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People/Faculty
Aude Oliva, Ph.D.
Associate Professor of Cognitive Neuroscience

Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences
Building: 46-4065
Lab: Oliva Lab
Email: oliva@mit.edu

Computational Visual Cognition

My research program is in the field of Computational Visual Cognition, a framework that strives to identify the substrates of complex visual recognition tasks and to develop models inspired by human visual perception and cognition. The natural visual environment is composed of three-dimensional objects, with textures, colors, and materials, embedded in an explicit spatial layout. Yet, the human brain understands novel scenes and places quickly and effortlessly, outperforming the most advanced artificial vision system. In the lab, we use multi-disciplinary techniques in cognitive neuroscience, computational vision, behavioral and eye-tracking to identify key principles of human image, scene and space understanding and guide the development of computational and theoretical frameworks. Ultimately, the results of characterizing human perceptual and cognitive abilities and limitations in a natural setting holds promise for inspiring the next generation of artificial vision systems, interactive visual displays but also gives invaluable insights for the understanding of visual and cognitive disorders. Our research programs bring together disciplines such as perceptual science, cognitive neuroscience, photography, architecture, interior design, image processing and computer graphics.

Selected Publications

Oliva, A., Torralba, A., & Schyns, P.G. (2006). Hybrid Images. ACM Transactions on Graphics (Siggraph), 25, 3, 527-532.

Torralba, A., Oliva, A., Castelhano, M., & Henderson, J.M. (2006). Contextual guidance of eye movements and attention in real-world scenes: the role of global features in object search. Psychological Review, 113, 766-786.

Oliva, A. & Torralba, A. (2006).  Building the Gist of a Scene: The Role of Global Image Features in Recognition. Progress in Brain Research: Visual perception, 155, 23-36.

Oliva, A., Wolfe, J. M, & Arsenio, H.  (2004). Panoramic Search: The interaction of Memory and Vision in Search through a Familiar Scene. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception and Performance, 30, 1132-1146.