Ori Amir

email: oriacadem@gmail.com
phone: (213) 293-8111

I'm currently at Pomona College.

Reseach Interests

1. The neural correlates of humor, insight and perceptual pleasure.
2. Conducting fMRI, eye-tracking and behavioral studies to tap into the nature of our internal representation of objects and the mapping between visual representations and language.

Publications

Humor, Perceptual Pleasure & Creativity:

Kang, S. H., Krum, D. M., Khooshabeh, P., Phan, T., Chang, C. Y., Amir, O., & Lin, R. (2017). Social influence of humor in virtual human counselor's self-disclosure. Computer Animation and Virtual Worlds. DOI: 10.1002/cav.1763 [Link]

Swanson, R. W., Gordon, A. S., Khooshabeh, P., Sagae, K., Huskey, R., Mangus, M., Amir, O., & Weber, R. (2017). An Empirical Analysis of Subjectivity and Narrative Levels in Weblog Storytelling Across Cultures. Dialogue & Discourse, 8(2), 105-128. [Link]

Amir, O., Biederman, I. (2016). The Neural Correlates of Humor Creativity. Frontiers in human neuroscience, 10 (597). [Link]

Amir, O. (2016). The Frog Test: A Tool for Measuring Humor Theories' Validity and Humor Preferences. Frontiers in human neuroscience, 10 (40). [Link]

Amir, O., Biederman, I., Wang, Z., & Xu, X. (2013). Ha Ha! Versus Aha! A Direct Comparison of Humor to Nonhumorous Insight for Determining the Neural Correlates of Mirth. Cerebral Cortex 62, 35-43. [Link]

Amir, O., Biederman, I., & Hayworth, K. J. (2011). The neural basis for shape preferences. Vision Research, 1-9. doi:10.1016/j.visres.2011.08.015 [Link]

Object / Face / Voice Recognition:

Xu, X., Biederman, I., Shilowich, B.E., Herald, S.B., Amir, O., & Allen, N.E. (2015). Developmental phonagnosia: Neural correlates and a behavioral marker. Brain & Language, 149, 106-117. [Link]

Amir, O., Biederman, I., Herald, S.B., Shah, M.P., & Mintz, T.H. (2014). Greater Sensitivity to Nonaccidental than Metric Shape Properties in Preschool Children. Vision Research 14 (10), 232-232. [Link]

Herald, S. B., Xu, X., Biederman, I., Amir, O., & Shilowich, B. E. (2014). Phonagnosia: A voice homologue to prosopagnosia. Visual Cognition, 22(8), 1031-1033. [Link]

Amir, O., Biederman, I., & Hayworth, K.J. (2012). Sensitivity to nonaccidental properties across various shape dimensions. Vision Research. 62 ,35-43. doi: 10.1016/j.visres.2012.03.020 [Link]

Yue, X., Biederman, I., Mangini, M. C., von der Malsburg, C., & Amir, O. (2012). Predicting the Psychophysical Similarity of Faces and Non-Face Complex Shapes by Image-Based Measures. Vision Research, 55,41-46. doi:10.1016/j.visres.2011.12.012 [Link]

Amir, O., Biederman, I., & Hayworth, K. J. (2011). The Neural Basis for Shape Preferences. Vision Research, 51(20), 2198-2206. [Link]

Stimuli

NAP vs. MP (Gabor scaled, 36 Shapes)

NAP vs. MP and View-Change (Gabor scaled, 48 Shapes)

1 part Rendered NAP vs MP from Kayaert et al. (2003)

1 part Silhouetted NAP vs MP from Kayaert et al. (2003)

Contact Information

Department of Psychology
University of Southern California
Image Understanding Lab HBN 316
3641 Watt Way
Los Angeles, CA 90089-2520
Phone:(213)293-8111
Email: oamir@usc.edu