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An autobiographical manuscript for a psychology newsletter

Northwestern University

by Satoru Suzuki

Satoru Suzuki, a new faculty member in cognitive-perceptual psychology, has gone through several major changes in his subjects of interest before settling on his current direction of research.

In his boyhood, Satoru was fascinated by the stars and often spent many hours at a telescope. He was determined to become an astrophysicist with the grandeur dream of figuring out a way to make inter-stellar travels possible (It is not surprising that he is a trekkie).

Satoru came to his senses when he entered college. He realized that something just as mysterious and fascinating as the far reaches of the universe was right in front of his eyes, living organisms. Thus, he chose to be a molecular biology major at Wesleyan University. Spurred by his obsession for getting to the bottom of things, he shifted his focus from biology to chemistry to physics. After getting a B. A. in physics, he entered a Ph. D. program in physics at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst. He was fascinated to learn that reality and observation are fundamentally linked. He was also firmly impressed by the fact that the mind-brain conglomerate, something he has in his own head, is the ultimate observer of reality. He believed he found the subject of his future endeavor. He thus left the physics program upon completion of an M. S. degree to grapple with the new subject.

Satoru entered a graduate program in psychology at Harvard University because he believed that a formal education in psychology as well as in physics would prepare him to make a unique contribution to understanding the mind and the brain. He became particularly interested in the field of perception because it attempts to understand the processes whereby physical stimulations are translated into the patterns of activity in the brain, which are (must be) somehow sensed by the mind.

Satoru has done research in a variety of aspects of visual perception during his seven years of training in psychology (five years at Harvard as a graduate student and two years at Arizona State University and at the University of Arizona as a post doctoral fellow). For example, he has investigated how the brain finds meaningful objects amidst complex patterns of light reflected at the back of the eyes, how perceptual sensitivity for specific images improves with training, and how acts of the mind such as attention and intention influence what we see. Contrary to the subjective experience that perception occurs immediately and automatically, Satoru has become aware that it is a rich product of complex interactions between physical stimuli, experience, and the person's state of mind.

Broadly speaking, his current research centers around the following questions. What features and aspects of physical stimuli are encoded by our sensory organs and how are they organized in the brain? What aspects of perception do focused attention and intentional efforts influence and how? How do effects of attention undulate over time and why? How does perceptual experience lead to expert perception, artistic expressions, and increased ability to control mental states? He also collaborates with several prominent researchers in the U. S. and Canada, conducting neuropsychological experiments on people with lesions in various areas of the brain to see to what extent behavioral functions are organized anatomically in the brain.

Satoru is enthusiastic about revitalizing Northwestern's once prominent program in visual perception. He is also eager to share his unique background (familiarity with physics and psychology, as well as familiarity with Eastern and Western ways of thinking) with his students through teaching and doing research together. He is very happy that the psychology department provides an excellent environment and support for young assistant professors to engage in creative research.

Outside of academia, Satoru is very much into music. He likes to play the violin and loves to compose. In college, he almost completed a music major in composition; he wrote several orchestral pieces, including an original music for a dance performance. Both Sania, his wife, and Satoru like to go hiking and camping; however, with a newborn and a new job, they are afraid that it will be a while before they will be able to engage in such activity.

Satoru's vita

Cool illusions