Welcome and thanks for stopping by! 

I consider myself a cognitive scientist. My undergraduate degree is in computer science from the University of Sofia, Bulgaria, and my Ph.D. degree is in cognitive science from New Bulgarian University. I had extensive post-doctoral training in cognitive psychology and vision science – the former in the lab of Prof. John R. Anderson at Carnegie Mellon University and the latter in the lab of Prof. Barbara A. Dosher at the University of California, Irvine. I joined the faculty of the Psychology Department at OSU in 2006 and received a courtesy affiliation with the Philosophy Department at OSU in 2019.

My research interests are characterized by three intertwined threads:

• Relational processing and its pivotal role in human cognition. In particular, I have a strong interest in analogy making that dates all the way back to my Ph.D. dissertation in 1998.
• A guiding hypothesis is that the visual system performs more sophisticated relational processing than it’s usually given credit for. Notably, we see relational roles in visual events – who does what to whom.
• Relational processing must be studied in computational terms and requires the coordinated resources of a general-purpose cognitive architecture.

Methodologically, research in my lab involves a combination of behavioral and psychophysical experimentation, mathematical and computational modeling, and philosophical reflection. Virtually all my publications are collaborative, and many of them involve both new experimental data and a computational model thereof. 

My home website contains a complete list of publications, PDF reprints, open-source software, syllabi for the courses that I teach, and many other resources. The Visual Cognition Lab page focuses on currently ongoing projects.

Book

* Petrov, A. (2013). Associative Memory-Based Reasoning: A Computational Model of Analogy-Making in a Decentralized Multi-Agent Cognitive Architecture. Saarbrücken, Germany: Lambert Academic Publishing. ISBN 978-3-659-26248-7.

Selected Journal Articles

* Todd, J. & Petrov, A. (2022). The many faces of shape. Journal of Vision, 22 (1), 1-30.

* Yu, Y., Petrov, A., & Todd, J. (2021). Bilateral symmetry has no effect on stereoscopic shape judgments. i-Perception, 12 (4), 1-18.

* Sawada, T. & Petrov, A. (2017). The divisive normalization model of V1 neurons: A comprehensive comparison of physiological data and model predictions. Journal of Neurophysiology, 118 (6), 3051-3091.

* Hayes, T. & Petrov, A. (2016). Pupil diameter tracks the exploration-exploitation tradeoff during analogical reasoning and explains individual differences in fluid intelligence, Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience, 28 (2), 308-318.

* Hayes, T., Petrov, A. & Sederberg, P. (2015). Do We Really Become Smarter When Our Fluid-Intelligence Test Scores Improve?, Intelligence, 48 (1), 1-14.

* Hayes, T., Petrov, A. & Sederberg, P. (2011). A Novel Method for Analyzing Sequential Eye Movements Reveals Strategic Influence on Raven's Advanced Progressive Matrices. Journal of Vision, 11, 1-9.

* Petrov, A., Van Horn, N., & Todd, J. (2011). The Visual Identification of Relational Categories. Journal of Vision, 11(12:11), 1-11.

* Petrov, A. & Hayes, T. R. (2010). Asymmetric transfer of perceptual learning of luminance- and contrast-modulated motion. Journal of Vision, 10(4:11), 1-22.

* Petrov, A. (2009). Symmetry-based methodology for decision-rule identification in same-different experiment.. Psychonomic Bulletin & Review, 16(6), 1011-1025.

* Petrov, A., Dosher, B., & Lu, Z.-L. (2005). The Dynamics of Perceptual Learning: An Incremental Reweighting Model. Psychological Review, 112(4), 715-743.

* Petrov, A. & Anderson, J. R. (2005). The Dynamics of Scaling: A Memory-Based Anchor Model of Category Rating and Absolute Identification. Psychological Review, 112(2), 383-416.

* Kokinov, B. & Petrov, A. (2001). Integrating memory and reasoning in analogy-making: The AMBR model. In D. Gentner, K. Holyoak, & B. Kokinov (Eds.), The analogical mind: Perspectives from cognitive science (pp. 59-124). Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.