Welcome to the Schloss Visual Reasoning Lab! We are part of the Department of Psychology and Wisconsin Institute for Discovery, Virtual Environments Group at the University of Wisconsin–Madison. Our lab aims to understand how people use visual reasoning for visual communication. We study how people form associations between visual features (e.g., color, shape) and concepts, and how they use those associations to interpret meanings of visual features in information visualizations (e.g., graphs, maps, diagrams, signs). Our lab also investigates how to increase engagement in science through immersive experiences in scientific visualizations using virtual reality. Our work can be translated to making visual communication more effective and efficient.
Projects
Color-concept associations
Quantify and explain color-concept associations
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Information Visualization
Explain how people infer meaning from visual features
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Color Preference
Understand the nature and origin of color preferences
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UW Virtual Brain Project™
Develop VR experiences to make science engaging
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Latest News
Christopher Thorstenson to RIT
He has been appointed to a tenure-track position in Color Science at Rochester Institute of Technology starting in Fall 2021.
NSF CAREER award
PI Karen Schloss received an NSF CAREER award to advance the understanding of visual reasoning for visual communication.
Congrats to Autumn Wickman!
Outstanding Undergraduate Research Scholar Award from the UW-Madison Department of Psychology.