John Kevin O'Regan is an English psychologist. He is ex-director of the "Laboratoire de Psychologie de la Perception" at the

Université René Descartes Paris Descartes University (), also known as Paris V, was a French public university located in Paris. It was one of the inheritors of the historic University of Paris, which was split into 13 universities in 1970. Paris Descartes completely merg ...

, Paris 5 (

CNRS The French National Centre for Scientific Research (, , CNRS) is the French state research organisation and is the largest fundamental science agency in Europe. In 2016, it employed 31,637 staff, including 11,137 tenured researchers, 13,415 eng ...

). He was the last director of the "Laboratoire de Psychologie Expérimentale" (Laboratory of Experimental Psychology) before its dissolution in 2006.

Work

After studying theoretical physics at the

University of Sussex The University of Sussex is a public university, public research university, research university located in Falmer, East Sussex, England. It lies mostly within the city boundaries of Brighton and Hove. Its large campus site is surrounded by the ...

and the

University of Cambridge The University of Cambridge is a Public university, public collegiate university, collegiate research university in Cambridge, England. Founded in 1209, the University of Cambridge is the List of oldest universities in continuous operation, wo ...

, O'Regan moved to Paris in 1975 to work in

experimental psychology Experimental psychology is the work done by those who apply Experiment, experimental methods to psychological study and the underlying processes. Experimental psychologists employ Research participant, human participants and Animal testing, anim ...

at the Centre National de Recherche Scientifique (

). Following his Ph.D. on eye movements in reading he showed the existence of an optimal position for the eye to fixate in images and words. His interest in the problem of the perceived stability of the visual world led him to question established notions of the nature of

visual perception Visual perception is the ability to detect light and use it to form an image of the surrounding Biophysical environment, environment. Photodetection without image formation is classified as ''light sensing''. In most vertebrates, visual percept ...

, and to discover, with collaborators, the phenomenon of

change blindness Change blindness is a perceptual phenomenon that occurs when a change in a visual stimulus is introduced and the observer does not notice it. For example, observers often fail to notice major differences introduced into an image while it flickers ...

. His current work, described in his book ''Why Red Doesn't Sound Like a Bell: Explaining the Feel of Consciousness'' (2011), involves exploring the empirical consequences of a new sensorimotor approach to vision and sensation in general. He is particularly interested in the problem of the nature of

phenomenal consciousness Consciousness, at its simplest, is awareness of a state or object, either internal to oneself or in one's external environment. However, its nature has led to millennia of analyses, explanations, and debate among philosophers, scientists, an ...

, which he addresses experimentally in relation to

sensory substitution Sensory substitution is a change of the characteristics of one sensory modality into stimuli of another sensory modality. A sensory substitution system consists of three parts: a sensor, a coupling system, and a stimulator. The sensor records stimu ...

, and theoretically in relation to color perception. He is interested in applying this work to

robotics Robotics is the interdisciplinary study and practice of the design, construction, operation, and use of robots. Within mechanical engineering, robotics is the design and construction of the physical structures of robots, while in computer s ...

. His work about phenomenal states exemplifying conscious conception of themselves has been used within R.A.Wilson externalist framework to ongoing research and debate within the study of consciousness ( Boundaries of the Mind: The Individual in the Fragile Sciences, , introducing the clunky acronym TESEE: Temporally Extended, Scaffolded, and Embodied and Embedded).

Bibliography

*''Why Red Doesn't Sound Like a Bell: Explaining the Feel of Consciousness'', Oxford University Press, (June, 2011),

References

Kevin O'Regan, CURRICULUM VITAE

External links

Web SiteChange Blindness Demonstrations
{{DEFAULTSORT:Oregan, J. Kevin English psychologists Academic staff of the University of Paris Living people Year of birth missing (living people) Research directors of the French National Centre for Scientific Research

Work

See also

Bibliography

References

External links