RESEARCH AND PUBLICATIONS
Michael K. McBeath
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My research emphasis is in the area of three-dimensional space and motion perception.
My specialty can whimsically be summarized as "pitch perception".
I have explored the following three types of pitch perception:
Following are lists of published or nearly completed papers in each of the three areas.
Each article title is linked to either a web accessable manuscript, or a one page summary.
Each Journal title is linked to the actual journal web sites when possible.
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SPATIAL NAVIGATION AND TRACKING WITH APPLICATIONS IN SPORTS
Tracking Balls 1. The Rising Fastball: Baseball's Impossible Pitch (1990) Perception. One Page Summary

2. How Baseball Outfielders Determine Where to Run to Catch Fly Balls (1995) Science. One Page Summary

3. Play Ball (1995) Science --and-- On catching Fly Balls (1996) Science. One Page Summary

4. Baseball Outfielders Maintain a Linear Optical Trajectory When Tracking Uncatchable Fly Balls (In Press) JEP:HPP

5. Group Center of Attention as a Guide to a Baseball's Destination (Submitted) 

6. Judging Where the Tennis Ball Bounced (In preparation) 

Size and Depth Processing 1. Constancy of the Velocity of Apparent Motion and the Influence of Depth Cues (1990) One Page Summary

2. The Basketball Hoop Illusion (In preparation) One Page Summary

3. Optimal Defensive Hand Positioning to Limit Basketball Shooting Accuracy (In preparation) One Page Summary

4. Familiar Suspended Objects Appear Smaller Than Actual Independent of Viewing Distance (In preparation) One Page Summary

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IDENTIFYING AND ORIENTING OBJECTS, TERRAINS, AND MOTIONS
Identifying and Orienting Objects and Terrains 1. Perceptual Bias for Forward-Facing Motion (1992) Psychological Science. One Page Summary

2. Three-Dimensional Bilateral Symmetry Bias in Judgments of Figural Identity (1997) Psychological Science. One Page Summary

3. Forward-Facing Motion Biases for Rigid and Nonrigid Biologically Likely Transformations (1997) Perceptual and Motor Skills.

4. Salience of Tops: Viewers Preferentially Attend to the Tops of Figures (1999) Perception & PsychophysicsOne Page Summary

5. Vertical Symmetry as a Perceptual Heuristic in Object Recognition (Submitted) 

6. Global and Local Motion Processing in the Perception of Dynamic Facial Expression (Submitted) 

7. Proprioceptive Contribution to the Spatial Representation of Slant (In preparation) 

Orienting Motions 1. Apparent Motion Between Shapes Differing in Location and Orientation: A Window Technique for Estimating Path Curvature (1989) Perception & Psychophysics. One Page Summary

2. Lateral Motion Bias Associated with Reading Direction (1992) Vision Research. One Page Summary

3. Right Handers and Americans Favor Turning to the Right (In Press). Human Factors

4. Visual Bias for Gravitationally Downward Motion (In preparation). One Page Summary

5. Geometric Illusion Bends Path of Apparent Motion and the Liar-Müller Illusion (In Preparation) One Page Summary

6. Comparison of Four Models that Describe Path of Apparent Motion (In Preparation). 

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AUDITORY MOTION AND PATTERN PERCEPTION
Dynamic Pitch and Loudness 1. The Doppler Illusion: Rising Pitch with Falling Frequency (1996) JEP:HPP. One Page Summary

2. Overcoming Naive Models in Explaining the Doppler Shift: An Illusion Creates Confusion (1997) American Journal of Physics

3. Dynamic Frequency Change Influences Loudness Perception: A Central Analytic Process (1999)  JEP:HPP. One Page Summary

4. Dramatic Auditory Pitch Change Due to Dynamic Intensity Change (In Press)  Psychonomic Bulletin & Review.  One Page Summary

Pattern Perception of
Pitch and Rhythm 
1. The Tune Torus: Simple Melodies are Well Represented with a Circular Chromatic Dimension (In preparation). One Page Summary
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[Last Updated 6-01]