John I. Yellott, Jr.  (949)-824-7278 jyellott@uci.edu Ph.D. Stanford University, 1966 (Psychology). Fellow, Association for Psychological Science, Optical Society of America. Founding Chair, UCI Cognitive Sciences Department 1986-1991, Chair 1996-99.

I've worked on a variety of topics, including retinal anatomy (representative publications 21,24) , texture perception (44), depth perception (20), image processing (35), learning (5), reaction time (9), and choice and ranking (14,45). Currently I am studying the possibility of creating visual stimuli that are pre-corrected for the spatial phase distortions ("spurious resolution") that occur in retinal images when a human eye is out of focus--e.g., when a person who needs reading glasses tries to read without them. Phase-correcting defocused images computationally shows that reversing spurious resolution can have a decisive effect on text legibility. In principle such improvements could be achieved in human vision by pre-shaping text on the page in such a way that subsequent optical defocus by a presbyopic eye will automatically restore blurred letters to their proper shapes. I am working on the mathematical theory that explains this improvement and establishes its quantitative parameters. The theory that has emerged provides a complete account of deblurring defocused images by phase correction, making its practical benefits and limitations understandable in geometrical terms.

Publications

(2) Probability matching. Psychometrika, l966, 31, 43-69. (M. F. Norman and Yellott).

(3) Influence of correlated visual cues on auditory signal detection. Perception and Psychophysics, l966, 1, 67-73. (R. A. Kinchla, J. Townsend, Yellott and R. C. Atkinson).

(4) Correction for guessing in choice reaction time. Psychonomic Science, 1967, 8, 321-322.

(5) Probability learning with noncontingent success. Journal of Mathematical Psychology, 1969, 6, 541-575.

(6) Second choices in a visual span of apprehension task. Perception and Psychophysics, 1970, 7, 57-62. (Yellott and P. Curnow).

(7) A cueing technique in choice reaction time. Perception and Psychophysics, 1970, 1, 57-62. (D. LaBerge, P. Van Gelder, and J. Yellott).

(8) Upgrading the cookbook. (Review of Gelbaum and March: Mathematics for the Social and Behavioral Sciences), Contempory Psychology 1970.

(9) Correction for fast guessing and the speed-accuracy tradeoff in choice reaction time. Journal of Mathematical Psychology, 1971, 8, 2, 159-199.

(10) What's nu in math psych? (Review of Coombs, Dawes and Tversky: Mathematical Psychology and Restle and Greeno: Introduction to Mathemtical Psychology). Contempory Psychology 1970.

(11) Review of B. Julesz: Foundations of Cyclopian Perception. Behavioral Science 1972.

(12) Color properties of the contrast flash effect: monoptic vs dichoptic comparisons. Vision Research, 1976, 16, 1275-1280 (Yellott and B. Wandell).

(13) Problem P159. Aeq. Mathematica, 1976 14, 228 (J. Aczel and Yellott).

(14) The relationship between Luce's choice axiom, Thurstone's theory of comparative judgment, and the double exponential distribution. Journal of Mathematical Psychology, 1977, 15, 2, 109-144.

(15) On a functional equation related to Thurstone models. Journal of Mathematical Psychology, 1978, 17, 3, 266-270.

(16) Translation of "L'equivalence des modeles du Thurstone" by Z. Mosner, Journal of Mathematical Psychology, 1978, 17, 3, 263-265.

(17) A note on equivalent Thurstone models. Journal of Mathematical Psychology, 1979, 19, 65-71. (C. Rockwell and Yellott).

(18) Depth inversion despite stereopsis: the appearance of random dot stereograms on surfaces seen in reverse perspective. Perception, 1979, 8, 135-142. (Yellott and J. Kaiwi).

(19) Generalized Thurstone models for ranking: Equivalence and reversibility. Journal of Mathematical Psychology, 1980, 22, 1, 48-69.

(20) Binocular depth inversion. Scientific American, 245, 1, July l98l.

(21) Spectral analysis of spatial sampling by photoreceptors: Topological disorder prevents aliasing. Vision Research, 1982, 22, 1205-1210.

(22) Spectral analysis of spatial sampling by photoreceptors. Investigative Ophthalmology and Visual Science, 1982, 22, No. 3, p. 78. (abstract).

(23) Review of T. Caelli: Visual Perception, Journal of Mathematical Psychology, 1982, 25, 2-6 (Yellott and A. Ahumada).

(24) Spectral consequences of photoreceptor sampling in the rhesus retina. Science, 1983, 221, 382-385.

(25) Reduction of display artifacts by random sampling. Proceedings of the SPIE, 1983, 432, 216-221: Applications of Digital Image Processing. (Ahumada, Nagel, Watson and Yellott).

(26) Nonhomogeneous Poisson disks model the photoreceptor mosaic. Investigative Ophthalmology and Visual Science, 1983, 24, No. 3, p. 145. (abstract).

(27) The Beginnings of Visual Perception: The Retinal Image and Its Initial Encoding. Handbook of Physiology, Section 1: The Nervous System, Vol. III, Part 2. I. Darian-Smith, Ed., Am. Physiological Society Publisher, 1984. (Yellott, B. Wandell, and T. Cornsweet).

(28) Image sampling properties of photoreceptors: a reply to Miller and Bernard. Vision Research, 1984, 24, 281-282.

(29) Mach bands without inhibition. Investigative Ophthalmology and Visual Science, 1984, 25, No. 3, p. 53 (T. Cornsweet and J. Yellott). (abstract).

(30) Teaching learning theory. (Review of T. Wickens: Models for Behavior.) Contemporary Psychology, 1984, 29, 486-487. (Yellott and C. Lofgren)

(31) Intensity dependent spatial summation. Journal of the Optical Society of America - A, 1985, 2, 1769-1786 (T. Cornsweet and Yellott).

(32) Intensity dependent spatial summation and lateral inhibition. Investigative Ophthalmology and Visual Science, 1985, 26, No. 3, p. 138 (Yellott, T. Cornsweet, and S. Reuman) (abstract).

(33) A model for foveal photoreceptor placement. Investigative Ophthalmology and Visual Science, 1985, 26, No. 3, p. 11 (A. Ahumada and Yellott) (abstract).

(34) Intensity dependent spatial summation and photon noise. Investigative Ophthalmology and Visual Science, 1986, 27, No. 3, p. 342 (Yellott, S. Reuman, K. Schindler) (abstract).

(35) Photon noise and constant volume operators. Journal of the Optical Society of America - A, 1987, 4, No. 12, 2418-2446.

(36) Consequences of spatially irregular sampling for reconstruction of photon noisy images, Investigative Ophthalmology and Visual Science, 1987, 28, No.3, (abstract).

(37) A connectionist model for learning receptor positions. Investigative Ophthalmology and Visual Science, 1988, 29, p.58 (A. Ahumada and Yellott) (abstract).

(38) Constant volume operators and lateral inhibition. J. Mathematical Psychology. 1989, 33, No. 1, 1-35.

(39) Reconstructing irregularly sampled images by neural networks in Human Vision, Visual Processing, and Digital Display, B. Rogowitz, Ed. Proc. SPIE, 1989, Vol. 1077, 228-235. (A. Ahumada and Yellott).

(40) The photoreceptor mosaic as an image sampling device. In Advances in Photoreception: Proceedings of a Symposium on Frontiers of Visual Science, National Academy Press, Washington, 1990.

(41) Triple correlation and texture discrimination. Investigative Ophthalmology and Visual Science, 1990, 31, no. 4, p. 561. (Yellott and G. Iverson) (abstract).

(42) Triple correlation and texture discrimination. In From Learning Theory to Connectionism: Essays in Honor of William K. Estes, S. Kosslyn, A. Healy, and R. Shiffren, Eds., Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, 1992.

(43) Uniqueness properties of higher-order autocorrelation functions. Journal of the Optical Society of America A, 1992, 5, 388-404. (Yellott and G. Iverson).

(44) Implications of triple correlation uniqueness for texture statistics and the Julesz conjecture. Journal of the Optical Society of America A, 1993, 5, 777-793.

(45) Preference models and irreversibility. In Choice, Decision, and Measurement: Essays in Honor of R. Duncan Luce, A.A.J. Marley (Ed.), Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, 1997.

(46) Every discrete finite image is uniquely determined by its dipole histogram. (C.F. Chubb and Yellott), Vision Research, 2000, 40, 485-492.

(47) Luce's Choice Axiom. In the International Encyclopedia of the Social and Behavioral Sciences, N.J. Smelser and P.B. Bates (Eds.), Pergamon, 2001

(48) Dipole statistics of discrete finite images: two visually motivated representation theorems. (C.F. Chubb and Yellott) J. Opt. Soc. Am. A, 19 (5), 825 - 832, 2002.

(49) Correcting spurious resolution. Journal of Vision, 5(12), 97a, 2005 (abstract).