Cognitive Science

I had the honor of studying human cognition with Albert Bregman of McGill University. (Al is the father of the field of auditory scene analysis). This gave me a firm grounding in theories of learning and thinking as well as first-hand experience with the scientific method.

My Ph.D thesis The Comprehension of Cartoon-Strip Analogies examined some of the mechanisms underlying metaphorical thinking. It explored how people are able to use their imaginations to find a match between verbal descriptions and abstract visual events in the form cartoon-strips using simple geometric forms. In particular, the thesis examined the role of transformational ideals (e.g., concepts such as assumed vantage point) which people inserted into their mental representations in order find a "fit" between a verbal description and an abstract cartoon-strip. (The cartoons were great fun to make). The thesis contributed to a body of work on the composition of ideals --a unifying theory of cognition put forward by Albert Bregman that cuts across perception, language, pattern recognition, social behavior, imagination, and learning.

In the early 80's, I drew on this background in cognition to do research on the perception of computer graphic displays. Later on, I found that this training in cognition very useful when designing interfaces and conducting user studies.