The Department of Experimental Psychology mourns the passing of Anne Treisman (1935-2018).
Anne was a former member of our department (1957-1978), where she obtained her DPhil in 1962 and then worked as a research fellow and subsequently University Lecturer. She was a fellow of St Anne’s College. The Department were lucky to see her back at Oxford to host the inaugural Anne Treisman lecture in October 2012. Rest in peace, Anne. Our thoughts are with her surviving family members and those whose lives she touched.
Anne was a luminary in attention research, contributing significantly to the theoretical foundations of the field as we know it today. She introduced Attenuation Theory, which added much needed flexibility into selection of information based on both physical features and meaningful learned associations; she developed the Feature Integration Theory to explain when and how the attention focus operates to deliver objects to our perception; she proposed that objects could also act as units of selection; and much more.
Throughout her career, Anne remained ahead of the field, on top of the literature and methodological advances, and always modest and generous. Long may her example inspire us. - Professor Kia Nobre, Head of Department