Human and other primates have the remarkable ability to use vision to program and control skilled movements directed at objects in their environment. Understanding the processes and representations underlying these skills is a central problem in cognitive science. We propose to develop a focused program for graduate research training in the area of visual perception and motor control. In so doing, we will capitalize on the University of Minnesota's impressive faculty strength in this area. Students in the program will be co-advised by two of the 14 participating faculty, representing behavioral, computational and neuroscience approaches. Students will learn about these three approaches through a required distribution of classes and interdisciplinary seminars. Students will have the opportunity to spend a summer in research at a leading university of industry laboratory that specializes in vision and motor control. The program will form a new topical focus within the Center for research in Leaning, Perception and Cognition. The Center has an excellent record for attracting top students and for supervising them to completion of the Ph.D. The Center is also active in recruiting minority students. Our proposed NSF program will build on the infrastructure already available through the Center.
