Rate My Professor Olivia Cheung

Olivia Cheung is an Assistant Professor of Psychology at New York University Abu Dhabi, where she leads the Objects and Knowledge Laboratory. She earned her Ph.D. in Cognition and Cognitive Neuroscience from the Department of Psychology at Vanderbilt University in 2010. Following her doctorate, Cheung completed postdoctoral research at Harvard Medical School, the Center for Mind/Brain Sciences (CIMeC) in Trento, Italy, and Harvard University. Her research focuses on understanding how humans perceive the visual world, particularly object recognition, face recognition, high-level vision, concepts, and cognitive neuroscience. She examines how perception is shaped by experience, learning, implicit biases, and expertise using behavioral methods, neuroimaging, and computational approaches.

Cheung's key contributions include investigations into holistic processing in face recognition, predictive feedback in visual experience, and the roles of category, shape, and spatial frequency in object recognition. Prominent publications are 'Holistic processing predicts face recognition' (Psychological Science, 2011), 'Predictive feedback and conscious visual experience' (Frontiers in Psychology, 2013), 'Revisiting the role of spatial frequencies in the holistic processing of faces' (Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception and Performance, 2008), 'Roles of Category, Shape, and Spatial Frequency in Object Recognition' (Journal of Neuroscience, 2020), 'Two faces of holistic face processing: Facilitation and interference' (Journal of Vision, 2024), and 'Implicit bias and experience influence overall but not relative trustworthiness judgment of other-race faces' (2024). She received NYU Abu Dhabi faculty grant AD174 for her work and was elected a Fellow of the Psychonomic Society. At NYU Abu Dhabi, Cheung has mentored undergraduate researchers whose projects have been presented at conferences like the International Convention of Psychological Science. Her laboratory has adapted to web-based experiments and contributed to brain imaging research using MRI.