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Dr Ben Wolfe

@benwolfevision.bsky.social

6.2K followers 110 following 11K posts

Assistant Professor Psychological and Brain Sciences University of Toronto Mississauga Co-Director, APPLY Lab (www.applylab.org) Least important mammal in his house (just ask the cats). "If vision worked like *that*, we'd all be dead."

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Dr Ben Wolfe @benwolfevision.bsky.social · Oct 18

Quick intro: I'm a faculty member at UofT in Psychology, sitting somewhere at the intersection of vision science, cognitive psychology and human factors, with strong interests in driver behaviour and digital (screen) readability.

I'm the Least Important Mammal in my house and the cats know it.

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Dr Ben Wolfe @benwolfevision.bsky.social · 17h

This is the best kind of correct.

A white and tabby cat on a blue and white rug rabbit-kicking a plush Stanley cup toy.

He, however, is basic.

Dr Ben Wolfe @benwolfevision.bsky.social · 17h

I LOVE having on-campus specialists to build and repair research equipment. @utm-research.bsky.social, more people should know about the Machine Shop and what they can do!

Dr Ben Wolfe @benwolfevision.bsky.social · 17h

The other meter was our PR-650 (now repaired!); that CS-100 is proving recalcitrant, but we found another one on eBay (works) and a CS-200 (now off with our specialist for an attempt at repair).

Dr Ben Wolfe @benwolfevision.bsky.social · 14d

Well, time to hand it (and a different broken meter) off to our machine shop and their excellent electronics specialist.

Dr Ben Wolfe @benwolfevision.bsky.social · 14d

More vision science questions... we just got a secondhand Minolta CS-100... and anytime we try to take a measurement, we get the E0 (luminance too high) error. Any thoughts?

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Dr Ben Wolfe @benwolfevision.bsky.social · 17h

Even better cryptic t-shirt

“pH 7.4” with no other text

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Dr Ben Wolfe @benwolfevision.bsky.social · 18h

“My blood is basic” feels like it should be a t-shirt that begs questions.

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Dr Ben Wolfe @benwolfevision.bsky.social · 18h

In any given year, there are 3-4 sections of CogPsych... taught by (mostly) adjunct/sessional lecturers. I teach one of them as part of my normal load, and we all teach differently.

Generally, if a grad student or postdoc teaches one, they inherit my slides or a colleague's slides.

Dr Ben Wolfe @benwolfevision.bsky.social · 18h

I find - teaching my ~150 student 2nd year cognitive psych class - that there's a lot to be said for teaching particular variants.

My version of the course isn't my colleague's version (I don't think we need four of eleven lectures on memory...) and that's fun.

Dr Ben Wolfe @benwolfevision.bsky.social · 20h

And yup, Ben's Angry Nostril is back for an encore. Blergh.

Dr Ben Wolfe @benwolfevision.bsky.social · 6d

The weather feels like fall again - it was 3C when we got up this morning - and my nasal allergies have decided they *hate* me today.

The double-action Aerius (a Canadian allergy drug that combines Desloratadine and Pseudoephedrine) is holding things at bay... but only barely

Dr Ben Wolfe @benwolfevision.bsky.social · 21h

It is the FLOOF LORD

Dr Ben Wolfe @benwolfevision.bsky.social · 1d

That's at least a little more unhinged...

(and I realize that your dietary needs preclude some of the more unhinged options one might otherwise go for!)

Dr Ben Wolfe @benwolfevision.bsky.social · 1d

That’s a pretty mild flavour of unhinged…

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Dr Ben Wolfe @benwolfevision.bsky.social · 1d

Silliness is always time well spent!

Dr Ben Wolfe @benwolfevision.bsky.social · 1d

YUP. Reread it last year, and yeah, just a bit dated…

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Dr Ben Wolfe @benwolfevision.bsky.social · 1d

I read it young enough - pre-undergrad - that I remember enjoying it.

It’s also a Cursed Book for me; I used to throw the paperback in my bag for flights, and possessing it guaranteed awful delays. I’ve not reread it in 15+ years, and don’t intend to.

Dr Ben Wolfe @benwolfevision.bsky.social · 1d

What, “protagonist sits on a rock” doesn’t do it for you?

I have a soft spot for the ending of Anathem, which isn’t much of an ending, but by his standards, it is one…

Dr Ben Wolfe @benwolfevision.bsky.social · 1d

Mostly, he seems to be utterly incapable of writing an ending.

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Dr Ben Wolfe @benwolfevision.bsky.social · 1d

Oddly, most shops here clear the holiday candy instantly.

No opportunity for buying unhinged amounts of candy to inflict on friends. I memorably packed a Flat Rate box with very discounted candy corn about 12 years ago to make a friend happy.

Dr Ben Wolfe @benwolfevision.bsky.social · 1d

The Big U is fun, particularly if one reads it whilst living in Warren Towers and is intimately familiar with what he modeled it on

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Dr Ben Wolfe @benwolfevision.bsky.social · 1d

As a result of this, the bags under my eyes would qualify as checked luggage on Air Canada.

It's good that Howl is cute.

Dr Ben Wolfe @benwolfevision.bsky.social · 2d

At least I got Cpt Asshole (Howl) off the bed before the 0600 Thanksgiving Hairball made an appearance.

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Dr Ben Wolfe @benwolfevision.bsky.social · 1d

That's the plan (and the counter space question will change in the near-ish future... @rahaeli.bsky.social can tell you more!)

Dr Ben Wolfe @benwolfevision.bsky.social · 1d

Canadian Thanksgiving... well, we don't need a turkey for two people, that's just silly.

I've still spent much of the afternoon in the kitchen, cursing my lack of counter space relative to my culinary ambitions.

Yeah, I think that'll do for thanksgiving.

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Dr Ben Wolfe @benwolfevision.bsky.social · 1d

Here's the longform version of these thoughts in driving-land:

Toward a Theory of Visual Information Acquisition
in Driving, Wolfe, Sawyer and Rosenholtz 2020

applylab.org

Dr Ben Wolfe @benwolfevision.bsky.social · 1d

In fact, the more I think about this... the more it sounds like how I think about consequential scene perception... or what drivers do behind the wheel, which is most of what I study.

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Dr Ben Wolfe @benwolfevision.bsky.social · 1d

As to the theory… I think we’re in the same general thought-space.

I’ve got an incoming postdoc who is putting fellowships in to study how we do text gist / skimming, so we might get close to this set of questions soon(ish).

Dr Ben Wolfe @benwolfevision.bsky.social · 1d

So, my lab studies readability and gaze behaviour - among other topics in vision science - and this is *absolutely* on the list of "things I would love to do with a high-speed eye tracker some day"