UCLA Neuroscience Program Ph.D. Admissions Neuroscience Faculty UCLA and Beyond  



Zili Liu
How People See and Why They See The Way They Do?

Email Address:  zili at psych.ucla.edu
Home Page: http://www.psych.ucla.edu/Faculty/Liu/ Home Page: http://zililab.psych.ucla.edu/research.htm Home Page: http://www.ruralchina.org/

Work Address:
7619 Franz Hall
7425 Franz Hall
Phone Numbers:
310.206.5895 Fax
Phone Numbers:
310.267.4683 Office (ext. 0#)

Selected Publications:

Lu, H. Liu, Z. When a never-seen but less-occluded image is better recognized: Evidence from old–new memory experiments. Journal of Vision. 2008; 8(7(31)): 1-9.
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Zhou, J Gotch, C Zhou, Y Liu, Z Perceiving an object in its context -- is the context cultural or perceptual?. Journal of Vision. 2008; 8(12(2)): 1-5.
Zhou, J Tjan, B S Zhou, Y Liu, Z Better discrimination for illusory than for occluded perceptual completions. Journal of Vision. 2008; 8(7(26)): 1-17.
Huang X, Lu H, Tjan BS, Zhou Y, Liu Z Motion perceptual learning: When only task-relevant information is learned. Journal of Vision. 2007; 7(10:14): 1-10.
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Lu, H. Liu, Z. Computing dynamic classification images from correlation maps. Journal of Vision [electronic resource]. 2006; 6: 475 -- 483.
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Lu H, Zavagno D, Liu Z. "The glare effect does not give rise to a longer lasting afterimage". Perception 2006; 35: 701 -- 707.
Rokers B, Yuille A, Liu Z. The perception of a stereokinetic stimulus. Vision Research 2006; 46: 2375 -- 2387.
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Hou F, Lu H, Zhou Y, Liu Z. "Amodal completion impairs stereo acuity discrimination". Vision Research 2006; 46: 2061-2068.
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Thompson B, Liu Z. Learning motion discrimination with suppressed and unsuppressed MT. Vision Research 2006; 46: 2110-2121.
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Lu H, Tjan B S, Liu Z. "Shape recognition alters sensitivity in stereoscopic depth discrimination". Journal of Vision [electronic resource]. 2006; 6: 75--86.
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Tjan, B S Liu, Z. Symmetry impedes symmetry discrimination. Journal of vision [electronic resource]. 2005; 5(10): 888-900.
Lu, H Qian, N Liu, Z Learning motion discrimination with suppressed MT. Vision research. . 2004; 44(15): 1817-25.
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Rokers B, Liu Z. "On the minimal relative motion principle -- lateral displacement of a contracting bar". Journal of Mathematical Psychology 2004; 48(4): 292-295.
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Liu Z. "On the principle of minimal relative motion -- the oscillating tilted bar". Journal of Mathematical Psychology. 2004; 48: 196-198.
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Liu, Z Kersten, D Three-dimensional symmetric shapes are discriminated more efficiently than asymmetric ones. Journal of the Optical Society of America. A, Optics, image science, and vision. 2003; 20(7): 1331-40.
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Liu Z. "On the principle of minimal relative motion -- the bar, the circle with a dot, and the ellipse". Journal of Vision [electronic resource]. 2003; 3: 625--629.
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Matthews N, Liu Z, Qian N. "The effect of orientation learning on contrast sensitivity". Vision Research. 2001; 41: 463-471.
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Liu, Z Weinshall, D Mechanisms of generalization in perceptual learning. Vision research. 2000; 40(1): 97-109.
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Liu, Z Kersten, D Knill, DC Dissociating stimulus information from internal representation--a case study in object recognition. Vision research. 1999; 39(3): 603-12.
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Liu Z. "Learning a visual skill that generalizes across". Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences USA. 1999; 96: 14085-14087.
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Matthews N, Liu Z, Geesaman B J, Qian N. "Perceptual learning on orientation and direction discrimination". Vision Research. 1999; 39: 3692-3701.
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Liu, Z Jacobs, DW Basri, R The role of convexity in perceptual completion: beyond good continuation. Vision research. . 1999; 39(25): 4244-57.
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Liu, Z Kersten, D 2D observers for human 3D object recognition?. Vision research. . 1998; 38(15-16): 2507-19.
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Liu, Z Vaina, LM Simultaneous learning of motion discrimination in two directions. Brain research. Cognitive brain research. 1998; 6(4): 347-9.
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Liu, Z Viewpoint dependency in object representation and recognition. Spatial vision. 1996; 9(4): 491-521.
Liu, Z Knill, DC Kersten, D Object classification for human and ideal observers. Vision research. 1995; 35(4): 549-68.
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Zhang, S. W. Wang, X. Liu, Z. Srinivasan, M V. Visual tracking of moving targets by freely flying honeybees. Visual neuroscience. 1990; 4(4): 379-86.
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Research Interest:

The question that interests us most is: how does our visually perceived world differ from the physical world? Obviously our visual representation of the world is not a replica, but reflects our unique evolutionary and ecological needs. We selectively amplify certain details and ignore others, and increase our sensitivity to those deemed important via practice (perceptual learning). We organize these important visual details into categories (e.g., objects) and encode them into memory in specific ways so that we can recognize objects effortlessly (object recognition). These organized categories, in turn, impose on our senses so that we perceive the world in a regular, coherent, and stable manner (perceptual organization). Indeed, the nature of our memory representations is one of the most important questions in brain science, and it is this question that has been our main research interest.