Vivian Paulun

Keywords: Material perception, visual intuitive physics, high-level vision, vision and action, psychophysics,
cognitive neuroscience

Education
BSc 2010, Psychology, University of Giessen, Germany
MSc 2012, Psychology, University of Giessen, Germany
PhD 2016 Psychology, University of Giessen, Germany & Western University, Canada
Postdoc, Psychology, University of Giessen, Germany
Postdoc, Brain and Cognitive Sciences, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, MA

Research Interests
Vivian Paulun is an Assistant Professor at the University of Wisconsin–Madison in the Department of Psychology. Her lab studies visual intuitive physics, our fundamental ability to understand the physics of a scene at a glance. Whenever we open our eyes, we instantly infer the physical properties of objects, the relationships between them, the forces acting on them, and what is likely to happen next. This ability comprises an essential component of intelligent behavior: We cannot take a single step forward without first determining if the surface will support our weight and whether the road ahead is slippery, and we cannot pick up an object without first determining its approximate mass, rigidity, and friction. Yet, how the brain infers the physical structure of the outside world from the patterns of light entering our eyes remains a major scientific challenge. Dr. Paulun’s lab combines behavioral experiments, neuroimaging, and computational modeling to uncover the cognitive, neural, and computational mechanisms underlying visual intuitive physics.

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