. PDF 818.0 KB
  2. Haijiang, Q., Saunders, J.A., Stone, R.W., & Backus, B.T. (2006). Demonstration of cue recruitment: Change in visual appearance by means of Pavlovian conditioning. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A, 103: 483-486. PDF 406.5 KB
  3. Backus BT &Haijiang Q (2007). Competition between newly recruited and pre-existing visual cues during the construction of visual appearance. Vision Research, 47 919-24. PDF 303.0 KB
  4. Saunders JA & Backus BT (2007). Both Parallelism and orthogonality are used to perceive 3D slant of rectangles from 2D images.Journal of Vision, 7, 7. PDF 440.6 KB
  5. Saunders JA & Backus BT (2006). Perception of surface slant from oriented textures. Journal of Vision, 6, 882-897. PDF 2.3 MB
  6. Saunders JA & Backus BT (2006). The accuracy and reliability of perceived depth from linear perspective as a function of image size. Journal of Vision, 6, 933-954 PDF 623.6 KB
  7. Duke PA, Oruc I, Qi H & Backus BT (2006). Depth aftereffects mediated by vertical disparities: calibration of extraretinal signals during stereopsis. Vision Research 2006 Jan; 46 (1-2): 228-41 PDF 315.7 KB
  8. Backus BT & Oruç I (2005). Illusory motion from change over time in the response to contrast and luminance. Journal of Vision, 5: 1055–1069. PDF 1.1 MB
  9. Zabulis X & Backus BT (2004). Starry night: a texture devoid of depth cues. Journal of the Optical Society of America, 21:2049-2060. PDF 786.6 KB
  10. Backus BT & Matza-Brown D (2003). The contribution of vergence change to the measurement of relative disparity. Journal of Vision, 3:737-750. PDF 1.2 MB
  11. Banks MS, Backus BT and Banks RS (2002). Is vertical disparity used to determine azimuth? Vision Research 42: 801-7. PDF 388.1 KB
  12. Backus BT, Fleet DJ, Parker AJ & Heeger DJ (2001). Human cortical activity correlates with stereoscopic depth perception.Journal of Neurophysiology 86: 2054-68.
  13. Backus BT (2000). Stereoscopic vision: What’s the first step? (Dispatch). Current Biology,10: R701-R703. PDF 65.5 KB
  14. Ress D, Backus BT & Heeger DJ (2000). Activity in primary visual cortex predicts performance in a visual detection task. Nature Neuroscience, 3: 940–945.
  15. Wandell BA, Chial S & Backus BT (2000). Visualization and Measurement of the Cortical Surface. Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience, 12: 739-752. PDF 1.2 MB
  16. Backus BT & Banks MS (1999). Estimator reliability and distance scaling in stereoscopic slant perception. Perception, 28: 217-242. PDF 501.5 KB
  17. Backus BT, Banks MS, van Ee R & Crowell JA (1999). Horizontal and vertical disparity, eye position, and stereoscopic slant perception. Vision Research, 39: 1143-1170. PDF 850.8 KB
  18. van Ee R, Bank MS & Backus BT (1999). An analysis of binocular slant contrast.Perception, 28: 1121-1145. PDF 261.3 KB
  19. van Ee R, Banks MS, and Backus BT (1999). Perceived visual direction near an occluder.Vision Research, 39: 4085-4097. PDF 327.1 KB
  20. Banks MS, and Backus BT (1999). Horizontal and vertical disparity, and eye position, in stereoscopic slant perception. Chapter 3 in
    Vision and Action
    . L.R. Harris and M. Jenkin, Eds. Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press.
  21. Banks MS, and Backus BT (1998). Extra-retinal and perspective cues cause the small range of the induced effect. Vision Research, 38:187-94. PDF 615.3 KB
  22. Banks MS, van Ee R & Backus BT (1997). The computation of visual direction: A re-examination of Mansfield and Legge (1996). Vision Research, 37:1605-13. PDF 616.8 KB
  23. Banks MS, Ehrlich SM, Backus BT & Crowell JA (1996). Estimating heading during real and simulated eye movements. Vision Research, 36: 431-444.
  24. Backus BT (1996). Uses of dynamic geometry software for teaching and research in optometry and vision science. Chapter in James King (Ed.), Geometry Turned On: Dynamic Geometry, Theory and Application. New York: Mathematical Association of America.