Gordon Legge

Psychology

N218 Elliott Hall

75 East River Parkway
Minneapolis, MN 55455

Collegiate Affiliation

I specialize in visual perception with a cognitive-neuroscience perspective. I am particularly interested in the role of vision in important real-world activities including reading, object recognition and wayfinding. Additional research interests include binocular vision and visual contrast coding.

A major focus of my research has been the application of vision research to explain the difficulties encountered by people with impaired vision in everyday activities, especially reading. One practical outcome of this research is the recent development of the MNREAD Acuity Chart, a new eye chart for testing normal and impaired vision.

Educational Background & Specialties

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Educational Background

Ph.D.: Psychology, Harvard University, 1976

Specialties

cognitive science
human visual perception
neuroscience
vision and reading
vision and spatial navigation
vision and object recognition
low vision
binocular vision and stereopsis
contrast coding in vision

Publications

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Publications

Legge, G.E., Yu, D., Kallie, C.S., Bochsler, T.M. & Gage, R. (2010). Visual accessibility of ramps and steps. Journal of vision, (10(11), 1-1-19.
Liu, T., Cheung, S.-H., Schuchard, R.A., Glielmi, C.B., Hu, X., He, S. & Legge, G.E. (2010). Incomplete cortical reorganization in macular degeneration. Investigative Ophthalmology & Visual Science.
Legge, G.E. (2007). Psychophysics of Reading in Normal and Low Vision. Mahwah, NJ & London: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates. ISBN 0-8058-4328-0 Preface and Acknowledgments 1. Vision and Reading 2. Measuring Reading Speed 3. Visual Mechanisms in Reading 4. Displaying Text 5. The MNREAD Acuity Chart (Co-authored with J.S. Mansfield) Appendix: Print Size Definitions and Conversions (Co-authored with J.S. Mansfield) A compact disk accompanies the book and contains reprints of the 20 journal articles in the Psychophysics of Reading series and computer source code for analyzing MNREAD test data.
Legge, G.E., Cheung, S.-H., Yu, D., Chung, S.T.L., Lee, H.-W., & Owens, D.P. (2007). The case for the visual span as a sensory bottleneck in reading. Journal of Vision, 7(2):9,, 1-15.
Kalia, A.A., Legge, G.E. & Giudice, N.A. (2008). Learning building layouts with non-geometric visual information: The effects of visual impairment and age. Perception, 37, 1677-1699.
Legge G.E., Madison C., Vaughn B.N., Cheong A.M.Y. & Miller J.C. (2008). Retention of high tactile acuity throughout the lifespan in blindness. Perception and Psychophysics, 70, 1471-1488.
Cheung, S.-H., Fang, F., He, S. & Legge, G.E. (2009). Retinotopically-specific reorganization of visual cortex for tactile pattern recognition. Current Biology, 19, 596-601.
Kwon, M., Legge, G.E., Fang, F., Cheong, A.M.Y. & He, S. (2009). Adaptive changes in visual cortex following prolonged contrast reduction. Journal of Vision, 9)2):20, 1-16.

Activities

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Activities

Professional

Editorial Board, Vision Research 1993 - 2004
Graduate Faculty Member in Psychology, Neuroscience, and Cognitive Science none - none
National Advisory Eye Council, NIH 2000 - 2003
Editorial Board, Journal of Vision 2001 - none
Distinguished McKnight University Professor, Dept. of Psychology, University of Minnesota 1996 - none
Director, Center for Cognitive Sciences, University of Minnesota 1999 - 2004
Director of the Minnesota Laboratory for Low-Vision Research none - none

Research

Wayfinding technologies for people with visual impairments: Research and development of an integrated platform: National Institute for Disability Research and Rehabilitation, Dept. of Education research grant. 2001 - 2006
Interdisciplinary training program in cognitive science: Institute for Child Health and Human Development, NIH research grant. 2004 - 2009
Object recognition and navigation in normal and low vision: National Eye Institute, NIH research grant. 1999 - 2005
Psychophysics of reading. Normal and low vision: National Eye Institute, NIH research grant. 2002 - 2007

Awards

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Awards

Distinguished Service Award, American Optometric Association, 1995
Glenn A. Fry Award, American Academy of Optometry, 1990
McKnight Distinguished University Professorship, University of Minnesota, 1996
National Institute of Health Grant, 1987
Pisart Vision Award, The Lighthouse Inc., 1994
MERIT Award, National Institutes of Health - National Eye Institute, 1987
Fellow, American Association for the Advancement of Science, 1995
Dean’s Medal, College of Liberal Arts, Univ. of Minnesota, 2003
Honorary Doctorate, Université de Montréal., 2006

Courses

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