James R. Pomerantz is an American cognitive psychologist specializing in human visual perception and attention. He is Professor Emeritus of Psychological Sciences at Rice University in Houston, Texas.
Education Pomerantz earned a Bachelor of Arts degree with distinction and high honors in psychology from the University of Michigan in 1968. He went on to complete his Ph.D. in psychology at Yale University in 1974. He later received an M.A. ad eundem from Brown University in 1996.
Career Pomerantz began teaching at Yale in 1973 before joining Johns Hopkins University as an assistant professor of psychology in 1974. In 1977, he was appointed associate professor at the University at Buffalo, later becoming full professor. In 1988, Pomerantz joined Rice University as the Elma W. Schneider Professor of Psychology and Dean of Rice University School of Social Sciences. In 1995, he was appointed Provost and Professor of Cognitive and Linguistic Sciences at Brown University, where he also served as Acting President from 1997 to 1998. He returned to Rice University in 2000 as Professor of Psychological Sciences, where he also served as founding director of the Neuroscience Program (2000–2006). He retired in 2021 and is now Professor Emeritus.
Research work Pomerantz’s research focuses on visual perception and cognitive psychology, especially perceptual organization and Gestalt psychology. He has published extensively on emergent features, configural superiority effects, motion perception, attention, texture perception, and visual imagery.
Selected awards and distinctions W. B. Pillsbury Prize, University of Michigan (1968) Fellow, American Psychological Association (Division 3, 1988) Fellow, Association for Psychological Science (1990) Fellow, Society of Experimental Psychologists (2001; Chair of Executive Committee, 2014) Best Illusion of the Year Contest, third prize (2014) Fellow, American Association for the Advancement of Science (2021) Clifford T. Morgan Distinguished Leadership Award, Psychonomic Society (2023)
Selected works Kubovy, M., & Pomerantz, J. R. (Eds.). (1981). Perceptual Organization. Lawrence Erlbaum Associates. Lockhead, G. R., & Pomerantz, J. R. (Eds.). (1991). The Perception of Structure. American Psychological Association. Pomerantz, J. R. (Ed.). (2008). Topics in Integrative Neuroscience: From Cells to Cognition. Cambridge University Press. Gernsbacher, M. A., Pew, R. W., Hough, L. M., & Pomerantz, J. R. (2011). Psychology and the Real World: Essays Illustrating Fundamental Contributions to Society. Worth Publishers. Gernsbacher, M. A., & Pomerantz, J. R. (Eds.). (2015). Psychology and the Real World: Essays Illustrating Fundamental Contributions to Society (2nd ed.). Worth Publishers.
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