Faculty

Profile

**On leave Spring 2025**

Ben studies the perception of higher-level visual properties.  What causes visual forms and events look more or less alive, emotionally expressive, or aesthetically pleasing?  His research connects these features of visual experience with mental processes which are better understood by psychologists, such as attention, memory, and perceptual organization.  Ben's recent projects have focused on how dynamic visual cues drive the perception of animacy, intentionality, and physical forces, and on the role of visual attention in aesthetic judgments preferences.  Ben has also written about what visual illusions tell us about our mental architecture, and about meta-psychological questions, such as how to best study perceptual states.

Ben directs the NSSR Perception Laboratory. For the latest lab news and projects, please visit: http://www.nssrperception.com/

Degrees Held

Ph.D., Cognitive Psychology (Yale University)

B.A., Cognitive Science, Philosophy (University of Pennsylvania)

Professional Affiliation

Vision Sciences Society

Cognitive Sciences Society

Psychonomics Society

Human Factors & Ergonomics Society

Recent Publications

For a complete list of publications, please visit: https://www.nssrperception.com/publications.html

Nguyen, H. B., and van Buren, B. (2024). Rotating objects cue spatial attention via the perception of frictive surface contact. Cognition, 242, 1-9. PDF

Nguyen, H. B., and van Buren, B. (2023). May the Force be against you: Better visual sensitivity to speed changes opposite to gravity. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception and Performance, 49, 1016-1030. PDF

Ritchie, J. B., and van Buren, B. (2020). When scenes look like Materials: The reversable figure-ground motif in the paintings of René Magritte. Art and Perception, 8, 1-12. PDF

van Buren, B., and Scholl, B. J. (2018). Visual illusions as a tool for dissociating seeing from thinking. Perception, 47, 999-1001. PDF

van Buren, B., and Scholl, B. J. (2017). Minds in motion in memory: Enhanced spatial memory driven by the perceived animacy of simple shapes. Cognition, 163, 87-92. PDF

van Buren, B., Bromberger, B., Potts, D., and Chatterjee, A. (2013). Changes in painting styles of two artists with Alzheimer's disease. Psychology of Aesthetics, Creativity, and the Arts, 7, 89-94. PDF

Research Interests

Perception, Cognition, Event Perception, Perceptual Organization, Aesthetics, Visual Science of Art