Igor S. Utochkin

Laboratory Head:Laboratory for Cognitive Research
Associate Professor:Faculty of Social Sciences / School of Psychology

Member of the HSE Academic Council

Igor S. Utochkin has been at HSE since 2005.

Education and Degrees

2006
Candidate of Sciences* (PhD) in General Psychology, Psychology of Personality, History of Psychology
2003
Diploma in Psychology
Lomonosov Moscow State University

* Candidate of Sciences
According to the International Standard Classification of Education (ISCED) 2011, Candidate of Sciences belongs to ISCED level 8 - "doctoral or equivalent", together with PhD, DPhil, D.Lit, D.Sc, LL.D, Doctorate or similar. Candidate of Sciences allows its holders to reach the level of the Associate Professor.

Continuing education / Professional retraining / Internships / Study abroad experience

2016, October-December - visiting scholar in Vision and Memory Laboratory, University of California San Diego (La Jolla, CA, USA)

2015, October-December - visiting scholar in Visual Attention Laboratory, Harvard Medical School/Brigham & Women's Hospital (Cambridge/Boston, MA, USA)

Professional Interests

visual attention visual search object and scene perception ensemble summary statistics visual working memory

Awards and Accomplishments

Best Teacher – 2017, 2016, 2015, 2014, 2013

Young Faculty Support Program (Group of Young Academic Professionals)
Category "Future Professoriate" (2015-2016)

Student Term / Thesis Papers

Bachelor
V. Khvostov «The Time Course of Retaining Hierarchical Representations in Visual Working Memory». Faculty of Social Sciences, 2017
Y. Markov «Using the Statistical Mixture Model for Studying Object-Location Binding in Visual Working Memory». Faculty of Social Sciences, 2017
A. Belinskaia «Interplay Between Multiple Object Statistics in the Perception of visual Ensembles». Faculty of Social Sciences, 2016
T. Struchkova «The Dynamics of Complex Stimulus Illusory Disappearance under Motion-involved Blindness». Faculty of Social Sciences, 2016
K. Vostrikov «On a Possibility of Dividing Attention in the Perception of Global (Statistical) Properties of Multiple Objects». Faculty of Social Sciences, 2016
N. Ponomarenko «Effect of Visual Feature Distribution on Ensemble Perseption». Faculty of Social Sciences, 2016
A. Gura «Psychophysical determinants of variety perception.». Faculty of Psychology, 2014
D. Rotar` «Branching or sequential text form as a determinant of trust in the information». Faculty of Psychology, 2014
Master
R. Vakhrushev «Ensemble Perception Under Rapid Serial Visual Presentation». Faculty of Social Sciences, 2016

Full list of of student term / thesis papers

Courses (2017/2018)

Psychology of cognition (Bachelor’s programme; Faculty of Social Sciences; programme "Psychology"; 1 year, 3, 4 module)Rus
Psychology of cognition (Bachelor’s programme; Faculty of Social Sciences; programme "Psychology"; 2 year, 1, 2 module)Eng
Psychology of Sensation, Attention and Perception (Bachelor’s programme; Faculty of Social Sciences; programme "Psychology"; 3 year, 1, 2 module)Rus
Visual Perception and Attention (Master’s programme; Faculty of Social Sciences; programme "Cognitive Sciences and Technologies: From Neuron to Cognition"; 1 year, 4 module)Eng
Past Courses

Courses (2016/2017)

Psychology of cognition (Bachelor’s programme; Faculty of Social Sciences; programme "Psychology"; 1 year, 3, 4 module)Eng
Psychology of cognition (Bachelor’s programme; Faculty of Social Sciences; programme "Psychology"; 2 year, 1, 2 module)Eng
Psychology of Sensation, Perception and Attention (Bachelor’s programme; Faculty of Social Sciences; programme "Psychology"; 3 year, 1, 2 module)Rus
Visual Perception and Attention (Master’s programme; Faculty of Social Sciences; programme "Cognitive Sciences and Technologies: From Neuron to Cognition"; 1 year, 4 module)Eng

Courses (2015/2016)

Psychology of cognition (Bachelor’s programme; Faculty of Social Sciences; programme "Psychology"; 1 year, 3, 4 module)Eng
Psychology of Cognition (Bachelor’s programme; Faculty of Social Sciences; programme "Psychology"; 2 year, 1, 2 module)Eng
Visual Perception and Attention (Master’s programme; Faculty of Social Sciences; programme "Cognitive Sciences and Technologies: From Neuron to Cognition"; 1 year, 3, 4 module)Eng

Courses (2014/2015)

General Psychology (Bachelor’s programme; Faculty of Social Sciences; programme "Psychology"; 2 year, 1-4 module)Rus
Interdisciplinary Examination (Bachelor’s programme; Faculty of Social Sciences; programme "Psychology"; 4 year, 4 module)Rus
Practical Training in Psychology (Bachelor’s programme; Faculty of Social Sciences; programme "Psychology"; 3 year, 1-4 module)Rus
Psychology of Cognition (Bachelor’s programme; Faculty of Social Sciences; programme "Psychology"; 1 year, 3, 4 module)Eng
Psychology of Mistakes and Illusions (Bachelor’s programme; Faculty of Social Sciences; programme "Psychology"; 2 year, 2, 3 module)Rus
Visual Perception and Attention (Master’s programme; Faculty of Social Sciences; programme "Cognitive Sciences and Technologies: From Neuron to Cognition"; 1 year, 3, 4 module)Eng

Courses (2013/2014)

General Psychology (Bachelor’s programme; Faculty of Psychology; 2 year, 1-4 module)Rus
Practical Training in Psychology (Bachelor’s programme; Faculty of Psychology; 3 year, 1-4 module)Rus
Psychology of Mistakes and Illusions (Bachelor’s programme; Faculty of Psychology; 2 year, 2, 3 module)Rus

Courses (2012/2013)

General Psychology (Bachelor’s programme; Faculty of Psychology; 3 year, 1-4 module)Rus
General Psychology (Bachelor’s programme; Faculty of Psychology; 2 year, 1-4 module)Rus
Psychology of Mistakes and Illusions (Bachelor’s programme; Faculty of Psychology; 2 year, 2, 3 module)Rus

Courses (2011/2012)

Practical Training in Psychology (Bachelor’s programme; Faculty of Psychology; 2 year, 2-4 module)Rus
Psychology (Bachelor’s programme; Faculty of Management; 1 year, 1-3 module)Rus
Psychology of Mistakes and Illusions (Bachelor’s programme; Faculty of Psychology; 2 year, 2, 3 module)Rus

Courses (2010/2011)

Experimental Psychology (Bachelor’s programme; Faculty of Psychology; 2 year, 2, 3 module)Rus
General Psychology (Bachelor’s programme; Faculty of Psychology; 2 year, 1-4 module)Rus
Psychology (Bachelor’s programme; Faculty of Management; 2 year, 1, 2 module)Rus

Editorial board membership

2014: Member of the Editorial Board, The Russian Journal of Cognitive Science.

Conferences

2014
Vision Sciences Society 14th Annual Meeting (St. Pete Beach). Presentation: Seeing variety: The determinants of visual representation of variance statistics
Vision Sciences Society 14th Annual Meeting (St. Pete Beach). Presentation: Distractor heterogeneity effects in visual search are mediated by "segmentability"
Vision Sciences Society 14th Annual Meeting (St. Pete Beach). Presentation: The perception of variety in color segmented sets
Vision Sciences Society 14th Annual Meeting (St. Pete Beach). Presentation: Visual size averaging is parallel but depends on the range
2013
Vision Sciences Society, 13th Annual Meeting (Naples). Presentation: Conjunction-guided selection in visual search

Publications

2017³

Article Markov Y., Utochkin I. S. An effect of categorical similarity on object-location binding in visual working memory // Journal of Vision. 2017 doi
Article Zou B., Utochkin I. S., Liu Y., Wolfe J. M. Binocularity and visual search – Revisited // Attention, Perception and Psychophysics. 2017. Vol. 79. No. 2. P. 473-483. doi
Article Utochkin I. S., Vostrikov, Konstantin O. The numerosity and mean size of multiple objects are perceived independently and in parallel // Plos One. 2017 (in print)

2016⁷

Article Utochkin I. S., Yurevich M. Similarity and heterogeneity effects in visual search are mediated by “segmentability” // Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception and Performance. 2016. Vol. 42. No. 7. P. 995-1007. doi
Article Tiurina N., Utochkin I. S. Size averaging is based on distal, not proximal object sizes // Journal of Vision. 2016. No. Vol.16. P. 56-56. doi
Article Markov Y., Utochkin I. S. The compression of bound features in visual short-term memory // Journal of Vision. 2016 doi
Article Utochkin I. S. Visual enumeration of spatially overlapping subsets // The Russian Journal of Cognitive Science. 2016. Vol. 3. No. 1-2. P. 4-20.
Article Уточкин И. С., Юревич М. А., Булатова М. Е. Зрительная рабочая память: методы, исследования, теории // Российский журнал когнитивной науки. 2016. Т. 3. № 4. С. 58-76.
Chapter Тюрина Н. А., Уточкин И. С. Параллельное связывание размера и удаленности множественных объектов при восприятии зрительных ансамблей // В кн.: Седьмая международная конференция по когнитивной науке: Тезисы докладов. Светлогорск, 20–24 июня 2016 г. М. : Институт психологии РАН, 2016. С. 585-586.
Article Фаликман М. В., Уточкин И. С. Сознание и внимание в современной когнитивной науке: от «зрительных ансамблей» до укрупнения перцептивных единиц // Петербургский психологический журнал. 2016. № 17. С. 104-124.

2015²

Article Utochkin I. S. Ensemble summary statistics as a basis for rapid visual categorization // Journal of Vision. 2015. Vol. 15. No. 8. P. 1-14. doi
Chapter Тюрина Н. А., Уточкин И. С. Тезисы доклада "Особенности восприятия зрительных ансамблей в присутствии глубины" // В кн.: Когнитивная наука в Москве: новые исследования. Материалы конференции. Материалы конференции 16 июня 2015 г. Т. 1. М. : Буки Веди, 2015.

2014⁵

Article Yurevich M., Utochkin I. S. Distractor heterogeneity effects in visual search are mediated by "segmentability" // Journal of Vision. 2014. Vol. 14. No. 10
Article Utochkin I. S., Tiurina N. Parallel averaging of size is possible but range-limited: A reply to Marchant, Simons, and De Fockert // Acta Psychologica. 2014. Vol. 146. P. 7-18. doi
Article Gusev A., Mikhailova O. A., Utochkin I. S. Stimulus determinants of the phenomenon of change blindness // Psychology in Russia: State of the Art. 2014. Vol. 7. No. 1. P. 122-134. doi
Chapter Уточкин И. С. Мгновенное восприятие естественных сцен и объектов // В кн.: Когнитивная психология: феномены и проблемы / Сост.: В. Ф. Спиридонов. М. : ЛЕНАНД, 2014. С. 70-85.
Article Тюрина Н. А., Уточкин И. С. Роль глобального и локального сходства признаков в задаче зрительного поиска // Вопросы психологии. 2014. № 4. С. 107-117.

2013⁹

Preprint Utochkin I. S. Conjunctions can guide attention through visual search / NRU Higher School of Economics. Series PSY "Psychology". 2013.
Article Yurevich M., Utochkin I. S. Transition features facilitate visual search in heterogeneous displays // Journal of Vision. 2013. Vol. 13. No. 9
Article Utochkin I. S. Visual search with negative slopes: The statistical power of numerosity guides attention // Journal of Vision. 2013. Vol. 13. No. 3. P. 1-14.
Chapter Уточкин И. С. Алексей Николаевич Гусев: Несколько жизнерадостных уроков психологии // В кн.: Поколения ВШЭ. Ученики об учителях. М. : Издательский дом НИУ ВШЭ, 2013. С. 62-65.
Article Булатова М. Е., Уточкин И. С. Восприятие размера индивидуальных объектов в ансамблях при сфокусированном и распределенном внимании // Психология. Журнал Высшей школы экономики. 2013. Т. 10. № 3. С. 44-53.
Article Уточкин И. С. Вступительное слово // Психология. Журнал Высшей школы экономики. 2013. № 3. С. 41-43.
Chapter Уточкин И. С., Юревич М. А. Гетерогенность, сегментабельность и перцептивная яркость: роль переходных признаков в зрительном поиске. // В кн.: Когнитивная наука в Москве: новые исследования. Тезисы конференции (19 июня 2013 г.) / Науч. ред.: Е. В. Печенкова, М. В. Фаликман. М. : Буки Веди, 2013. С. 294-298.
Article Тюрина Н. А., Уточкин И. С. Распределение пространственного внимания при восприятии движения // Экспериментальная психология. 2013. Т. 6. № 2. С. 35-45.
Chapter Булатова М. Е., Уточкин И. С. Репрезентация численности в подмножествах, образованных признаками и их сочетаниями // В кн.: Когнитивная наука в Москве: новые исследования. Тезисы конференции (19 июня 2013 г.) / Науч. ред.: Е. В. Печенкова, М. В. Фаликман. М. : Буки Веди, 2013. С. 42-46.

2012⁶

Preprint Utochkin I. S. Towards a Formal Theory of a Distractor in Attentional Tasks / NRU Higher School of Economics. Series PSY "Psychology". 2012. No. 2.
Article Гусев А. Н., Уточкин И. С. Влияние вероятности подсказки на эффективность пространственной локализации зрительного стимула // Известия Иркутского государственного университета. Серия: Психология. 2012. № 1. С. 34-39.
Chapter Уточкин И. С. Зрительный поиск изменений: от чего зависит его эффективность? // В кн.: Перспективные направления психологической науки / Отв. ред.: А. К. Болотова; науч. ред.: В. П. Зинченко, А. Н. Поддьяков, В. Д. Шадриков. М. : Издательский дом НИУ ВШЭ, 2012. С. 156-176.
Article Уточкин И. С., Стакина Ю. М. О возможности метакогнитивной регуляции мертвой зоны внимания // Психология. Журнал Высшей школы экономики. 2012. Т. 9. № 3. С. 131-139.
Article Гусев А. Н., Михайлова О. А., Уточкин И. С. Роль индивидуально-психологических свойств личности в выраженности феномена слепоты к изменению // Вопросы психологии. 2012. № 44. С. 117-127.
Article Уточкин И. С. Статистическая репрезентация множественных объектов в зрительном восприятии // Методология и история психологии. 2012. Т. 7. № 4. С. 87-81.

2011⁶

Article Уточкин И. С. "Мертвая зона" внимания при восприятии изменений в зрительных сценах // Вопросы психологии. 2011. № 5. С. 111-120.
Article Utochkin I. S. Hide-and-seek around the centre of interest: The dead zone of attention revealed by change blindness // Visual Cognition. 2011. Vol. 19. No. 8. P. 1063-1088. doi
Article Utochkin I. S. Involuntary remembering of words in various attentional demands / Пер. с рус. // Journal of Russian and East European Psychology. 2011. Vol. 49. No. 3. P. 24-39.
Article Utochkin I. S. Strategies of visual search for changes in complex scenes // Journal of Russian and East European Psychology. 2011. Vol. 49. No. 5. P. 10-29.
Chapter Гусев А. Н., Кингсеп Ю. А., Уточкин И. С. Вероятностные эффекты в задаче на непроизвольное пространственное внимание // В кн.: Современная экспериментальная психология / Под общ. ред.: В. Барабанщиков. Т. 2. М. : Институт психологии РАН, 2011. Гл. 36. С. 97-114.
Book Гусев А. Н., Уточкин И. С. Психологические измерения: Теория. Методы: Учебное пособие для студентов вузов. М. : Аспект Пресс, 2011.

2010³

Article Уточкин И. С., Большакова К. Г. Усиление и ослабление эффекта Струпа при вероятностном научении // Психология. Журнал Высшей школы экономики. 2010. Т. 7. № 3. С. 139-149.
Article Уточкин И. С. Учебник по психологии внимания [рецензия] // Вопросы психологии. 2010. № 5. С. 159-161.
Article Уточкин И. С. Эффекты дистрактора в перцептивных задачах // Психологический журнал. 2010. Т. 31. № 3. С. 25-32.

2009⁴

Article Уточкин И. С. "Мертвые зоны" внимания // Экспериментальная психология. 2009. Т. 2. № 2. С. 16-30.
Article Уточкин И. С. «Мертвые зоны» внимания // Экспериментальная психология. 2009. № 2. С. 16-30.
Chapter Уточкин И. С., Гусев А. Н. Вклад произвольного и непроизвольного внимания в процесс локализации зрительного стимула // В кн.: Современная психофизика / Отв. ред.: В. Барабанщиков. М. : Институт психологии РАН, 2009. С. 92-109.
Article Уточкин И. С. Непроизвольное запоминание слов при различных требованиях к вниманию // Культурно-историческая психология. 2009. № 2. С. 42-50.

2008¹

Article Уточкин И. С. Теоретические и эмпирические основания уровневого подхода к вниманию // Психология. Журнал Высшей школы экономики. 2008. Т. 5. № 3. С. 31-66.

2006³

Article Гусев А. Н., Уточкин И. С. Роль активации субъекта в решении сенсорных задач различной сложности: ресурсный и функциональный подходы // Вестник Московского университета. Серия 14: Психология. 2006. № 4. С. 21-31.
Article Фаликман М. В., Уточкин И. С. Торможение возврата внимания. Часть 1. Виды и свойства // Психологический журнал. 2006. Т. 27. № 3. С. 42-48.
Article Фаликман М. В., Уточкин И. С. Торможение возврата внимания. Часть 2. Механизмы. От сенсорной маскировки до стратегической регуляции // Психологический журнал. 2006. Т. 27. № 4. С. 50-58.

Scientific interests

I am interested in visual perception and attention. My current work is focused on several main topics:
Ensemble perception. Despite our attention and visual working memory (VWM) have severely limited capacity - 3-4 objects at a time, at any given moment we still see much more than these 3-4 objects. Numerous studies of past decades show that this is possible because ensemble representation, the special mode of perception that allows us to see large sets of objects in the absence of the information about individuals. The visual system is believed to construct rather generalized images of ensembles via computing summary statistics, such as aprroximate number or average size, orientation, speed, brightness, even facial expression, etc. My research concerns two main issues: 1) The role of summary statistics in perceptual grouping, segmentation, and categorization: How can visual summary statistics be used by the visual system to decide which members of an ensemble belong to the same type of objects, and which members belong to different types; 2) What is the role of attention in extracting summary statistics?
Attention and visual search. Visual search is a very useful task for studying the deployment of attention over space and time. In visual search we can easily and independently manipulate numerous stimulus factors (the number of objects, their features, their similarity and dissimilarity, their density, etc.), as well as high-level sets via instructions and rewards. My specific interest in visual search focuses on the following question: How the statistical distribution of similar and dissimilar objects (as derived from statistical processing of a visual ensemble) affects the settings of the "attentional window", a hypothetical tradeoff between the number of immediately attended objects and the amount of capacity given to each of those objects?
Dead zone of attention. When perceiving a natural scene, one is normally attending to most significant objects or their parts. These are termed the "centers of interest" (CI), while other details of the scene are termed "marginal interests" (MI). My recent finding from the change blindness pardigm is that observers attend to MI's differently depending on the location of those MI's. Specifically, in my change blindness experiments participants failed to notice marginal changes for longer time in close proximity to a CI as compared to remote MI's. This effect was termed the dead zone of attention. The current research in my lab is indended to understand the nature of this effect. Is it elicited by some low-level spatial inhibition? Or is it caused by a high-level strategy of scene inspection?

Courses

General Psychology: Sensation and Perception (2nd year)
Experimental Psychology (3rd year)
Psychology of Errors and Illusions (elective, 2nd year)

Ad-hoc reviewing

Attention, Perception and Psychphysics

Journal of Optical Society of America A

Journal of Vision

PLOS One

The Russian Journal of Cognitive Science

Psychology. Journal of HSE

Timetable for today

Full timetable

Oct

2015

Behavioural Genetics Research as a Path to Optimise Learning for All

On October 5th, 2015 Yulia Kovas will give an open lecture at the HSE Centre for Cognition & Decision Making — 'An Introduction to Behavioral Genetics'. Professor of Genetics and Psychology at Goldsmiths College, London University and Co-director of the Russian British Laboratory of Psychogenetics and author of many academic articles, Yulia Kovas will talk about the problems facing contemporary behavioral genetics, how DNA influences the individual variations of a person’s psychological features, what role the interaction between genes and the environment plays in the formation of behaviour and other questions of contemporary behavioral genetics.