I am a philosopher of mind and of cognitive science at the University of California at Santa Cruz. My work draws on the history of philosophy and on contemporary research in cognitive psychology, neuroscience, and in computer science. I am currently working on a project on concepts -- what they are and how we learn them -- with a particular focus on concepts of social categories.
In the past, my research has focused on perception -- what kind of capacity it is, what it presupposes, and what kind of relationship it affords with the environment. In my first monograph, I developed an anti-constructivist account of perception that contrasts with philosophical and psychological orthodoxy. I also have projects that concern (a) Bayesian and predictive coding models of perception; (b) the significance of fMRI research for understanding cognition (with a particular focus on the gender literature) and; (c) Social ontology. I have additional interests in epistemology, in aesthetics, and I am affiliated with the Feminist Studies department at UCSC.