帝王会所

Helpful Links

Navigate OHIO

Connect With Us

College of Arts and Sciences
Wilson Administrative, second floor, 204
740-593-0053
Image of a human brain
Structure, Concepts, & Perception Laboratory (SCOPE Lab)
Dedicated to the Mathematical and Computational Study of Human Cognition

SCOPE Lab

SCOPE Lab Mission

Research in the Structure, Concepts, and Perception Laboratory (SCOPE Lab) focuses on how context and relational cognition impact a wide variety of psychological phenomena such as concept learning, perception, similarity assessment, judgment and decision making, behavioral economics, social categorization, and learning disorders, among others. We use mathematical and computational modeling, eye tracking technology, and behavioral experiments to achieve our research goals.

Ronaldo Vigo, Ph.D., Director

Research

Research in the Structure, Concepts, and Perception Laboratory (SCOPE Lab) focuses on how context and relational cognition impact a wide variety of psychological phenomena such as concept learning, perception, similarity assessment, judgment and decision making, behavioral economics, social categorization, and learning disorders, among others. We use mathematical and computational modeling, eye tracking technology, and behavioral experiments to achieve our research goals.

Research Areas

  •  

    Categorization Research

    Involves the classification of variables or phenomena into distinct categories.

  •  

    Psychophysics & Perception

    Quantitatively investigating the relationship between stimuli in the environment and the perceptions they evoke.

  •  

    Decision Making Research

    Investigating how individuals process, store, and analyze information to make choices.

Publications

2025

  • Doan, Charles A., and Vigo, Ronaldo. 2025. 鈥淐onstructing Concepts Without Feedback: An Empirical Investigation of How Relational Information Affects Multidimensional Concept Completion Behavior in an Unsupervised Task鈥. PLoS One 20 (8). .
  • Vigo, Ronaldo. 2025. 鈥淭wo Formal Notions of Higher-Order Invariance Detection in Humans (A Proof of the Invariance Equivalence Principle in Generalized Invariance Structure Theory and Ramifications for Related Computations)鈥. Journal of Mathematical Psychology, 125, Article 102905. .

2023

  • Doan, Charles A., and Vigo, Ronaldo. 2023. 鈥淎 Comparative Investigation of Integral-and Separable-Dimension Stimulus-Sorting Behavior鈥. Psychological Research 87 (6): 1917-43.
  • Vigo, Ronaldo, Charles A Doan, Jay Wimsatt, and Cody B Ross. 2023. 鈥淎 Context-Sensitive Alternative to Hick鈥檚 Law of Choice Reaction Times: A Mathematical and Computational Unification of Conceptual Complexity and Choice Behavior鈥. Mathematics 11 (11): 2422.

2022

  • Vigo, Ronaldo, Charles A Doan, and Li Zhao. 2022. 鈥淐lassification of Three-Dimensional Integral Stimuli: Accounting for a Replication and Extension of Nosofsky and Palmeri (1996) With a Dual Discrimination Invariance Model.鈥. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition 48 (8): 1165.
  • Vigo, Ronaldo, Derek E Zeigler, and Jay Wimsatt. 2022. 鈥淯ncharted Aspects of Human Intelligence in Knowledge-Based 鈥榠ntelligent鈥 Systems鈥. Philosophies 7 (3): 46.

2021

  • Zhao, Jinling, Carla Childers, Hui Sang, Jiuqing Cheng, and Ronaldo Vigo. 2021. 鈥淭he Effect of Anger on Variety Seeking for Consumers of Differing Socio-Economic Backgrounds鈥. Current Psychology 40: 5278-85.
  • Vigo, Ronaldo, Jay Wimsatt, Charles A Doan, and Derek E Zeigler. 2021. 鈥淩aising the Bar for Theories of Categorisation and Concept Learning: The Need to Resolve Five Basic Paradigmatic Tensions鈥. Journal of Experimental & Theoretical Artificial Intelligence 34 (5): 845-69.

2020

  • Vigo, Ronaldo, Charles A Doan, , and Derek E Zeigler. 2020. 鈥淐ontext, Structure, and Informativeness Judgments: An Extensive Empirical Investigation鈥. Memory & Cognition 48: 1089-1111.

2019

  • Vigo, Ronaldo. 2019. 鈥淎 Simple Descriptive Method & Standard for Comparing Pairs of Stacked Bar Graphs鈥. ArXiv Preprint ArXiv:1910.11524.

2018

  • Vigo, Ronaldo. 2018. 鈥淢usings on the Utility and Challenges of Cognitive Unification: Review of Anatomy of the Mind, Ron Sun. Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (2016). 480 Pp.鈥. Cognitive Systems Research 51: 14-23.
  • Zeigler, Derek E, and Ronaldo Vigo. 2018. 鈥淐lassification Errors and Response Times over Multiple Distributed Sessions As a Function of Category Structure鈥. Memory & Cognition 46: 1041-57.
  • Vigo, Ronaldo, Karina-Mikayla C Doan, Charles A Doan, and Shannon Pinegar. 2018. 鈥淥n the Learning Difficulty of Visual and Auditory Modal Concepts: Evidence for a Single Processing System鈥. Cognitive Processing 19: 1-16.

2017

  • Vigo, Ronaldo. 2017. 鈥淭wo Formal Notions of Higher-Order Invariance Detection in Humans (A Proof of the Invariance Equivalence Principle in Generalized Invariance Structure Theory and Ramifications for Related Computations).鈥
  • Zhao, Jinling, Nicholas Kirwen, Jedidiah Johnson, and Ronaldo Vigo. 2017. 鈥淎nger and Intertemporal Choice: The Behavioral Approach System and the Interactive Effects of Trait and State Anger鈥. Personality and Individual Differences 110: 60-64.

2016

  • Mourning, Chad Lee, David Chelberg, Ronaldo Vigo, and Derek Ziegler. 2016. 鈥淒isocclusion Mitigation for Point Cloud Imposters鈥. I3D 鈥16: Proceedings of the 20th ACM SIGGRAPH Symposium on Interactive 3D Graphics and Games. .
  • Vigo, Ronaldo, and . 2016. 鈥淪tructural Manifold Analysis: A New Method for Dimensionality Reduction Based on a Computational Theory of Human Concept Learning.鈥
  • Vigo, Ronaldo, and Derek E Zeigler. 2016. 鈥淥n the Relationship Between Perceived Structural Complexity and Temporal Judgments鈥. In Mathematical Models of Perception and Cognition Volume II, 1st ed. Psychology Press.
  • Zhao, Jinling, Mary Harris, and Ronaldo Vigo. 2016. 鈥淎nxiety and Moral Judgment: The Shared Deontological Tendency of the Behavioral Inhibition System and the Unique Utilitarian Tendency of Trait Anxiety鈥. Personality and Individual Differences 95: 29-33.
  • Doan, Charles A, and Ronaldo Vigo. 2016. 鈥淐onstructing and Deconstructing Concepts鈥. Experimental Psychology.

2015

  • Vigo, Ronaldo, Steven W Evans, and Julie Sarno Owens. 2015. 鈥淐ategorization Behaviour in Adults, Adolescents, and Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder Adolescents: A Comparative Investigation鈥. Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology 68 (6): 1058-72.
  • Zhao, Jinling, Jiuqing Cheng, Mary Harris, and Ronaldo Vigo. 2015. 鈥淎nxiety and Intertemporal Decision Making: The Effect of the Behavioral Inhibition System and the Moderation Effects of Trait Anxiety on Both State Anxiety and Socioeconomic Status鈥. Personality and Individual Differences 87: 236-41.
  • Vigo, Ronaldo, and Charles A Doan. 2015. 鈥淭he Structure of Choice鈥. Cognitive Systems Research 36: 1-14.

2014

  • Vancouver, Jeffrey B, Justin M Weinhardt, and Ronaldo Vigo. 2014. 鈥淐hange One Can Believe In: Adding Learning to Computational Models of Self-Regulation鈥. Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes 124 (1): 56-74.
  • Vigo, Ronaldo. 2014. Mathematical Principles of Human Conceptual Behavior: The Structural Nature of Conceptual Representation and Processing. Psychology Press.

2013

  • Vigo, Ronaldo, Derek E Zeigler, and Phillip A Halsey. 2013. 鈥淕aze and Informativeness During Category Learning: Evidence for an Inverse Relation鈥. Visual Cognition 21 (4): 446-76.
  • Vigo, Ronaldo, and . 2013. 鈥淲ill the Most Informative Object Stand? Determining the Impact of Structural Context on Informativeness Judgements鈥. Journal of Cognitive Psychology 25 (3): 248-66.
  • Vigo, Ronaldo. 2013. 鈥淭he GIST of Concepts鈥. Cognition 129 (1): 138-62.

2012

  • Vigo, Ronaldo, Yu Zhang, and Mikayla Barcus. 2012. 鈥淲hat Is a Good Musical Pattern? On Acoustic Structure and Goodness of Pattern鈥. The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America 132 (3\_Supplement): 1997-97.
  • Vigo, Ronaldo. 2012. 鈥淐omplexity over Uncertainty in Generalized Representational Information Theory (GRIT): A Structure-Sensitive General Theory of Information鈥. Information 4 (1): 1-30.

2011

  • Vigo, Ronaldo. 2011. 鈥淭owards a Law of Invariance in Human Conceptual Behavior.鈥. Proceedings of the 33rd Annual Conference of the Cognitive Science Society. Cognitive Science Society.
  • Vigo, Ronaldo. 2011. 鈥淩epresentational Information: A New General Notion and Measure of Information鈥. Information Sciences 181 (21): 4847-59.

2010

  • Vigo, Ronaldo. 2010. 鈥淎 Dialogue on Concepts鈥. Think 9 (24): 109-20.

2009

  • Vigo, Ronaldo, and Colin Allen. 2009. 鈥淗ow to Reason Without Words: Inference As Categorization鈥. Cognitive Processing 10: 77-88.
  • Vigo, Ronaldo. 2009. 鈥淐ategorical Invariance and Structural Complexity in Human Concept Learning鈥. Journal of Mathematical Psychology 53 (4): 203-21.
  • Vigo, Ronaldo. 2009. 鈥淢odal Similarity鈥. Journal of Experimental & Theoretical Artificial Intelligence 21 (3): 181-96.

2006

  • Vigo, Ronaldo. 2006. 鈥淎 Note on the Complexity of Boolean Concepts鈥. Journal of Mathematical Psychology 50 (5): 501-10.
Cover of Vigo Ronaldo's book

Book

Mathematical Principles of Human Conceptual Behavior
The Structural Nature of Conceptual Representation and Processing

  • Order the Book:

Recent Conferences

Midwestern Psychological Association 2025
The Palmer House Chicago, IL

Math Psychology 2025
Hosted at 帝王会所, Athens, OH

Midwestern Cognitive Science 2023
Hosted at 帝王会所, Athens, OH

University of California Irvine Presentation 2018

Midwestern Cognitive Science 2017
Miami University, Oxford, OH

  • Talk: Doan, C.A., Vigo, R., Zhao, L. An investigation on the relationship between supervised and unsupervised learning behavior.
  • Talk: Vigo, R., Doan, C.A., Doan, K.M., Zhao, L., & Carlitz, A. Some new perspectives on the integral dimensions concept learning difficulty ordering.

Mathematical Psychology 2016 (Brunswick, NJ)

Mathematical Psychology 2015 (Irvine CA)

Midwestern Psychological Association 2015

  • Talk: Vigo, R. Towards a systematical mathematical science of cognition: some challenges, candidate mathematical laws, and prospects for unification.

Midwestern Cognitive Science 2014 (Wright State University, Dayton OH)

Midwestern Cognitive Science 2013 (The 帝王会所 State University, Columbus OH)

Behavior 2013 (Newcastle-Upon-Tyne, England)

Acoustical Society of America 2012 (The Hyatt Regency, Kansas City MO)

  • Talk:  Vigo, R., Zhang, Y., & Barcus, K.M. What is a good musical pattern? On acoustic structure and good musical pattern.

Mathematical Psychology 2012 (The 帝王会所 State University, Columbus OH)

  • Talk:  Barcus, K.M., Vigo, R., & Zhang, Y. Auditory Goodness of Pattern Judgments.
  • Talk:  Doan, C., Vigo, R, & Zhao, J. On the Structural Equilibrium of Choice Sets.
  • Talk:  Vigo, R., Basawaraj, B., & Gould, M. How Informative are Concept Cues? Predicting Informativeness Judgments.
  • Poster:  Vigo, R., Zeigler, D., & Halsey, P.A. Gaze and Information Processing During Category Learning: Evidence for an Inverse Law.
  • Poster:  Vigo, R., & Basawaraj, B. Structural Manifold Analysis: A New Nonparametric Framework for Continuous and Dichotomous Multivariate Data Analysis

Midwestern Cognitive Science 2012 (Indiana University, Bloomington IN)

  • Talk:  Halsey, P.A., Zeigler, D., & Vigo, R. The Ordering Underneath the Ordering: An Investigation of the Learning Rates of Concept Structures.
  • Talk:  Vigo, R., Doan, C., & Zhao, J. The Structure of Choice.
  • Poster:  Zhang, Y., Vigo, R., & Barcus, K.M. Why Bach is Greater Than The Beatles.

CogSci 2011 (Boston, MA)

Mathematical Psychology 2010 (Portland, OR)