Rachel Flood Heaton
@rachelfloodheaton.bsky.social
Cognitive and perceptual psychologist, industrial designer, & electrical engineer. Assistant Professor of Industrial Design at University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. I make neurally plausible bio-inspired computational process models of visual cognition.
Scenes from Chicago today
October 6, 2025 at 2:21 AM
Scenes from Chicago today
I don't think that image actually captures what was requested in terms of accurate relations. Ask it several times. When I did, just a few days ago, it was still making stuff like this. Be careful because 1) this is only one way it is not like humans and 2) stopped clocks are sometimes rightish.
September 6, 2025 at 9:59 PM
I don't think that image actually captures what was requested in terms of accurate relations. Ask it several times. When I did, just a few days ago, it was still making stuff like this. Be careful because 1) this is only one way it is not like humans and 2) stopped clocks are sometimes rightish.
A bonus image from this work:
August 22, 2025 at 6:35 PM
A bonus image from this work:
LISA was designed to simulate complex relational reasoning, but it wasn’t clear what would happen if we systematically took away LISA’s capabilities. We performed simulations that removed LISA’s capacity to form multi-place predicates, perform structure mapping, or both.
August 22, 2025 at 6:31 PM
LISA was designed to simulate complex relational reasoning, but it wasn’t clear what would happen if we systematically took away LISA’s capabilities. We performed simulations that removed LISA’s capacity to form multi-place predicates, perform structure mapping, or both.
What is it about human brains that allows us to reason symbolically whereas most other animals cannot? And why does AI sometimes struggle to generate images of objects in statistically unusual spatial relationships to each other, when people wouldn’t struggle to imagine such relationships?
August 22, 2025 at 6:24 PM
What is it about human brains that allows us to reason symbolically whereas most other animals cannot? And why does AI sometimes struggle to generate images of objects in statistically unusual spatial relationships to each other, when people wouldn’t struggle to imagine such relationships?
This is a pretty good example
July 19, 2025 at 10:50 PM
This is a pretty good example
My cat Seven gets it. Same, girl.
July 11, 2025 at 11:14 PM
My cat Seven gets it. Same, girl.
Our students in the Industrial Design program at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign have put up a very nice program show, with a strong showing by my sophomores. Their projects include biomimicry projects, flatware, and functioning mechanical candy dispensers. Very proud of them!
April 16, 2025 at 1:29 AM
Our students in the Industrial Design program at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign have put up a very nice program show, with a strong showing by my sophomores. Their projects include biomimicry projects, flatware, and functioning mechanical candy dispensers. Very proud of them!
Advertisement on a truck showing me my next great meal. Okay, but are those carrots or red peppers? Shrimp or chicken? Potatoes or pasta? Mushrooms or nuts? Those avocados look like they have peels like cucumbers. Everything might be AI now.
March 22, 2025 at 6:07 PM
Advertisement on a truck showing me my next great meal. Okay, but are those carrots or red peppers? Shrimp or chicken? Potatoes or pasta? Mushrooms or nuts? Those avocados look like they have peels like cucumbers. Everything might be AI now.
Not many yet, just a couple of quick poorly lit photos. They designed together in groups but they each had to make their own set that matched their drawings.
October 16, 2024 at 2:45 PM
Not many yet, just a couple of quick poorly lit photos. They designed together in groups but they each had to make their own set that matched their drawings.
I'm an interdisciplinary weirdo: a cognitive scientist who teaches industrial design in a wood shop. My sophomore industrial design studio just finished its first project, wooden flatware. Most of them weren't woodworkers when they started, but now look at them go.
October 16, 2024 at 6:40 AM
I'm an interdisciplinary weirdo: a cognitive scientist who teaches industrial design in a wood shop. My sophomore industrial design studio just finished its first project, wooden flatware. Most of them weren't woodworkers when they started, but now look at them go.
You may need to revisit the design for your signage if even after you post gigantic temporary supplemental signs to fix the first signs, still nobody can find the appropriate restroom. I have never seen so many confused people walking in circles.
June 2, 2024 at 3:22 AM
You may need to revisit the design for your signage if even after you post gigantic temporary supplemental signs to fix the first signs, still nobody can find the appropriate restroom. I have never seen so many confused people walking in circles.
What's the deal with negatively accelerating search functions in relational searches? The CASPER model of visual search shows how emergent features may allow for parallel processing in searches we'd expect to be steep and linear. Visit me Tuesday afternoon in the Banyan Breezeway! #VSS2024
May 21, 2024 at 5:11 PM
What's the deal with negatively accelerating search functions in relational searches? The CASPER model of visual search shows how emergent features may allow for parallel processing in searches we'd expect to be steep and linear. Visit me Tuesday afternoon in the Banyan Breezeway! #VSS2024
"I don't want to hear about your personal problems. Water related problems only."
This is a weird conference hotel.
This is a weird conference hotel.
May 19, 2024 at 5:26 AM
"I don't want to hear about your personal problems. Water related problems only."
This is a weird conference hotel.
This is a weird conference hotel.
Today while trying to reunite wayward baby geese with adult geese I experienced a goose hissing at me for the first time (in fact two adult geese hissing at me in stereo). Message received, but someone's gotta take your kids.
April 28, 2024 at 10:36 PM
Today while trying to reunite wayward baby geese with adult geese I experienced a goose hissing at me for the first time (in fact two adult geese hissing at me in stereo). Message received, but someone's gotta take your kids.
Take this simple example from Field et al, 1993. We can make sense of small local details concurrently with higher order meaning and integrate both. In general, we can keep track of both the detail and the abstract, at least somewhat, and selectively attend between them.
March 9, 2024 at 4:41 PM
Take this simple example from Field et al, 1993. We can make sense of small local details concurrently with higher order meaning and integrate both. In general, we can keep track of both the detail and the abstract, at least somewhat, and selectively attend between them.
I had to figure out what was going on.
March 7, 2024 at 12:02 AM
I had to figure out what was going on.
So I tested it on Opus and it can do that example. That's good. However if I change the wording very slightly it breaks. "I want to figure out what relation a family member is to me. This person is the mother of my mother's mother's sister's son's mother."
March 5, 2024 at 4:56 AM
So I tested it on Opus and it can do that example. That's good. However if I change the wording very slightly it breaks. "I want to figure out what relation a family member is to me. This person is the mother of my mother's mother's sister's son's mother."
I tried a sniff test on it.
March 5, 2024 at 4:04 AM
I tried a sniff test on it.
A combination of my cat and my daughter's photo editing.
December 16, 2023 at 9:19 PM
A combination of my cat and my daughter's photo editing.