William C. Schmidt

Assistant Professor, Department of Psychology

University at Buffalo, State University of New York

Park Hall, Buffalo, New York. 14260-4110

Curriculum Vitae, March 1999

Education:

(Postdoctoral Research, University of Alberta, 1998 - 1999) Supported by the National Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada and The University of Alberta. Research investigating human visual perception and cognition. Funded Project: A Computational Approach to Gamma Motion. Supervisor: Dr. Alan Kingstone.

(Ph. D., Dalhousie University, 1994-1998) Doctor of Philosophy, supported by the National Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada, the Izzak Walton Killam Memorial Fund, and Dalhousie University. Research investigating human visual perception and cognition. Thesis topic: In defense of gradient theories of illusory line-motion. Auxiliary research includes: visual temporal processing and the two motion percepts illusion; psychophysical investigations of inhibition of return; illusory line motion; and world wide web survey research. Advisor: Professor Raymond Klein.

(M. A., University of Western Ontario, 1992-1994) Master of Arts, supported by the National Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada, the Centre for Cognitive Science and the Department of Psychology at the University of Western Ontario, London, Ontario, Canada. Thesis topic: Stimulus-driven attentional capture: Evidence from illusory line motion. Auxiliary research included: Multiple simultaneous loci of information processing in vision; multi-modal investigations of inhibition of return; illusions of motion; the relationship between the elicitation of smooth pursuit eye movement and audition; and the use of disparity information in high level visual tasks. Advisor: Professor Zenon W. Pylyshyn.

(B. A., McGill University, 1988-1992) First Class Honours Bachelor of Arts degree in Psychology with Cognitive Science Minor and Computer Science Minor from McGill University, Montreal, Quebec, Canada. Research investigated computational models of human reasoning and cognitive development. Honours thesis topics in Psychology: i) Empirically testing a computational model of human concept induction, and ii) Connectionist models of cognitive development on Piaget's balance scale task. Honours thesis topic in Computer Science: Critically examined the effects of various parameters of a popular computational model of development. Advisors: Professor Thomas R. Shultz (psychology) and Professor Renato DeMori (computer science).

Awards and Distinctions (each entry represents a separate competition):
 

  1. NSERC Post Doctoral Fellowship 1998-2000.
  2. Killam Post Doctoral Fellowship (University of British Columbia) (declined, 1998).
  3. Dalhousie University Graduate Research Fellowship 1994-1998.
  4. Izaak Walton Killam Memorial Scholarship (Dalhousie) 1997.
  5. Honourary Izaak Walton Killam Memorial Scholarship (Dalhousie) 1994-1996.
  6. NSERC Post Graduate Scholarship B 1994-1996.
  7. D. O. Hebb Award (Dalhousie University) 1994.
  8. Ontario Graduate Scholarship (declined, 1994).
  9. NSERC Post Graduate Scholarship A 1992-1994.
  10. Commonwealth Scholarship (declined, 1992).
  11. Information Technology Research Centre Fellowship 1992.
  12. University of Western Ontario Graduate Research Fellowship 1992.
  13. James McGill Award 1992.
  14. NSERC Undergraduate Student Research Award (U.W.O.) 1992.
  15. NSERC Undergraduate Student Research Award (McGill) (declined, 1991).
  16. James McGill Award 1991.
  17. NSERC Undergraduate Student Research Award (McGill) 1990.
  18. James McGill Award 1990.
  19. Boris Muskatov Prize (McGill) 1990.
  20. McGill Faculty Scholar (Top 10% of Faculty) 1989-1992.
  21. Perth County Regional Science Fair: 1985:


Professional Service:

Peer Research Reviewer for:

  1. Perception & Psychophysics since 1996.
  2. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception and Performance since 1997.
  3. Behavior Research Methods, Instrumetns, & Computers since 1998.

Supervised Undergraduate Research Projects include (1996-1998):

  1. Model predictions and empirical results with the double-primer paradigm Tim Rafuse
  2. Effects of auditory subliminal stimulation on judgment Michelle Gregus
  3. Love, gender role, and relationship satisfaction Debbie Johnson
  4. The effect of concurrent background music on a spatial localization task Wendy Lai
  5. The influence of instructions on temporal imaging accuracy Heather Munro

Organizer and Conusltantcy

  1. Educational Television Technical Consultant for two episodes of the Australian Public Television Series "Models of the Brain" organized by Dr. Evian Gordon, Director of the Cognitive Neuroscience Unit, University of Sydney. Contributed to the content of the program on "Psychological Models of the Brain", and the program on "Computational Models of the Brain". 1997.
  2. Organized Special Interest Group Meeting (Illusory line-motion: Theories, effects and applications) at the Annual Meeting of The Association for Research in Vision and Ophthalmology (ARVO). Fort Lauderdale, Florida, April 21-26, 1996.
  3. Computational Technology Trade Show Representative for the Department of Psychology and Dalhousie University at a province-wide Computational Technology Trade Show, 1996.

Professional Associations:

  1. Member of the Association for Research in Vision and Ophthalmology 1992-present.
  2. Member of Canadian Society for Brain, Behaviour and Cognitive Science 1992-present.

Committee Memberships:

  1. Graduate Student Representative, Psychology, Dalhousie University 1997-1998.
  2. Social Committee, Psychology, Dalhousie University 1997-1998.
  3. Ethics Committee, Psychology, Dalhousie University 1996-1998.
  4. Equipment Committee, Psychology, Dalhousie University 1995-1996.


    Publications

    Visual Attention, Perception and Psychophysics

  1. Schmidt, W. C. (in press). Endogenous attention and illusory line motion reexamined. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception and Performance, 55 manuscript pages.
  2. Schmidt, W. C., Fisher, B. D., & Pylyshyn, Z. W. (1998). Multiple location access in vision: Evidence from illusory line motion. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception and Performance, 24, 505-525.
  3. Schmidt, W. C., & Klein, R. M. (1997). A spatial gradient of acceleration and temporal extension underlies three illusions of motion. Perception, 26, 857-874.
  4. Schmidt, W. C. (1997). Stereopsis alone can produce looming: Implications for 3D display techniques. Human Factors, 39, 352-358.
  5. Pylyshyn, Z., Burkell, J., Fisher, B., Sears, C., Schmidt, W., and Trick, L. (1994). Multiple parallel access in visual attention. Canadian Journal of Experimental Psychology, 48, 260-283.

    Inhibition of Return

  1. Klein, R. M., Schmidt, W. C., & Müller, H. J. (1998). Disinhibition of return: Unnecessary and unwarranted. Perception & Psychophysics, 60, 862-872.
  2. Schmidt, W. C. (1996). 'Inhibition of return' without visual input. Neuropsychologia, 34(10), 943-952.
  3. Schmidt, W. C. (1996). Inhibition of return is not detected using illusory line motion. Perception & Psychophysics, 58, 883-898.

    Computational Cognitive Development and Cognitive Science

  1. Schmidt, W. C., & Gordon, E. (in press). Computer science models of the brain. In E. Gordon (Ed), Models of the human brain: A multidisciplinary perspective. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
  2. McGregor, I., & Schmidt, W. C. (in press). Models of the brain in psychology. In E. Gordon (Ed), Models of the human brain: A multidisciplinary perspective. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
  3. Schmidt, W. C., & Ling, C. X. (1996). A decision-tree model of balance scale development. Machine Learning, 24, 203-229.
  4. Schmidt, W. C., & Ling, C. X. (1996). A symbolic model of cognitive transition. In Proceedings of the Eighteenth Annual Conference of the Cognitive Science Society (pp. 655-659). Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.
  5. Shultz, T. R., Schmidt, W. C., Buckingham, D., & Mareschal, D. (1995). Modeling cognitive development with a generative connectionist algorithm. In T. Simon and G. Halford (Eds), Developing Cognitive Competence: New Approaches to Process Modeling, pp. 205-262. Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum.
  6. Schmidt, W. C. (1994). Intentionality in artificial life. Eidos, XII, 25-45.
  7. Shultz, T. R., Mareschal, D., & Schmidt, W. C. (1994). Modeling cognitive development on balance scale phenomena. Machine Learning, 16, 59-88.
  8. Schmidt, W. C., & Shultz, T. R. (1992). An investigation of balance scale success. In Proceedings of the Fourteenth Annual Conference of the Cognitive Science Society (pp. 72-77). Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.
  9. Shultz, T. R., & Schmidt, W. C. (1991). A Cascade-Correlation model of balance scale phenomena. In Proceedings of the Thirteenth Annual Conference of the Cognitive Science Society (pp. 635-640). Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.

    Computer Use in Psychology

  1. Schmidt, W. C. (in press). The server-side of psychology web experiments. In M. H. Birnbaum (Ed), Psychological Experiments on the Internet.
  2. Servos, P., Symons, L. A., Schmidt, W. & Goodale, M. A. (1998). Assessing stereomotion thresholds with a high-resolution computer monitor. Behavior Research Methods, Instruments & Computers,30, 449-453.
  3. Schmidt, W. C. (1997). World-wide web survey research: Benefits, potential problems, and solutions. Behavior Research Methods, Instruments & Computers, 29, 274-279.
  4. Schmidt, W. C. (1997). World-wide web survey research made easy with "WWW Survey Assistant". Behavior Research Methods, Instruments & Computers, 29, 303-304.
  5. Schmidt, W. C., Hoffman, R., & MacDonald, J. (1997). Operate your own world-wide web server. Behavior Research Methods, Instruments & Computers, 29, 189-193.
  6. Schmidt, W. C. (1996). Sound sequencing software for the Amiga microcomputer. Behavior Research Methods, Instruments & Computers.

Refereed Abstracts

  1. Schmidt, W. C., & Klein, R. M. (1997). Object influences on illusory line-motion. Investigative Ophthalmology and Visual Science, 37(4).
  2. Schmidt, W. C. (1996). A gradient of acceleration and temporal extension underlies two illusions of motion.. International Journal of Psychology, 31, 414.
  3. Schmidt, W. C., & Klein, R. M. (1996). Gradients, impletion and attention in illusory line-motion. Investigative Ophthalmology and Visual Science, 37(4), S529.
  4. Schmidt, W. C. (1995). Inhibition of return is not detected using illusory line motion. Investigative Ophthalmology and Visual Science, 36(4), S373.
  5. McColl, S. L., & Schmidt, W. C. (1995). Orientational singletons evoke facilitation as measured using illusory line motion. Investigative Ophthalmology and Visual Science, 36(4), S373.
  6. Schmidt, W. C., & Pylyshyn, Z. W. (1994). Two percepts of motion from a single moving dot. Investigative Ophthalmology and Visual Science, 35(4), 1621.
  7. Fisher, B. D., Schmidt, W. C., & Pylyshyn, Z. W. (1993). Multiple abrupt onset cues produce illusory line motion. Investigative Ophthalmology and Visual Science, 34(4), 1234.

Non-refereed Conference Proceedings and Technical Reports

  1. Schmidt, W. C. (1993). MultiSound user's guide: An Amiga sound delivery system. Centre for Cognitive Science, University of Western Ontario, Technical Report: Cogmem 70.
  2. Schmidt, W. C., & Pylyshyn, Z. W. (1993). An investigation of the role of auditory information in the smooth oculomotor system. Centre for Cognitive Science, University of Western Ontario, Technical Report: Cogmem 68.
  3. Schmidt, W. C., & Pylyshyn, Z. W. (1993). Multiple location access in vision: Evidence from a line-motion illusion. Centre for Cognitive Science, University of Western Ontario, Technical Report: Cogmem 66.
  4. Schmidt, W. C., & Shultz, T. R. (1991). A replication and extension of McClelland's balance scale findings. McGill Cognitive Science Centre Technical Report 91-10-18.

Conference Presentations

  1. Schmidt, W. C., & Klein, R. M. (1997). Object influences on illusory line-motion. Poster presented at the Annual Meeting of The Association for Research in Vision and Ophthalmology. Fort Lauderdale, Florida, May 11-16, 1997.
  2. Schmidt, W. C., & Klein, R. M. (1996). Inhibition of Return Under Conditions of Isoluminance. Poster presented at the 37th Annual Meeting of the Psychonomic Society, Chicago, IL., Chicago Illinois, October 31, 1996.
  3. Schmidt, W. C. (1996). World-wide web survey research: Benefits, potential problems, and solutions. Talk presented at the Society for Computers in Psychology, Chicago Illinois, October 31, 1996.
  4. Schmidt, W. C., Hoffman, R., & MacDonald, J. (1996). Setting up your own world-wide web server. Talk presented at the Society for Computers in Psychology, Chicago Illinois, October 31, 1996.
  5. Schmidt, W. C. (1996). A gradient of acceleration and temporal extension underlies numerous illusions of motion. Poster presented at the XXVI International Congress of Psychology, Montreal, Quebec, August 1996.
  6. Schmidt, W. C., & Ling, C. X. (1996). A symbolic model of cognitive transition. Poster presented at the Eighteenth Annual Conference of the Cognitive Science Society. San Diego, California, July 1996.
  7. Schmidt, W. C. (1996). The gradient model of illusory line-motion: Converging support from multiple effects. Talk presented at the Annual Meeting of The Association for Research in Vision and Ophthalmology. Fort Lauderdale, Florida, April 21-26, 1996.
  8. Schmidt, W. C., & Klein, R. M. (1996). Gradients, impletion and attention in illusory line-motion. Poster presented at the Annual Meeting of The Association for Research in Vision and Ophthalmology. Fort Lauderdale, Florida, April 21-26, 1996.
  9. Schmidt, W. C. (1995). Some illusory line motion results. Talk presented at the Fifth Annual Meeting of the Canadian Society for Brain, Behaviour and Cognitive Science. Halifax, Nova Scotia, June 22-24, 1995.
  10. Schmidt, W. C. (1995). Inhibition of return is not detected using illusory line motion. Poster presented at the Annual Meeting of The Association for Research in Vision and Ophthalmology. Fort Lauderdale, Florida, May 14-19, 1995.
  11. McColl, S. L., & Schmidt, W. C. (1995). Orientational singletons evoke facilitation as measured using illusory line motion. Poster presented at the Annual Meeting of The Association for Research in Vision and Ophthalmology. Fort Lauderdale, Florida, May 14-19, 1995.
  12. Schmidt, W. C., & Pylyshyn, Z. W. (1994). Two percepts of motion from a single moving dot. Poster presented at the Annual Meeting of The Association for Research in Vision and Ophthalmology. Sarasota, Florida, May 1-6, 1994.
  13. Schmidt, W. C., & Pylyshyn, Z. W. (1994). Focal and distributed attention: Evidence from illusory line motion. Poster presented at the Fourth Annual IRIS PRECARN Conference, Toronto, Ontario, June 21-23, 1994.
  14. Sears, C. R., Schmidt, W. C., & Pylyshyn, Z. W. (1994). Shifting visual attention in stereoscopic displays. Poster presented at the Fourth Annual IRIS PRECARN Conference, Toronto, Ontario, June 21-23, 1994.
  15. Sears, C. R., Schmidt, W. C., & Pylyshyn, Z. W. (1993). Negative priming in a localization task: Inhibition of distractor objects or distractor locations? Paper presented by first author at the Third Annual Meeting of the Canadian Society for Brain, Behaviour and Cognitive Science. Toronto, Ontario, July 15-17, 1993.
  16. Symons, L. A., Servos, P., Schmidt, W., & Goodale, M. A. (1993). An assessment of stereo motion thresholds using a silicon graphics computer. Poster presented at the Conference and NATO Advanced Workshop on Binocular Stereopsis and Optic Flow. York University, Mississauga, Ontario, June 22-26, 1993.
  17. Fisher, B. D., Schmidt, W. C., & Pylyshyn, Z. W. (1993). Data-driven indexing of multiple display items speeds early visual processing: Evidence for the FINST hypothesis. Poster presented at the Third Annual IRIS PRECARN Conference. Ottawa, Ontario, June 8-11, 1993.
  18. Schmidt, W. C., & Pylyshyn, Z. W. (1993). Stereopsis alone can produce looming: Implications for 3D display techniques. Poster presented at the Third Annual IRIS PRECARN Conference. Ottawa, Ontario, June 8-11, 1993.
  19. Sears, C. R., Schmidt, W. C., & Pylyshyn, Z. W. (1993). Automatic capture of visual attention in 2D and 3D displays. Poster presented at the Third Annual IRIS PRECARN Conference, Ottawa, Ontario, June 8-11, 1993.
  20. Fisher, B. D., Schmidt, W. C., & Pylyshyn, Z. W. (1993). Multiple abrupt onset cues produce illusory line motion. Poster presented at the Annual Meeting of The Association for Research in Vision and Ophthalmology. Sarasota, Florida, May 2-7, 1993.
  21. Sears, C. R., Schmidt, W. C., & Pylyshyn, Z. W. (1992). Automatic shifts of visual attention in 2D and 3D space. Poster presented at the Second Annual Meeting of the Canadian Society for Brain, Behaviour and Cognitive Science. Quebec City, Quebec, June 13-14, 1992.
  22. Schmidt, W. C., & Shultz, T. R. (1992). An investigation of balance scale success. Paper presented by the first author at the Fourteenth Annual Conference of the Cognitive Science Society. Bloomington, Indiana, July 29-August 1, 1992.
  23. Shultz, T. R., & Schmidt, W. C. (1991). A Cascade-Correlation model of balance scale phenomena. Paper presented by the first author at the Thirteenth Annual Conference of the Cognitive Science Society. Chicago, Illinois, August 7-10, 1991.

Invited Talks

Multiple Location Access in Vision

Theories of Illusory Line-Motion

Academic and Professional Employment:

August 1999- present.
Assistant Professor, Department of Psychology, State University of New York at Buffalo.


January 1998- April 1998.
Lecturer, Part-time faculty, Department of Psychology, Dalhousie University.

May 1996- 1998.
Founder of S-Ware, creators of WWW Survey Assistant. This involved World Wide Web programming in Perl. I created a package called "WWW Survey Assistant" which allows users with no programming experience to implement their customized surveys on the World Wide Web. A web-based editor allows users to interactively build and view their completed survey before installing it on their own system. "WWW Survey Assistant" generates an HTML form document and a specialized Perl CGI for the user, and has the ability of incorporating data checking and data presentation features in the CGI program. The rights to Survey Assistant have currently been transferred to a product development firm.

January 1991 - 1998.
Workstation and Network Administrator. During my tenure at three different universities, I have configured and administered UNIX workstations operating under SunOS 4.1, Solaris 2.5 and IRIX. These duties included maintenance and backup duties, the application of upgrades, and the solving of technical operating system problems.

September 1994- April, 1996.
Teaching Assistant for various undergraduate courses in the Department of Psychology, Dalhousie University.

September 1992- August 1994.
Graduate Student at the Centre for Cognitive Science at the University of Western Ontario. Extensive systems and graphics programming for psychology experiments using Sun Workstations, Silicon Graphics Workstations, Commodore Amigas, IBM PC/ATs and specialized "virtual reality" hardware systems [dView graphics transputer system (Divsion Ltd.), the Convolvotron (Crystal River Engineering, Inc.), Ascension Bird 6D input device, graphics point plotting buffer (Interactive Video Systems, Ltd), and the Dr. Bouis Oculometer].

September 1992- April, 1994.
Teaching Assistant for various undergraduate courses in the Department of Psychology, University of Western Ontario.

September 1992- December 1993.
Consultant and Experimental Programmer in the Department of Psychology, University of Western Ontario. Professor Mel Goodale, Professor Elizabeth Hampson, and Professor David Sherry.

May 1992-September 1992
Research Assistant and Programmer for the Centre for Cognitive Science at the University of Western Ontario. This work demanded the design, execution and analysis of psychophysical vision experiments. A number of experiments were undertaken in the areas of attentional priming in three dimensions, attentional priming at multiple locations, and local motion as operationally equivalent to abrupt onset attentional priming. Professor Zenon Pylyshyn.

September 1991-May 1992
Part Time Research Assistant investigating connectionist models of cognitive development under the direction of Professor Thomas R. Shultz, Department of Psychology, McGill University. This work elaborated and expanded upon work which I introduced in my Honours thesis of 1991. It also involved the modeling of new phenomena using both the Backpropagation and Cascade-Correlation learning algorithms, and included work on catastrophic interference.

May 1991-September 1991
Research Assistant and Programmer for the Centre for Cognitive Science at the University of Western Ontario (as above). Professor Zenon Pylyshyn.

May 1990-September 1990
Research Assistant, Department of Psychology, McGill University. In this work I began investigating connectionist models of cognitive development using both the Backpropagation and Cascade-Correlation learning algorithms. Responsibilities also included the investigation of venues for future research. Professor Thomas R. Shultz.

     

Technical Skills:

    Extensive programming experience and proficiency in multiple computer languages and operating systems:

    Computer Languages Accumulated Experience
     


    Previous Experience With
     


    Operating Systems Accumulated Experience
     

Graduate Coursework:

course

instructor

institution

grade

Psychology .
     
Issues in Attention  Dr. Raymond Klein Dr. Paddy McMullen Dalhousie University

A
Reading and Dyslexia Dr. Paddy McMullen Dr. Raymond Klein Dalhousie University

A
Proseminar Faculty Dalhousie University

A
Object Recognition  Dr. Keith Humphrey University of Western Ontario

A
Memory Dr. Albert Katz University of Western Ontario

A
Issues in Multimodal Perception Dr. Zenon Pylyshyn University of Western Ontario

A
Psychological Methods Dr. Zenon Pylyshyn University of Western Ontario

A
Statistics and Experimental Design Dr. Robert Gardner University of Western Ontario

A

Computer Science .
     
Systems Simulation Dr. A. K. Dewdney University of Western Ontario

A
Machine Learning Dr. Charles Ling University of Western Ontario

A

Philosophy .
     
Philosophy of Language: Advanced Topics Dr. Bruce Freed University of Western Ontario

A
Philosophy of Cognitive Science Dr. Paul Pietroski McGill University

A

Conferences Attended:
 

  1. Association for Research in Vision and Ophthalmology Annual Meeting, Fort Lauderdale, FL. May 11-16, 1997.
  2. 37th Annual Meeting of the Psychonomic Society, Chicago, IL. October 31-November 3, 1996.
  3. Society for Computers in Psychology, Chicago Illinois, October 31, 1996.
  4. International Congress of Psychology (XXVI), Montreal, Quebec, August 16-21, 1996.
  5. Canadian Society for Brain, Behaviour, and Cognitive Science, Montreal, Quebec, August 15, 1996.
  6. Association for Research in Vision and Ophthalmology Annual Meeting, Fort Lauderdale, FL. April 21-26, 1996.
  7. Canadian Society for Brain, Behaviour, and Cognitive Science, Halifax, Nova Scotia, June 22-24, 1995.
  8. Association for Research in Vision and Ophthalmology Annual Meeting, Fort Lauderdale, FL. May 14-19, 1995.
  9. The Fourth Annual IRIS PRECARN Conference, Toronto, June 21-23, 1994.
  10. Association for Research in Vision and Ophthalmology Annual Meeting, Sarasota, FL. May 1-6, 1994
  11. The Third Annual IRIS PRECARN Conference, Ottawa, June 8-11, 1993.
  12. Association for Research in Vision and Ophthalmology Annual Meeting, Sarasota, FL. May 2-7, 1993
  13. Julesz Vision Conference. Rutgers Center for Visual Science, New Brunswick, New Jersey. April, 1993.
  14. 33rd Annual Meeting of the Psychonomic Society, St. Louis, MO. November 13-15, 1992.
  15. Fourteenth Annual Conference of the Cognitive Science Society. Bloomington, Indiana. July 29-August 1, 1992.
  16. Canadian Society for Brain, Behaviour, and Cognitive Science, Quebec City, PQ, June 13-14, 1992.
  17. The Second Annual IRIS PRECARN Conference, Montreal, June 10-13, 1992.
  18. Society for Philosophy and Psychology, 18th Annual Meeting, McGill University, Montreal, June 7-10, 1992.
  19. IRIS B4 Annual Meeting on Interface Design. Simon Fraser University, Vancouver, B.C., April, 1992.
  20. First European Conference on Artificial Life. Paris, France. December 11-13, 1991.
  21. Inaugural Conference on Cognitive Architecture. Rutgers Center for Cognitive Science, New Brunswick, New Jersey. October 31-November 2, 1991.
  22. Thirteenth Annual Conference of the Cognitive Science Society. Chicago, Illinois. Aug