Johan Wagemans is a Belgian experimental psychologist. He is a full professor at the KU Leuven in Leuven (Belgium). He directs a long-term Methusalem project[1] that focuses upon the psychology and neuroscience of visual perception and most recently art perception.

Johan Wagemans
Born1963
CitizenshipBelgium
Alma materKU Leuven
Known forRevision of Gestalt Psychology
Scientific career
Fieldsexperimental psychology
Thesis (Ph.D. 1991)
Doctoral advisorGéry van Outryve d'Ydewalle
Websitehttps://gestaltrevision.be/

Biography

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Wagemans obtained his PhD in 1991 at KU Leuven. As a postdoc he worked with Michael Kubovy at the University of Virginia. He is a professor at KU Leuven since 1993.

Wagemans is known for his work on so-called mid-level vision, which deals with organising the rich but not yet very useful representation of visual images in earlier processing stages into a more coherent and meaningful organisation. In several review articles he brought together the leading scholars on perceptual organisation in order to integrate early century-old views of Gestalt psychology with modern viewpoints inspired by modern cognitive psychology and neuroscience.[2][3] He formalised several important factors that influence perceptual organisation, such as the role of symmetry in perceptual grouping.[4] His work also resulted in applications to theories on autism,[5] art perception, and the perception of magic.[6]

Honors

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  • Member of the Royal Flemish Academy of Belgium, 2010[7]
  • Laureate of the Research Foundation Flanders "Hearnest-John Solvay" Excellence Prize, 2020, the highest scientific Prize in Belgium known as the "Flemish Nobel Prize"[8]
  • Member of the Board of Directors of the Vision Sciences Society, 2018-2022
  • Wolfgang Metzger Award of Gestalt Theory Association, 2013[9]

References

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  1. ^ "Overview Methusalem funding at KU Leuven". KU LEUVEN.
  2. ^ Wagemans, Johan; Elder, James H.; Kubovy, Michael; Palmer, Stephen E.; Peterson, Mary A.; Singh, Manish; von der Heydt, Rüdiger (2012). "A century of Gestalt psychology in visual perception: I. Perceptual grouping and figure–ground organization". Psychological Bulletin. 138 (6): 1172–1217. doi:10.1037/a0029333. ISSN 1939-1455. PMC 3482144. PMID 22845751.
  3. ^ Wagemans, Johan; Feldman, Jacob; Gepshtein, Sergei; Kimchi, Ruth; Pomerantz, James R.; van der Helm, Peter A.; van Leeuwen, Cees (2012). "A century of Gestalt psychology in visual perception: II. Conceptual and theoretical foundations". Psychological Bulletin. 138 (6): 1218–1252. doi:10.1037/a0029334. ISSN 1939-1455. PMC 3728284. PMID 22845750.
  4. ^ Wagemans, Johan (1997-12-01). "Characteristics and models of human symmetry detection". Trends in Cognitive Sciences. 1 (9): 346–352. doi:10.1016/S1364-6613(97)01105-4. ISSN 1364-6613. PMID 21223945. S2CID 2143353.
  5. ^ "APA PsycNet". psycnet.apa.org. Retrieved 2021-11-26.
  6. ^ Ekroll, Vebjørn; Wagemans, Johan (2016-07-01). "Conjuring Deceptions: Fooling the Eye or Fooling the Mind?". Trends in Cognitive Sciences. 20 (7): 486–489. doi:10.1016/j.tics.2016.04.006. ISSN 1364-6613. PMID 27212588. S2CID 3618208.
  7. ^ "Member details Royal Flemish Academy of Belgium".
  8. ^ "Laureates FWO-Excellence Prizes".
  9. ^ "Wolfgang Metzger Award prize winners".