Human Level Intelligence Laboratory
Cognitive Science Department
Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute
Carnegie 013
110 8th Street
Troy, NY 12180
c: (617) 596-5310
f: (518) 276-8268
shumam@rpi.edu

Education

Ph.D., Harvard University, Psychology. Advisor: Elizabeth Spelke 2007

Dissertation topic: Computational characterization of numerosity perception and encoding

M.A., Harvard University, Psychology. 2004

B.S., California Institute of Technology, Physics. 1999

Thesis topic: Bolometric polarimetry of cosmic microwave background radiation.

Fellowships

National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship 2004 – 2007

Publications

Shuman, M. and Spelke, EM. The symbolic/non-symbolic number representation interface: Constraints on functional form. In prep.

Shuman, M., Anglin, L., and Spelke, EM. Analog all the way down: Numerical magnitude without discrete enumeration. In prep.

Shuman, M., Chan, K., and Spelke, EM. Developmental change and plasticity in analog numerical magnitude representation acuity. In prep.

Shuman, M. and Spelke, EM. Computation of numerosity from correlated continuous quantities. Cognition, under review.

Shuman, M. and Kanwisher, N. (2004) Numerical magnitude in the human parietal lobe; tests of representational generality and domain specificity, Neuron 44(3): 557-569.

Downing, P.E., Jiang, Y., Shuman, M., and Kanwisher, N. (2001) A cortical area selective for visual processing of the human body, Science 293: 2470-2473.

Presentations

Area and Element Size Bias in Numerosity Perception, Vision Sciences Society, Sarasota, FL 2006

Development of Numerical Magnitude Representation, Society for Research in Cognitive Development, 2005

Atlanta, GA

Numerical Magnitude in the Human Parietal Lobe, Society For Neuroscience Meeting, San Diego, CA 2004

Teaching Experience

Teaching Fellow, The Evolution of Human Nature, professors Marc Hauser and Richard Wrangham. 2004

Research Experience

Postdoctoral Research Fellow 2007 –

Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Cognitive Science Dept., Human Level Intelligence Lab

Research Focus: Computational modeling of human cognition concerning computer system security.

Technical Assistant / Laboratory Manager 2000 – 2002

Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Brain & Cognitive Sciences, Kanwisher Lab.

Research Focus: fMRI investigations of cortical selectivity in the visual processing of human bodies, and in numerosity perception and analog numerical magnitude representation.

Undergraduate Thesis Researcher 1998 - 1999

California Insitute of Technology, Dept. of Physics

Project Focus: Design and implementation of data acquisition and telescope control systems for the Polatron, a bolametric cosmic microwave background polarimeter. Design of robust, high precision motion control and data acquisition software and electronics.

Research Assistant, Summer Undergraduate Fellow 1997

California Institute of Technology, Dept. of Astronomy

Project Focus: Discovery of over a dozen previously unidentified galactic clusters using custom designed object recognition, data mining, and matching software. Image processing automation with Perl scripting on a Unix Platform.

Professional Experience

Research and Development Engineer 1999 - 2000

IGEN, International

Project Focus: Design and testing of advanced high-throughput electrochemiluminescence-based combinatorial chemistry instrument for use in the pharmaceutical industry. Motion control, automation, CCD imaging, optics and image analysis, data acquisition, system optimization and reliability testing.

References

Nick Cassimatis, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Cognitive Science Dept. cassin@rpi.edu

Elizabeth Spelke, Harvard University, Department of Psychology (617-495-3876)

Susan Carey, Harvard University, Department of Psychology (617-495-3896)

Nancy Kanwisher, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Department of Brain and Cognitive Science (617-258-0721)