Dr. Yonas' research deals with the development of visual perception of the layout of the environment. This work attempts to isolate information for depth to test the hypothesis that different depth cues develop in a time locked fashion.  In collaboration with researchers in Japan, his group is also exploring the ability to form an abstract representation of object shape that will transfer across these depth cues.

Yonas' research group is investigating developmental prosopagnosia, the inability to recognize faces, in children. Measures that will capture individual differences in visual recognition skills for faces, objects, places, emotions, and other visual properties are being developed.

He is also working to use research on how infants detect impending collision to improve the design of lighting on snowplows to increase driving safety. 

Selected Publications

1. Batterson, V. G., Rose, S. A., Yonas, A., Grant, K. S., Sackett, G. P. (2008).  The effect of experience on the development of tactual-visual transfer in pigtailed macaque monkeys.  Developmental Psychobiology, 50, 88-96.

2. Yonas, A. (2008) A personal view of James Gibson’s approach to perception. Cognitive Critique, 1, 31-41.

3. Kavšek, M., Granrud, C.E. & Yonas, A. (2009). Infants’ responsiveness to pictorial depth cues in preferential-reaching studies: A meta-analysis. Infant Behavior and Development, 32, 245-253.

4. Tsuruhara, A., Sawada, T., Kanazawa, S., Yamaguchi, M.K., & Yonas, A.  (2009). Infant’s ability to form a common representation of an object’s shape from different pictorial depth cues: A transfer-across-cues study. Infant Behavior and Development, 32, 468–475

5. Hemker, L., Granrud, C.E., Yonas, A., & Kavsek, M. (2010). Infant perception of surface texture and relative height as distance information: A preferential-reaching study.  Infancy, 15, 6-27.

6. Yonas, A., Corrow, S., Chatterjee, G., & Nakayama, K. (2010) Psychophysics of face processing in childhood: A developmental perspective. Journal of Vision, 10(7): 577; http://www.journalofvision.org/content/10/7.toc   doi:10.1167/10.7.577.

7. Willemsen, P., Olsen, M., Erickson, S., & Yonas, A. (2010) Improving Driver Ability to Avoid Collisions when Following a Snowplow.  Journal of Vision, 10(7): 812; http://www.journalofvision.org/content/10/7.toc   doi:10.1167/10.7.812.

8. Nawrot, E., Nawrot, M., & Yonas, A. (2010) Smooth Pursuit Eye Movements and Depth from Motion Parallax in Infancy. Journal of Vision, 10(7): 471; http://www.journalofvision.org/content/10/7.toc   doi:10.1167/10.7.471.

9. Corrow, S., Yonas, A. & Granrud, C. (2010) The Convexity Assumption: Infants use Knowledge of Objects to Interpret Static Monocular Information by 5 Months. Journal of Vision, 10(7): 497; http://www.journalofvision.org/content/10/7.toc   doi:10.1167/10.7.497.

10. Tsuruhara, A., Sawada, T., Kanazawa, S., Yamaguchi, M.K., Corrow, S., and Yonas, A. (2010) The development of the ability of infants to utilize static cues to create and access representations of object shape.  Journal of Vision, 10, 1-11. http://www.journalofvision.org/content/10/12/2