Marisa Carrasco is a Mexican psychologist, who is a professor of psychology and neural science at

New York University New York University (NYU) is a private university, private research university in New York City, New York, United States. Chartered in 1831 by the New York State Legislature, NYU was founded in 1832 by Albert Gallatin as a Nondenominational ...

. She uses human psychophysics, neuroimaging, and computational modeling to investigate the relation between the psychological and neural mechanisms involved in visual perception and attention.

Biography

Carrasco was born and raised in

Mexico City Mexico City is the capital city, capital and List of cities in Mexico, largest city of Mexico, as well as the List of North American cities by population, most populous city in North America. It is one of the most important cultural and finan ...

. She received her Licentiate in psychology from the

National University of Mexico The National Autonomous University of Mexico (, UNAM) is a public research university in Mexico. It has several campuses in Mexico City, and many others in various locations across Mexico, as well as a presence in nine countries. It also has 34 ...

and her Ph.D. in psychology from

Princeton University Princeton University is a private university, private Ivy League research university in Princeton, New Jersey, United States. Founded in 1746 in Elizabeth, New Jersey, Elizabeth as the College of New Jersey, Princeton is the List of Colonial ...

. Carrasco was an assistant professor at

Wesleyan University Wesleyan University ( ) is a Private university, private liberal arts college, liberal arts university in Middletown, Connecticut, United States. It was founded in 1831 as a Men's colleges in the United States, men's college under the Methodi ...

(1989–1995) before becoming an associate professor at NYU in 1995. She became a full professor in 2002 and served as the chair of the Psychology Department (2001–2007). She was named a Collegiate Professor in 2008 and has been director of Undergraduate Research at NYU’s College of Arts and Science since 2010.

Academic work

Carrasco has published more than 100 papers in scientific journals, and has written several authoritative reviews regarding the behavioral effects and neuronal bases of visual attention. She has made contributions in visual perception and attention. These include documenting the central role of physiological factors in visual search, characterizing how attention affects early vision, and developing experiments to investigate the underlying mechanisms. One of her findings shows that attention alters appearance. An old question believed to be outside the realm of scientific study, Carrasco developed an innovative behavioural paradigm that has now become a standard in assessing the effects of attention and awareness, a critical question in psychology, neuroscience and philosophy, Most recently, she has expanded her research to include special populations (autism, ADHD, amblyopia and cortical blindness).

Honors

Carrasco has received an

American Association of University Women The American Association of University Women (AAUW), officially founded in 1881, is a non-profit organization that advances Justice, equity for women and girls through advocacy, education, and research. The organization has a nationwide Social net ...

Fellowship, a National Young Investigator Award from the

National Science Foundation The U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF) is an Independent agencies of the United States government#Examples of independent agencies, independent agency of the Federal government of the United States, United States federal government that su ...

, a Cattell Fellowship, and a

Guggenheim Fellowship Guggenheim Fellowships are Grant (money), grants that have been awarded annually since by the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation, endowed by the late Simon Guggenheim, Simon and Olga Hirsh Guggenheim. These awards are bestowed upon indiv ...

. Carrasco was the president of the

Vision Sciences Society Vision, Visions, or The Vision may refer to: Perception Optical perception * Visual perception, the sense of sight * Visual system, the physical mechanism of eyesight * Computer vision, a field dealing with how computers can be made to gain und ...

(2011–2012). She has been a senior editor of ''

Vision Research ''Vision Research'' is a peer-reviewed scientific journal specializing in the neuroscience and psychology of the visual system The visual system is the physiological basis of visual perception (the ability to perception, detect and process ...

'' and associate editor of ''

Journal of Vision ''Journal of Vision'' is an open access online scientific journal specializing in the neuroscience and psychology of the visual system. It publishes primary research from any discipline within the visual sciences. Submissions go through pre-public ...

'', She has organized international workshops on attention , and edited the resulting special issues on Visual Attention (in ''Vision Research'': 2004, 2009, 2012). Carrasco was awarded the honor of Silver Professor of Psychology and Neuroscience at NYU. In 2021, she was inducted into the

National Academy of Sciences The National Academy of Sciences (NAS) is a United States nonprofit, NGO, non-governmental organization. NAS is part of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, along with the National Academy of Engineering (NAE) and the ...

. In 2022, she received the 10th Andrew Carnegie Prize in Mind Brain Sciences, sponsored by the

Carnegie Corporation of New York The Carnegie Corporation of New York is a philanthropic fund established by Andrew Carnegie in 1911 to support education programs across the United States, and later the world. Since its founding, the Carnegie Corporation has endowed or othe ...

and administered by CMU's Neuroscience Institute.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Carrasco, Marissa New York University faculty Princeton University alumni Wesleyan University faculty Foreign associates of the National Academy of Sciences