Maria Kon

United States Naval Research Laboratory
  • United States Naval Research Laboratory
    Post-doctoral Fellow
University of Leeds
History and Philosophy of Science
PhD, 2012
CV
Areas of Specialization
Cognitive Sciences
  •  5
    A replication and re-analysis of a classic texture segmentation study
    with Gregory Francis
    Attention, Perception, and Psychophysics. forthcoming.
    A classic finding reported in Beck (1966a) is that observers tend to indicate a more natural texture break between a set of T’s and tilted T’s than between a set of T’s and backward L’s. This finding has played a prominent role in discussions about the properties of texture segmentation and in the development of computational theories of texture segmentation. Due to the small sample size of the original study, we replicated the original experiment with a larger sample. Regrettably, we discovered…Read more
  •  8
    In a series of articles, Jacob Beck proposed that a variety of texture segmentation phenomena occurs due to emergent features that arise from “links” between elements with appropriate local properties, such as alignment, orientation, and proximity. His findings and ideas guided theoretical and computational models, and some of his demonstrations became textbook knowledge about visual perception. We build on this work in two ways. First, we provide a modern replication of a classic texture segmen…Read more
  • There is growing interest in the effects of sports-related repetitive head impacts (RHIs) on athletes’ cognitive capabilities. This study examines the effect of RHIs in data collected from adolescent athletes to estimate the magnitude and longevity of RHIs on sensorimotor and cognitive performance. A non-linear regression model estimated the longevity of RHI effects by adding a half-life parameter embedded in an exponential decay function. A model estimate of this parameter allows the possibilit…Read more
  •  6
    Perceptual Grouping Strategies in a Letter Identification Task: Strategic Connections, Selection, and Segmentation
    with Gregory Francis
    Attention, Perception, and Psychophysics 84 1944-1963. 2022.
    Although perceptual grouping has been widely studied, its mechanisms remain poorly understood. We propose a neural model of grouping that, through top-down control of its circuits, implements a grouping strategy involving both a connection strategy (which elements to connect) and a selection strategy (that defines spatiotemporal properties of a selection signal to segment target elements and facilitate identification). We apply the model to a letter discrimination task that investigated relation…Read more
  •  4
    Perceptual Grouping Strategies in Visual Search Tasks
    Dissertation, Purdue University. 2022.
    A fundamental characteristic of human visual perception is the ability to group together disparate elements in a scene and treat them as a single unit. The mechanisms by which humans create such groupings remain unknown, but grouping seems to play an important role in a wide variety of visual phenomena. I propose a neural model of grouping; through top-down control of its circuits, the model implements a grouping strategy that involves both a connection strategy (which elements to connect) and a…Read more
  •  6
    On universality of classical probability with contextually labeled random variables: Response to A. Khrennikov
    with Ehtibar N. Dzhafarov
    Journal of Mathematical Psychology 89 93-97. 2019.
    In his constructive and well-informed commentary, Andrei Khrennikov acknowledges a privileged status of classical probability theory with respect to statistical analysis. He also sees advantages offered by the Contextuality-by-Default theory, notably, that it “demystifies quantum mechanics by highlighting the role of contextuality,” and that it can detect and measure contextuality in inconsistently connected systems. He argues, however, that classical probability theory may have difficulties in …Read more
  •  4
    On Universality of Classical Probability with Contextually Labeled Random Variables
    with Ehtibar N. Dzhafarov
    Journal of Mathematical Psychology 85 17-24. 2018.
    One can often encounter claims that classical (Kolmogorovian) probability theory cannot handle, or even is contradicted by, certain empirical findings or substantive theories. This note joins several previous attempts to explain that these claims are unjustified, illustrating this on the issues of (non)existence of joint distributions, probabilities of ordered events, and additivity of probabilities. The specific focus of this note is on showing that the mistakes underlying these claims can be p…Read more
  •  12
    Cortical Circuits for Top-down Control of Perceptual Grouping
    with Gregory Francis
    Neural Networks 151 190-210. 2022.
    A fundamental characteristic of human visual perception is the ability to group together disparate elements in a scene and treat them as a single unit. The mechanisms by which humans create such groupings remain unknown, but grouping seems to play an important role in a wide variety of visual phenomena, and a good understanding of these mechanisms might provide guidance for how to improve machine vision algorithms. Here, we build on a proposal that some groupings are the result of connections in…Read more
  •  7
    Interdisciplinary perspectives on the flow of time
    Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences 1326 (1): 1-8. 2014.
    Where does the study of the flow of time belong: physics, the cognitive sciences, philosophy, or somewhere else? Physicists and philosophers have set themselves up into two camps: those who believe there is genuine flow or becoming in the world and those who believe there is just a block of events. What had not been considered is whether the subjective feeling of flow of time is the same the world over, whether it could be tampered with by brain injury, or whether it is present at all developmen…Read more
  •  17
    Recent philosophical work on temporal experience offers generic models that are often assumed to apply to all sensory modalities. I show that the models serve as broad frameworks in which different aspects of cognitive science can be slotted and, thus, are beneficial to furthering research programs in embodied music cognition. Here I discuss a particular feature of temporal experience that plays a key role in such philosophical work: a distinction between the experience of succession and the mer…Read more
  •  27
    A Conceptual Analysis of Julian Barbour's Time
    Dissertation, University of Leeds. 2012.
    One of Julian Barbour’s main aims is to solve the problem of time that appears in quantum geometrodynamics (QG). QG involves the application of canonical quantization procedure to the Hamiltonian formulation of General Relativity. The problem of time arises because the quantization of the Hamiltonian constraint results in an equation that has no explicit time parameter. Thus, it appears that the resulting equation, as apparently timeless, cannot describe evolution of quantum states. Barbour atte…Read more
  •  153
    This paper has two aims. First, to bring together the models of temporal phenomenology on offer and to present these using a consistent set of distinctions and terminologies. Second, to examine the methodologies currently practiced in the development of these models. To that end we present an abstract characterisation in which we catalogue all extant models. We then argue that neither of the two extreme methodologies currently discussed is suitable to the task of developing a model of temporal p…Read more
  •  910
    Cognitive science has recently made some startling discoveries about temporal experience, and these discoveries have been drafted into philosophical service. We survey recent appeals to cognitive science in the philosophical debate over whether time objectively passes. Since this research is currently in its infancy, we identify some directions for future research