To interpret information visualizations, people must determine how perceptual features (e.g., color, shape, size, texture) map onto concepts. This process is easier when the encoded mapping between perceptual features and concepts in visualizations matches people’s expectations. The questions is, what determines people’s expectations? Answering this question will enable the design of visualizations that are easier to interpret.
Schloss, K. B., Gramazio, C. C., Silverman, A. T., Parker, M., L., and Wang, A. S. (in press) Mapping color to meaning in colormap data visualizations. IEEE Transactions on Visualization and Computer Graphics.
Schloss, K. B., Lessard, L., Walmsley, C. S., & Foley, K. (2018). Color inference in visual communication: The meaning of colors in recycling. Cognitive Research: Principles and Implications, 3, 5. PDF
The UW Virtual Brain Project™ is making education more engaging through virtual reality (VR). The immersive learning environments spark excitement, and improve student’s understanding of how the brain works.
To demonstrate the potential of VR-based learning, we have developed two lesson plans which can be downloaded below: The Virtual Visual System™ and Virtual Auditory System™. The lesson plans immerse people in a model of the brain based on real brain scans, allowing them to follow the path from sensory input to cortex. Information stations along the way describe key topics at each stage of neural processing.
Our perspective on VR education is that VR is a lens, analogous to a microscope or telescope, through which students experience content that would otherwise be difficult to see. We believe that the future of VR in the classroom is to provide enriched experiences that are integrated within the larger course structure, rather than supplant traditional education. Just as students do not spend entire classes with microscopes or telescopes attached to their face, they also need not to spend entire classes wearing VR headsets. VR acts as a springboard to facilitate class discussion and activities, rather than isolate students from each other and the instructor. Thus, the UW Virtual Brain Project™ lessons are brief (about 5 min.) and can be built into regular lessons on neural structure and function.
In the lab. The UW Virtual Brain Project™ team is conducting research to demonstrate the efficacy of VR-based education and to identify the aspects of VR that are especially beneficial to learning outcomes.
UW Virtual Brain Project™ team: Karen Schloss • Bas Rokers • Chris Racey • Simon Smith • Ross Treddinick • Nathaniel Miller • Melissa Schoenlein • Chris Castro
How can we generate color palettes for data visualization that are easy to perceive and enjoyable to experience? We are developing Colorgorical (“Color” + “categorical”) to address this question for categorical data visualizations. Designed and evaluated using empirical data, Colorgorical helps balance aesthetics and perceptual discriminability.
Data stories is a podcast on data visualization with Enrico Bertini and Moritz Stefaner.
This week’s episode, Color with Karen Schloss, featured a discussion on the use of color in information visualizations. Topics spanned issues in perception, color inference, and aesthetics.
Our lab is excited for the Wisconsin Science Festival, is a four-day statewide celebration of science for people of all ages!
Nov. 3, 2017 – 6:30pm to 7:00pm Gallery Talk by Karen Schloss at the Madison Museum of Contemporary Art (MMoCA). The talk, entitled Finding Meaning in Color, will discuss human perceptions and experiences of color in response to the installation by Sonja Thomsen: in the space of elsewhere.
http://www.mmoca.org/exhibitions/exhibits/sonja-thomsen-space-elsewhere/events-and-happenings
Nov. 4, 2017 – 10:00am to 3:00pm Kevin Ponto and our other fellow Virtual Environments Group members will feature their new interactive learning display, which uses virtual reality to immerse people in the IceCube Neutrino Detection system at the South Pole!
https://pvre.discovery.wisc.edu/
Our lab is interested in accepting graduate students for Fall 2018.
If you are interested in applying to be a graduate student in the Schloss Visual Reasoning Lab at the University of Wisconsin – Madison, please apply through the Department of Psychology (http://psych.wisc.edu/graduate-admission-and-requirements.htm).
Explaining Color Preferences
Why do people have color preferences? Why do color preferences differ between individuals and why do they change over time? Much of our research on answering these questions is motivated by the Ecological Valence Theory (EVT), which proposes that preference for a color is determined by preference for all objects and entities associated that color. We also evaluate other theories to test their ability to explain color preferences.
Schloss, K. B. & Palmer, S.E. (2017). An ecological framework for temporal and individual differences in color preferences. Vision Research, 141, 95-108. Link
Schloss, K. B., & Heck, I. A. (2017). Seasonal changes in color preferences are linked to variations in environmental colors: A longitudinal study of fall, i-Perception, 8, 6, 1-19. PDF
Schloss, K. B., Nelson, R., Parker, L., Heck, I. A., & Palmer, S. E. (2017). Seasonal variations in color preference. Cognitive Science, 41, 6, 1589-1612. Link
Yokosawa, K., Schloss, K. B., Asano, M., & Palmer, S. E. (2016). Ecological Effects in Cross-Cultural Differences Between U.S. and Japanese Color Preferences, Cognitive Science, 40, 7, 1590-1616.Link
Schloss, K. B. (2015). Color preferences differ with variations in color perception. Trends in Cognitive Science, 19, 554-555. Link
Schloss, K. B., Hawthorne, D. & Palmer, S. E. (2015). Ecological influences of individual differences in color preferences. Attention, Perception and Psychophysics, 77, 2803-2816. Link
Strauss, E. D., Schloss, K. B., & Palmer, S. E. (2013). Color preferences change after experience with liked/disliked color objects. Psychonomic Bulletin & Review, 20, 5, 935-943. Link
Taylor, C., Schloss, K. B., & Palmer, S. E., & Franklin, A. (2013). Color preferences in infants and adults are different. Psychonomic Bulletin & Review, 20, 5, 916-922. Link
Schloss, K. B., Poggesi, R. M., & Palmer, S. E. (2011). Effects of university affiliation and “school spirit” on color preferences: Berkeley vs. Stanford. Psychonomic Bulletin & Review, 18, 498-504. PDF
Palmer, S. E. & Schloss, K. B. (2010). An ecological valence theory of color preferences. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 107, 8877-8882. PDF
The Schloss Visual Perception and Cognition Lab welcomes our new Postdoc, Chris Racey! Prior to arriving at UW-Madison, Chris was a Post-doctoral Research Fellow working with Prof. Anna Franklin in the Sussex Colour Group (University of Sussex). Chris’s research focuses on color cognition and the neural representation of color. He investigates various aspects of color processing, including color preference, color naming, and low level visual representations, using behavioral, psychophysical and neuroimaging methods.
If you are interested in applying to be a graduate student in the Schloss Visual Perception and Cognition Lab at the University of Wisconsin – Madison, please apply through the Department of Psychology (http://psych.wisc.edu/graduate-admission-and-requirements.htm)
The Living Environments Laboratory in the Wisconsin Institute for Discovery is pleased to announce the arrival of Dr. Karen Schloss and the Visual Perception and Cognition Lab. Dr. Schloss and her lab investigates how observers make predictions about objects and entities based on their cognitive and emotional responses to perceptual information. She joins University of Wisconsin in the Psychology Department.
