Jason Haberman
Areas of expertise
Visual perception and cognition; ensemble perception; face and object perception; attention; social perception; visual psychophysics.
Research interests
My research examines how the visual system efficiently represents a complex world despite fundamental limits on attention and memory. A central focus of my work is ensemble perception—the ability to rapidly extract statistical summaries, such as the average size, orientation, identity, or emotional expression of a group of objects or faces. This process, which operates across the visual system, allows observers to form a coherent impression of a visual scene without representing every individual item in detail.
Teaching interests
My teaching interests include sensation and perception, attention and memory, cognitive neuroscience, and advanced seminars that connect contemporary research in psychology and neuroscience with broader questions about human cognition.
Publications
SELECTED PUBLICATIONS
Tharmaratnam, V., Haberman, J., & Cant, J. S. (2026). Rapid ensemble encoding of average scene features. Journal of Vision, 26(1), Article 3. https://doi.org/10.1167/jov.26.1.3
Suchow, J., McDowell, M., Huang, J., & Haberman, J. (2024). A reflection on faces seen under mirror reversal. Perception, 53(11–12), 763–774. https://doi.org/10.1177/03010066241279606
Haberman, J., & Suresh, S. (2021). Ensemble size judgments account for size constancy. Attention, Perception, & Psychophysics, 83(3), 925–933. https://doi.org/10.3758/s13414-020-02144-6
Alwis, Y., & Haberman, J. M. (2020). Emotional judgments of scenes are influenced by unintentional averaging. Cognitive Research: Principles and Implications, 5, Article 28. https://doi.org/10.1186/s41235-020-00228-3
McDowell, M. G., & Haberman, J. (2019). The frozen effect: Objects in motion are more aesthetically appealing than objects frozen in time. PLOS ONE, 14(5), e0215813. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0215813
Haberman, J. M., & Ulrich, L. (2019). Precise ensemble face representation given incomplete visual input. i-Perception, 10(1), 1–15. https://doi.org/10.1177/2041669518819014
Haberman, J., Brady, T. F., & Alvarez, G. A. (2015). Individual differences in ensemble perception reveal multiple, independent levels of ensemble representation. Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, 144(2), 432–446. https://doi.org/10.1037/xge0000053
Haberman, J., & Whitney, D. (2010). The visual system discounts emotional deviants when extracting average expression. Attention, Perception, & Psychophysics, 72(7), 1825–1838. https://doi.org/10.3758/APP.72.7.1825
Haberman, J., & Whitney, D. (2009). Seeing the mean: Ensemble coding for sets of faces. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception and Performance, 35(3), 718–734. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0013899
Curriculum vitae
Academic Appointments
Postdoctoral Scholar, Harvard University (2010-2015)
Assistant Professor, Rhodes College (2015-2020)
Associate Professor, Rhodes College (2020-2026)