Barbara Dosher

Picture of Barbara Dosher
UC Irvine Distinguished Professor, Cognitive Sciences
School of Social Sciences
PH.D., University of Oregon, 1977
Phone: (949) 824-7373
Fax: (949) 824-2307
Email: bdosher@uci.edu
University of California, Irvine
2564 Social & Behavioral Sciences Gateway
Mail Code: 5100
Irvine, CA 92697
Research Interests
perceptual learning, attention, human information processing, visual perception, memory retrieval
Academic Distinctions
Fellow, National Academy of Sciences (Elected 2011)
Fellow, American Psychological Science (Elected 2006)
Fellow, Society for Experimental Psychology (Elected 1997)
Research Abstract
I study how humans perceive, attend, learn, remember, and retrieve information using a combination of behavioral testing and mathematical modeling.
Awards and Honors
Davida Teller Award of the Vision Sciences Society (2019)
Atkinson Prize in Psychological and Cognitive Science of the National Academy of Sciences (2018)
Howard Crosby Warren Medal of the Society for Experimental Psychologists (2013)
Distinguished Research Award of the UC Irvine Academic Senate (2013)
Lauds and Laurels Faculty Achievement Award (2013)
Publications
2020. Dosher, B. & Lu, Z.-L. Perceptual Learning: How experience shapes visual perception. MIT Press. [BOOK]
2013. Lu, Z.-L. & Dosher, B. Visual Psychophysics: From Laboratory to Theory. MIT Press. [BOOK]
2013. Human Information Processing: Vision, Memory, & Attention. American Psychological Association. (with C. Chubb, Z. Lu, & R. Shiffrin) (Edited Book)
Selected Journal Articles:
2021. Dosher, B., & Lu, Z.L. (in press). Perceptual learning: Learning, memory, models. In M. J. Kahana & A. D. Wagner (eds.), The Oxford Handbook of Human Memory, Volume 1: Foundations
2020 . Dosher, B., Liu, J., Chu, W., & Lu, Z.-L. Roving: The causes of interference and re-enabled learning in multi-task visual training. Journal of Vision, 20(6):9,1-26. https://doi.org/10.1167/jov.20.6.9.
2017. Dosher, B. & Lu, Z.-L. Perceptual learning and models. Annual Review of Vision Science, 3, 343-363. doi: 10.1146/annurev-vision-102016-061249
2016 .Lu, Z.-L., Lin, Z., & Dosher, B. Translating perceptual learning from the laboratory to applications. Trends in Cognitive Sciences, 20 (8), 561-563.
2015. Cabrera, C., Lu, Z.-L., & Dosher, B. Separating decision and encoding noise in signal detection tasks. Psychological Review, 122: 429-460.
2013. Dosher, B., Jeter, P., Liu, J., & Lu, Z.-L. An integrated reweighting theory accounts for feature and location transfer in visual perceptual learning. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, USA. 110 (3) 13678 – 13683.
2012. Liu, J., Lu, Z.-L., & Dosher, B. Mixed training at high and low accuracy levels leads to learning without feedback. Vision Research (Special Issue on Perceptual Learning), 61, 15-24.
2012. Zhao, M., Gersch, T. M., Schnitzer, B. S., Dosher, B., & Kowler, E. Eye movements and attention: The role of pre-saccadic shifts of attention in perception, memory and the control of saccades. Vision Research (Special Issue on Attention), 74, 40-60.
2010. Dosher, B., Han, S., & Lu, Z.-L. Perceptual learning and attention: Reduction of object attention
limitations with practice. Vision Research (Special Issue), 50, 402-415.
2010. Dosher, B., Han, S., & Lu, Z.-L. Information-limited parallel processing in difficult heterogeneous
covert visual search. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception and Performance, 36 (5) 1128-.
2008. Lu, Z.-L., & Dosher, B. Characterizing observers using external noise and observer models.
Psychological Review, 115, 44-82.
2007. Dosher, B., & Lu, Z.-L. The functional form of performance improvements in perceptual learning:
Learning rates and transfer, Psychological Science, 18, 531-539.
2006. Petrov, A., Dosher, B., & Lu, Z.-L. Perceptual learning without feedback in non-stationary
environments: Data and model. Vision Research, 46, 3177-3197.
2005. Petrov, A. A., Dosher, B., & Lu, Z. The dynamics of perceptual learning: An incremental channel
reweighting. Psychological Review, 112-715-743.
2005. Dosher, B., & Lu, Z. Perceptual learning in clear displays optimizes performance: Learning the
limiting process. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, USA 104, 5286-5290.
2003. Dosher, B. Working memory. Encyclopedia of Cognitive Science, Vol. 4., (L. Nadel, Editor). Nature Publishing Group. p. 569-577.
2003. Han, S., Dosher, B., & Lu, Z.-L. Object attention revisited: Boundary conditions and mechanisms.
Psychological Science, 14, 598-604.
2003. Dosher, B., & McElree, B. Memory search. For Squire, L. R. & Wachsberger, K. (Eds.) Encyclopedia
of Learning and Memory, NY: MacMillan.
2001. McBride, D. M., Dosher, B., & Gage, N. A comparison of forgetting for conscious and automatic
Journal of Memory and Language, 45, 585-615.
2000. Dosher, B., & Lu, Z.-L. Noise exclusion in spatial cuing of attention. Psychological Science, 11, 139-
146.
Grants
Research in the Memory, Attention, Perception Laboratory (MAPLAB) has been funded by the National Eye Institute, the National Institutes of Mental Health, the National Science Foundation, and the Air Force Office of Scientific Research: Life Sciences Directorate. Current Funding by National Eye Institute.
Professional Societies
National Academy of Sciences (Elected 2011 - current); Vision Sciences Society (Executive Board 2009-2013); Society for Mathematical Psychology (Board, 1985-91; President, 1988); Society for Experimental Psychologists (Fellow, 1997 - current), Center for Neurobiology of Learning and Memory (Senior Fellow, 1995 - current)
Board on Human Systems Integration of the National Academies (2018-present)
Other Experience
Professor (Assistant to Full)
Columbia University, Department of Psychology 1977—1992
Dean, School of Social Sciences
University of California, Irvine 2002—2013
Research Centers
Institute for Mathematical Behavioral Sciences
Center for the Neurobiology of Learning and Memory, Senior Fellow
Last updated
02/14/2022