Apr 22
Belcourt Theatre Nashville, TN
TicketsIsabel Gauthier
David K. Wilson Professor of Psychology at Vanderbilt University
The Fabulous Baron Munchausen— Are we experiencing the same Munchausen? The science of individual visual perception
Program Description
Following Karel Zeman's visually inventive film, this talk will discuss how much people differ in their ability to recognize and process visual information. Research reveals these differences stem from a domain-general object recognition ability that varies across individuals and is independent from general intelligence—and contrary to expectations, experience with visual arts does not enhance this ability.
Film Synopsis
The outrageous Baron Munchausen tells of his many adventures, from meeting the Man in the Moon to defeating a Turkish army all by himself.
The Baron Munchausen (Milos Kopecky) is an over-the-top storyteller whose fantastic adventures take him everywhere from dusty Turkish battlefields to the deepest recesses of a whale's belly. When the Baron, who is enjoying a relaxing stay on the moon, is joined by gregarious space traveler Cyrano de Bergerac, the duo set off on a round-the-universe journey that will introduce them to the beautiful Princess Bianca (Jana Brejchová) and the formidable Tonik (Rudolf Jelinek).
Photo credit: Ustredni Pujcovna Filmu
About the Speaker
Dr. Isabel Gauthier (B.A. Université du Québec à Montréal, PhD. Yale University) is the David K. Wilson Professor of Psychology at Vanderbilt University and also holds an appointment in Radiology and Radiological Sciences. Dr. Gauthier studies object recognition from a cognitive neuroscience perspective. In some of her early work, Dr. Gauthier showed that naïve observers trained to recognize artificial objects called ‘Greebles’ showed activation for these objects in the part of the brain known to be engaged by face recognition. This showed that perceptual expertise with objects, rather than face recognition per se, is responsible for recruiting this part of the brain. Dr. Gauthier's research expanded in recent years to investigate the existence of a domain-general visual ability. This ability is distinct from general intelligence and predicts how well people can learn to identify objects like birds, read musical notation or make medical diagnostic decisions. Dr. Gauthier has been the recipient of the Young Investigator Award, Cognitive Neuroscience Society, the APA Distinguished Scientific Award for Early Career Contribution to Psychology and the Troland research award from the National Academy of Sciences, the Mid-career award from the Psychonomic Society, the Davida Teller Award from the Vision Sciences Society and two different graduate mentoring awards from Vanderbilt. She was the SEC professor of the year in 2015.