Associate Professor John Cass

Associate Professor in Psychological Science,
Psychological Science

Biography
Contact
Publications
Projects
Supervision
Teaching
Media

Biography

Associate Professor Cass is a vision scientist, psychophysicist and cognitive scientist. He researches sensory processing and decision making in order to produce systems that improve performance, productivity and ultimately the lives and wellbeing of those who use them.

While there is no shortage of technologies that aim to help us find our way around or make decisions, most fail to take the limitations of our brains into account when they present us with reams of information.

His research aims to find ways of processing sensory information in a way that is most digestible for the human brain.

"The brain is constantly bombarded with vast amounts of sensory information every second. Yet somehow, we perceive that the world makes sense and is highly organised. I am interested in how the brain achieves this."

One stream of his work involves understanding how the human brain is able to make sense of the infinite combination of sensory events it is exposed to in everyday life. This can involve how we combine information within a given sensory system (for example, vision) or between sensory systems (for example, vision and audition).

Another stream of his research uses virtual and augmented reality technologies to create human-machine systems and interfaces that are optimised to the processing constraints of the human brain, including how cognitive load and stress affect our ability to extract multiple sources of information.

This information has been contributed by Associate Professor Cass.

Qualifications

PhD University of New South Wales

Interests

Visual Perception
Cognitive Science

Organisational Unit (School / Division)

Psychological Science

Contact

Email:	J.Cass@westernsydney.edu.au
Phone:
Mobile:
Location:

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Teaching

Current Teaching Areas

BEHV2010 Perception

Previous Teaching Areas

100013 Experimental Design and Analysis, 2021
101680 Perception, 2011
101680 Perception, 2012
101680 Perception, 2013
101680 Perception, 2014
101680 Perception, 2015
101680 Perception, 2016
101680 Perception, 2017
101680 Perception, 2019
101680 Perception, 2020
101680 Perception, 2021
101684 Brain and Behaviour, 2011
101684 Brain and Behaviour, 2012
101684 Brain and Behaviour, 2013
101684 Brain and Behaviour, 2014
101684 Brain and Behaviour, 2015
101684 Brain and Behaviour, 2016
101684 Brain and Behaviour, 2017
101684 Brain and Behaviour, 2018
101684 Brain and Behaviour, 2019
101684 Brain and Behaviour, 2020
BEHV2010 Perception, 2022
BEHV3007 Cognitive Processes, 2022

Publications

Journal Articles

Cass, J. and Burg, E. (2023), 'Visual crowding : double dissociation between orientation and brightness judgments', Journal of Vision, vol 23, no 5 , pp 1 - 17.
Cass, J., Giltrap, G. and Talbot, D. (2020), 'Female body dissatisfaction and attentional bias to body images evaluated using visual search', Frontiers in Psychology, vol 10 .
Talbot, D., Cass, J. and Smith, E. (2020), 'Male figural rating scales : a critical review of the literature', Behaviour Change, vol 37, no 2 , pp 59 - 73.
Talbot, D., Smith, E., Cass, J. and Griffiths, S. (2019), 'Development and validation of the New Somatomorphic Matrix-Male : a figural rating scale for measuring male actual-ideal body discrepancy', Psychology of Men and Masculinity, vol 20, no 3 , pp 356 - 367.
Cass, J. and Van der Burg, E. (2019), 'Dynamic distractor environments reveal classic visual field anisotropies for judgments of temporal order', Attention, Perception and Psychophysics, vol 81, no 3 , pp 738 - 751.
Talbot, D., Smith, E. and Cass, J. (2019), 'The relationship between psychophysical body categorization performance and male body dissatisfaction', Scientific Reports, vol 9 .
Talbot, D., Cass, J. and Smith, E. (2019), 'Visual Body Scale for Men (VBS) : validation of a new figural rating scale to measure perceived-desired body discrepancy in men', Journal of Clinical Psychology, vol 75, no 3 , pp 462 - 480.
Talbot, D., Smith, E. and Cass, J. (2019), 'Male body dissatisfaction, eating disorder symptoms, body composition, and attentional bias to body stimuli evaluated using visual search', Journal of Experimental Psychopathology, vol 10, no 2 .
Burg, E., Cass, J. and Theeuwes, J. (2019), 'Changes (but not differences) in motion direction fail to capture attention', Vision Research, vol 165 , pp 54 - 63.
Burg, E., Alais, D. and Cass, J. (2018), 'Rapid recalibration to audiovisual asynchrony follows the physical - not the perceived - temporal order', Attention, Perception and Psychophysics, vol 80, no 6 , pp 2060 - 2068.
Burg, E., Olivers, C. and Cass, J. (2017), 'Evolving the keys to visual crowding', Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception and Performance, vol 43, no 4 , pp 690 - 699.
Apthord, D., Griffin, S., Alais, D. and Cass, J. (2017), 'Adaptation-induced blindness is orientation-tuned and monocular', i-Perception, vol 8, no 2 .
Talbot, D., Burg, E. and Cass, J. (2017), 'Stereoscopic segmentation cues improve visual timing performance in spatiotemporally cluttered environments', i-Perception, vol 8, no 2 .
Burg, E., Cass, J., Theeuwes, J. and Alais, D. (2015), 'Evolving the stimulus to fit the brain : a genetic algorithm reveals the brain's feature priorities in visual search', Journal of Vision, vol 15, no 2 .
Cass, J., Oake, D. and Burg, E. (2015), 'Stretching time : relativistic lag-induced shifts in perceived audiovisual synchrony using cluttered displays', Journal of Vision, vol 15, no 11 .
Burg, E., Alais, D. and Cass, J. (2015), 'Audiovisual temporal recalibration occurs independently at two different time scales', Scientific Reports, vol 5 .
Burg, E., Cass, J. and Alais, D. (2014), 'Window of audio-visual simultaneity is unaffected by spatio-temporal visual clutter', Scientific Reports, vol 4 .
Cass, J. and Burg, E. (2014), 'Remote temporal camouflage : contextual flicker disrupts perceived visual temporal order', Vision Research, vol 103 , pp 92 - 100.
Burg, E., Alais, D. and Cass, J. (2013), 'Rapid recalibration to audiovisual asynchrony', Journal of Neuroscience, vol 33, no 37 , pp 14633 - 14637.
Baker, D. and Cass, J. (2013), 'A dissociation of performance and awareness during binocular rivalry', Psychological Science, vol 24, no 12 , pp 2563 - 2568.
Zannoli, M., Cass, J., Mamassian, P. and Alais, D. (2012), 'Synchronized audio-visual transients drive efficient visual search for motion-in-depth', PLoS One, vol 7, no 5 .
Zannoli, M., Cass, J., Alais, D. and Mamassian, P. (2012), 'Disparity-based stereomotion detectors are poorly suited to track 2D motion', Journal of Vision, vol 12, no 11 , pp 1 - 9.
Wardle, S., Bex, P., Cass, J. and Alais, D. (2012), 'Stereoacuity in the periphery is limited by internal noise', Journal of Vision, vol 12, no 6 , pp 1 - 12.
Cass, J., Johnson, A., Bex, P. and Alais, D. (2012), 'Orientation-specificity of adaptation : isotropic adaptation is purely monocular', PLoS One, vol 7, no 11 .
Apthorp, D., Cass, J. and Alais, D. (2011), 'The spatial tuning of "motion streak" mechanisms revealed by masking and adaptation', Journal of Vision, vol 11, no 7 , pp 1 - 16.
Cass, J., Van der Burg, E. and Alais, D. (2011), 'Finding flicker: critical differences in temporal frequency capture attention', Frontiers in Psychology, vol 2, no NOV .
Alais, D., Apthorp, D., Karmann, A. and Cass, J. (2011), 'Temporal integration of movement : the time-course of motion streaks revealed by masking', PLoS One, vol 6, no 12 , pp 1 - 10.
Van Der Burg, E., Cass, J., Olivers, C., Theeuwes, J. and Alais, D. (2010), 'Efficient visual search from synchronized auditory signals requires transient audiovisual events', PLoS One, vol 5, no 5 , pp 1 - 11.
Alais, D. and Cass, J. (2010), 'Multisensory perceptual learning of temporal order : audiovisual learning transfers to vision but not audition', PLoS One, vol 5, no 6 , pp 1 - 9.
Apthorp, D., Cass, J. and Alais, D. (2010), 'Orientation tuning of contrast masking caused by motion streaks', Journal of Vision, vol 10, no 10 , pp 1 - 13.
Dakin, S., Cass, J., Greenwood, J. and Bex, P. (2010), 'Probabilistic, positional averaging predicts object-level crowding effects with letter-like stimuli', Journal of Vision, vol 10, no 10 , pp 1 - 16.
Alais, D., Cass, J., O'Shea, R. and Blake, R. (2010), 'Visual Sensitivity Underlying Changes in Visual Consciousness', Current Biology, vol 20, no 15 , pp 1362 - 1367.
Wardle, S., Cass, J., Brooks, K. and Alais, D. (2010), 'Breaking camouflage : binocular disparity reduces contrast masking in natural images', Journal of Vision, vol 10, no 14 , pp 1 - 12.
Dakin, S., Watt, R., Cass, J. and Bex, P. (2009), 'Dissociable effects of attention and crowding on orientation averaging', Journal of Vision, vol 9, no 11 , pp 1 - 16.
Cass, J., Clifford, C., Alias, D. and Spehar, B. (2009), 'Temporal structure of chromatic channels revealed through masking', Journal of Vision, vol 9, no 5 , pp 1 - 15.
Cass, J., Alais, D., Spehar, B. and Bex, P. (2009), 'Temporal whitening : transient noise perceptually equalizes the 1/f temporal amplitude spectrum', Journal of Vision, vol 9, no 10 .
Stuit, S., Cass, J., Paffen, C. and Alais, D. (2009), 'Orientation-tuned suppression in binocular rivalry reveals general and specific components of rivalry suppression', Journal of Vision, vol 9, no 11 , pp 1 - 15.
Cass, J., Stuit, S., Bex, P. and Alais, D. (2009), 'Orientation bandwidths are invariant across spatiotemporal frequency after isotropic components are removed', Journal of Vision, vol 9, no 12 , pp 1 - 14.
Cass, J. and Alias, D. (2006), 'The mechanisms of collinear integration', Journal of Vision, vol 6, no 9 , pp 915 - 922.
Cass, J. and Alias, D. (2006), 'Evidence for two interacting temporal channels in visual processing', Vision Research, vol 46 , pp 2859 - 2868.
Cass, J. and Spehar, B. (2005), 'Dynamics of iso- and cross-surround facilitation suggest distinct mechanisms', Vision Research, vol 45 , pp 3060 - 3073.
Alias, D., Lorenceau, J., Arrighi, R. and Cass, J. (2005), 'Contour interactions between pairs of Gabors engaged in binocular rivalry reveal a map of the association field', Vision Research, vol 46, no 40794 , pp 1473 - 1487.
Cass, J. and Spehar, B. (2005), 'Dynamics of collinear contrast facilitation are consistent with long-range horizontal striate transmission', Vision Research, vol 45, no 21 , pp 2728 - 2739.
Burke, D., Cieplucha, C., Cass, J., Russell, F. and Fry, G. (2002), 'Win-shift and win-stay learning in short beaked echidna (Tachyglossus aculeatus', Animal Cognition, vol 5 , pp 79 - 84.

Conference Papers

Talbot, D., Smith, E. and Cass, J. (2017), 'An examination of body categorization and sequential dependency of male bodies', Experimental Psychology Conference, Shoal Bay, N.S.W..
Arnold, D., Cass, J. and Alias, D. (2006), 'Mandatory integration of visual and auditory timing cues', 4th Asian Conference on Vision, Matsue, Japan.

Visual perception; multisensory processing; attention; body perception; time perception; spatial vision