Lothar Spillmann

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Lothar Spillmann (born April 11, 1938 in Münsterberg , Silesia ) is a German perceptual psychologist and neuroscientist .

Life

Spillmann studied philosophy at the University of Würzburg (1958–1959), psychology and genetics at the University of Münster (1959–1962) and physiology at the University of Freiburg (1962–1964). There he was particularly influenced by the neurologist Richard Jung , whom he admired , and there he received his Ph.D. in 1964 with a thesis on the field organization of visual perception in humans. PhD. This was followed by research stays at the Department of Psychology at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge (Massachusetts) (1964–1966) and at the Department of Retina Research at the Retina Foundation in Boston (1966–1970). He then worked as a clinical assistant at the Massachusetts Eye and Ear Clinic at Harvard Medical School in Boston. From 1971 to 1994 he headed the psychophysical laboratory of the Neurological Clinic at the University of Freiburg. In 1978 he completed his habilitation. From 1994 to 1998 he was a lecturer at the Institute for Biophysics and Radiation Biology at the University of Freiburg, and in 1998 he was appointed to a professorship at the Institute for Anatomy at the University of Freiburg (brain research group), which he held until his retirement in 2005. His research was funded in several special research areas (SFBs) of the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschft , from 1970 to 1985 in Richard Jung's SFB 70 Brain Research and Sensory Physiology , then in the SFB 325 Modulation and Learning Processes founded by Michael Frotscher , Klaus Starke and Burkhart Fischer (1943-2014) in neuronal systems .

In 1999 he was visiting professor at the Université Louis Pasteur in Strasbourg , in 2006 at the Department of Ophthalmology & Visual Science at the University of California , from 2009 to 2012 at the Graduate Institute for Neural and Cognitive Sciences at the China Medical University in Taichung (Taiwan). In 2012 he was "Harris Distinguished Visiting Professor" at the Department of Psychology and Brain Sciences at Dartmouth College in Hanover (USA), and in 2013 as part of the Teaching Exchange Fellowship at the Department of Psychology at the University of Hong Kong .

Spillmann's main research areas in the field of perceptual psychology and neuroscience are the neurophysiological correlates of visual perception , visual illusions , light / dark adaptation , color perception , the organization of the field of perception and figure-ground perception . In 2003 he discovered the water color effect with Baingo Pinna and John S. Werner . In 2005, based on his decades of experience, he published a review and outlook on the "Situation of Psychophysical Vision Research in Germany". Spillmann, who studied under Wolfgang Metzger and did his doctorate, is a profound expert on gestalt theory , to which he has made a number of independent contributions. He is a member of the Advisory Board of the international multidisciplinary journal Gestalt Theory and in recent years has ensured the publication of English translations of important gestalt psychological foundations in perceptual psychology, Wolfgang Metzger's Laws of Seeing and Max Wertheimer's Experimental Studies on Seeing Movement ( 1912) / Experimental Studies On Seeing Motion and Investigations on the Doctrine of Gestalt (1923) / Investigations On Gestalt Principles .

Selected publications

Books (editor and co-author)
  • with BR Wooten (Ed.): Sensory Experience, Adaptation and Perception. Festschrift for Ivo Kohler. Erlbaum, Hilldale, NJ 1984, ISBN 1-134-92106-3 .
  • with JS Werner (Ed.): Visual Perception: The Neurophysiological Foundations . Academic Press, NY, 1990, ISBN 0-12-657676-9 .
  • with P. Bressan (Ed.): Contextual Effects on Color Appearance . Perception, 2 Special Issues, 1997.
  • with S. Lehar, M. Stromeyer and M. Wertheimer: Laws of Seeing. Translation of W. Metzger's Laws of Sight . MIT Press, Cambridge 2006, ISBN 0-262-51336-6 .
  • as editor: Max Wertheimer. On Perceived Motion and Figural Organization . MIT Press, Cambridge, MA 2012, ISBN 978-0-262-01746-6 .
Book chapters (from 1996)
  • with Walter H. Ehrenstein : From Neuron to Gestalt - Mechanisms of Visual Perception. In: R. Greger, U. Windhorst (Ed.): Comprehensive Human Physiology. Springer-Verlag, Heidelberg 1996, pp. 861-893.
  • with H. Knau: Failure of brightness and color constancy under prolonged Ganzfeld stimulation. In: SPIE Proceedings. Volume 2657, April 22, 1996, pp. 19-29.
  • How the brain sees. In: Experimental and theoretical brain research. Freiburg University Gazette. Issue 134, 1996, pp. 9-47.
  • The rotating dandelion: A new entoptic phenomenon? In: V. Lakshminarayanan (Ed.): Basic and Clinical Applications of Vision Science . Kluwer Academic Publ., Dordrecht 1997, pp. 119-121.
  • with P. DeWeerd: Mechanisms of surface completion: Perceptual filling-in of texture. In: L. Pessoa, P. DeWeerd (Eds.): Filling-in: From Perceptual Completion to Cortical Reorganization . Oxford University Press, Oxford 2003, pp. 81-105.
  • with JS Werner: Floyd Ratliff: The neural foundations of perception. In: G. Kimble, M. Wertheimer (Eds.): Portraits of Pioneers in Psychology. Volume 5, L. Erlbaum, Mahwah, NJ 2003, pp. 333-343.
  • with WH Ehrenstein: Gestalt factors in the visual neurosciences. In: L. Chalupa, JS Werner (Ed.): The Visual Neurosciences . MIT-Press, Cambridge, MA 2004, pp. 1573-1589.
  • with B. Pinna and JS Werner: Shape-from-watercolor in perception and old maps. In: MRM Jenkin, LR Harris (Ed.): Seeing Spatial Form . Oxford University Press, Oxford 2005, pp. 153-164.
  • From perceptive fields to Gestalt. In: S. Martinez-Conde, S. Macknik, L. Martinez, J.-M. Alonso, P. Tse (Ed.): Visual Perception II, Fundamentals of Awareness, Multi-Sensory Integration and Higher Order Perception . (= Progress in Brain Research. Volume 155). Elsevier, Amsterdam 2006, pp. 67-92.
  • with WH Ehrenstein and Viktor Sarris: Gestalt issues in modern neuroscience. 2003. (PDF; 323 kB)
  • Early design ideas in the work of Theodor Waitz, Johann Friedrich Herbart and Ernst Mach. 2015. (PDF; 240 kB)
  • Gestalt Psychology Alive in Taiwan. 2010. (PDF; 217 kB)

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ on this and the following information cf. Spillmann's CV , accessed July 2, 2015.
  2. ↑ L. Spillmann: On the situation of psychophysical research in Germany. Review - Outlook. In: Gestalt Theory. 27 (2), 2005, pp. 125-154.
  3. ^ John S. Werner, Walter H. Ehrenstein : Laudation to Lothar Spillmann on the Occasion of his 70th Birthday. In: Gestalt Theory. Volume 30, No. 1, 2008.
personal data
SURNAME Spillmann, Lothar
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German perceptual psychologist and neuroscientist
DATE OF BIRTH April 11, 1938
PLACE OF BIRTH Münsterberg , Silesia