Peissig Vision Lab

Jessie J. Peissig, Ph.D

I am a full professor in the Psychology Department at California State University, Fullerton. My research interests are directed toward studying how people perceive and interpret the world. In one area of study, I am exploring the role of surface properties in object recognition. People find it more difficult to recognize faces shown in reverse contrast (e.g., a photo negative) than when shown with normal contrast. My colleagues and I have found that surface pigmentation is a significant contributing factor in the contrast reversal effect, and that this effect is found for categories of objects other than faces (Vuong, Peissig, Harrison, & Tarr, 2005; pdf). This research suggests that surface characteristics are an integral part of the object representation. In another line of research, I am studying how people recognize emotions, using a database of spontaneous emotions, rather than posed emotions. Finally, Michal Tarr and I are using our own database of faces to test how disguises affect recognition (Righi, Peissig, & Tarr, 2012).