When we open our eyes, we don’t see “a blooming, buzzing confusion:” we see tables, chairs, computers, books, and cups. How do we learn to connect incoming patterns of light with our knowledge about all of these objects and the categories they belong to? In other words, how do we learn to derive visual meaning?

These fundamental questions drive research in the Visual Learning Lab at UC San Diego.  We take an ecological approach to this problem by focusing on how learning occurs in everyday, naturalistic contexts. Our work leverages innovations in machine learning to help us both analyze large datasets (e.g., videos taken from the infant perspective or digital drawings made by children, see right) and to construct models of how learning unfolds over time. Learn more on the research page or read recent work.

And click here for more information on joining the lab!