Stefan Uddenberg

Stefan Uddenberg

Asst. Professor of Psychology (incoming @ UIUC)
Principal Researcher @ Chicago Booth

University of Chicago
Booth School of Business

About

Hello! I am a Principal Researcher at Chicago Booth, working on questions of social perception (with Alex Todorov). In fall 2024, I’ll be starting a lab at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign in the Attention & Perception program area. I will be accepting graduate students for the 2024-2025 academic year. If you are interested in joining my lab, please reach out!

My primary research program explores the default assumptions wired into the mind, especially in the context of perception. It turns out that what we see is a process of unconscious inferences, where we take into account not only the exact nature of the light entering our eyes, but also a set of assumptions about the source that most likely generated or reflected that light. It is now becoming possible to reveal the nature of these assumptions through various techniques. One of my favorite techniques is the method of serial reproduction — essentially the children’s game of ‘Broken Telephone’ — which I use to explore our default assumptions across several visual contexts, ranging from faces to intuitive physics.

Most recently, I’ve also been working on building new face perception models, such that we can generate hyper-realistic face images, and transform such images along many perceived facial attributes of psychological interest. These models are important for elucidating and combating stereotypes and widespread discrimination. If you’d like to hear more about my work, listen to this episode of the “Two Psychologists Four Beers” podcast.

Prior to joining Booth, I started out my postdoc at Princeton (still with Alex). Before that, I did my graduate work at Yale with Brian Scholl at the Perception & Cognition lab. I also spent time as a research assistant working with Won Mok Shim in the Visual Perception & Cognition Lab at Dartmouth College, which is also my undergraduate alma mater. I majored in Cognitive Science, Japanese Studies, and "A Cappella Studies". In my spare time, I also fight fake news.

Interests

  • Visual Cognition
  • Face Perception
  • Mental Defaults (aka priors)
  • Intuitive Physics
  • Visual Communication

Education

  • PhD in Cognitive Psychology, 2018

    Yale University

  • B.A. in Cognitive Science & Japanese Studies, 2011

    Dartmouth College

Publications

Uddenberg, S., Thompson, B., Vlasceanu, M., Griffiths, T. L., & Todorov, A. (2023). Iterated learning reveals stereotypes of facial trustworthiness that propagate in the absence of evidence. Cognition, 237, 105452.

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Todorov, A., Uddenberg, S., & Albohn, D. N. (2023). Generative models for visualizing idiosyncratic impressions. British Journal of Psychology, 114(2), 511-514.

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Albohn, D. N., Uddenberg, S., & Todorov, A. (2022). A data-driven, hyper-realistic method for visualizing individual mental representations of faces. Frontiers in Psychology, 13:997498.

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Peterson, J. C., Uddenberg, S., Griffiths, T. L., Todorov, A., & Suchow, J. W. (2022). Deep models of superficial face judgments. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 119(17), e2115228119.

PDF Supplement Reflections

Colombatto, C., Uddenberg, S., & Scholl, B. J. (2021). The efficiency of demography in face perception. Attention, Perception, & Psychophysics, 83(8), 3104-3117.

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Suthaharan, P., Reed, E. J., Leptourgos, P., Kenney, J., Uddenberg, S., Mathys, C. D., Litman, L., Robinson, J., Moss, A. J., Taylor, J. R., Groman, S. M, & Corlett, P. R. (2021). Paranoia and belief updating during the COVID-19 crisis. Nature Human Behavior, 5(9), 1190-1202.

PDF DOI

Reed, E. J., Uddenberg, S., Suthaharan, P., Mathys, C. D., Taylor, J. R., Groman, S. M., & Corlett, P. R. (2020). Paranoia as a deficit in non-social belief updating. eLife, 9, e56345.

PDF DOI

Uddenberg, S., & Scholl, B. J. (2018). Teleface: Serial reproduction of faces reveals a whiteward bias in race memory. Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, 147(10), 1466-1487.

PDF DOI

*Ongchoco, J.D.K., *Uddenberg, S., & Chun, M. M (2016). Statistical learning of movement. Psychonomic Bulletin & Review, 23(16). *Equal author contribution.

PDF DOI

van Buren, B., Uddenberg, S., & Scholl, B. J. (2016). The automaticity of perceiving animacy: Goal-directed motion in simple shapes influences visuomotor behavior even when task-irrelevant. Psychonomic Bulletin & Review, 23(3), 797-802.

PDF DOI

Uddenberg, S., & Shim, W. S. (2015). Seeing the world through target-tinted glasses: Positive mood broadens perceptual tuning. Emotion, 15(3), 1931-1516.

PDF DOI

Manuscripts

Gandalf, N., Uddenberg, S., & Todorov, A. (under revision). A comprehensive semantic space for describing and evaluating faces.

Uddenberg, S., & Scholl, B. J. (under review). Angrier = Blacker?: The influence of emotional expression on the representation of race in faces, measured with serial reproduction.

Uddenberg, S., & Scholl, B. J. (under review). Ten angry men: Serial reproduction reveals that angry faces are represented as more masculine.

Uddenberg, S., Newman, G. E., & Scholl, B. J. (under revision). Perceptual averaging in visual communication: Ensemble representations in the perception of scientific data in graphs.

Bai, X., Uddenberg, S., Labbree, B., & Todorov, A. (under review). Insta-learn: Face stereotypes emerge and persist through insufficient statistical learning.

Presentations and Invited Talks

Uddenberg, S.. Revealing mental representations of leadership across political orientation. Talk given at the University of Massachusetts-Amherst Cognitive Brownbag, 11/1/23.

Uddenberg, S.. Revealing hidden biases in face representation via deceptively simple tasks. Talk given at the Dartmouth College MIND Summer School, 8/13/23.

Uddenberg, S.. Revealing hidden biases in face representation via deceptively simple tasks. Talk given at the University of Chicago Department of Psychology Cognitive Workshop, 4/26/23.

Uddenberg, S., Albohn, D. N., & Todorov, A. (2023). Deep generative models of facial impressions at the population and idiosyncratic levels. Poster presented at the Workshop on Humans, Deep Networks & Facial Recognition, 3/13/23.

Albohn, D. N., Uddenberg, S., & Todorov, A. (2023). Photorealistic reverse correlation. Poster presented at the Society for Personality and Social Psychology, 2/23/23.

Uddenberg, S. (2023). Revealing hidden biases in face representation via deceptively simple tasks. Talk given at Northwestern Medicine’s Insitute for Augmented Intelligence in Medicine, 2/2/23.

Uddenberg, S. (2023). Revealing hidden biases in face representation via deceptively simple tasks. Talk given at Barnard College’s Department of Psychology, 1/23/23.

Uddenberg, S. (2022). Revealing hidden biases in face representation via deceptively simple tasks. Talk given at University of Massachusetts Amherst’s Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences, 12/9/22.

Uddenberg, S. (2022). Revealing hidden biases in face representation via deceptively simple tasks. Talk given at University of Illinois Urabana-Champaign’s Department of Psychology, 11/14/22.

Uddenberg, S., & Todorov, A. (2022). Exploring visual representations of race with deep generative models. Talk given at the 2022 Midwestern Psychological Association Conference, 04/21/22.

Uddenberg, S. (2022). Revealing hidden biases in face representation via deceptively simple tasks. Talk given at Dartmouth College’s Psychological & Brain Sciences Department, 01/14/22.

Uddenberg, S., Thompson, B., Vlasceanu, M., Griffiths, T. L., & Todorov, A. (2021). A face you can trust?: Iterated learning reveals how stereotypes of facial trustworthiness may propagate in the absence of evidence. Talk given at the University of Massachusetts-Amherst’s Cognitive Brownbag, 11/17/21.

Uddenberg, S., Thompson, B., Vlasceanu, M., Griffiths, T. L., & Todorov, A. (2021). A face you can trust?: Iterated learning reveals how stereotypes of facial trustworthiness may propagate in the absence of evidence. Talk given at Northwestern University’s Cognitive Psychology Brownbag, 10/22/21.

Uddenberg, S., & Todorov, A. (2021). Modeling impressions of faces. Talk given at the No Name Face Perception Conference, 07/01/21.

Uddenberg, S., Kwak, J., & Scholl, B. (2021). Reconstructing physical representations of block towers in visual working memory. Poster presented at the 21st annual meeting of the Vision Sciences Society, 05/24/21.

Uddenberg, S., Thompson, B., Vlasceanu, M., Griffiths, T. L., & Todorov, A. (2021). A face you can trust: Iterated learning reveals how stereotypes of facial trustworthiness may propagate in the absence of evidence. Talk given at Harvard University’s Cognitive, Brain, and Behavior Research Seminar Series, 04/01/21.

Uddenberg, S., Thompson, B., Vlasceanu, M., Griffiths, T. L., & Todorov, A. (2021). A face you can trust: Iterated learning reveals how stereotypes of facial trustworthiness may propagate in the absence of evidence. Talk given at the Johns Hopkins University Early Career Colloquium Series,03/17/21.
Abstract

Uddenberg, S., Thompson, B., Vlasceanu, M., Griffiths, T. L., & Todorov, A. (2020). A face you can trust: Iterated learning reveals how stereotypes of facial trustworthiness may propagate in the absence of evidence. Talk given at the University of Wisconsin-Madison Cognitive/Developmental Brownbag Series, 10/28/20.

Uddenberg, S., Thompson, B., Vlasceanu, M., Griffiths, T. L., & Todorov, A. (2020). A face you can trust: Iterated learning reveals how stereotypes of facial trustworthiness may propagate in the absence of evidence. Talk given at the Stanford Graduate School of Business Rising Scholars Conference, 10/27/20.

Uddenberg, S., Thompson, B., Vlasceanu, M., Griffiths, T. L., & Todorov, A. (2020). A face you can trust: Iterated learning reveals how stereotypes of facial trustworthiness may propagate in the absence of evidence. Poster presented at the 20th annual meeting of the Vision Sciences Society, 6/21/20.
Abstract

Kwak, J., Uddenberg, S., & Scholl, B. (2020). Will it fall?: Exploring the properties that mediate perceived physical instability. Poster presented at the 20th annual meeting of the Vision Sciences Society, 6/21/20.
Abstract

Uddenberg, S., Colombatto, C., & Scholl, B. (2019). The speed of demography in face perception. Poster presented at the 19th annual meeting of the Vision Sciences Society, 5/21/19, St. Pete Beach, FL.
Abstract

Uddenberg, S., Newman, G. E., & Scholl, B. (2019). Ensemble representations in the perception of graphs. Talk given at the InfoVis x Vision Science satellite at the 19th annual meeting of the Vision Sciences Society, 5/20/19, St. Pete Beach, FL.

Uddenberg, S., & Scholl, B. (2018). Ten angry men: Serial reproduction of faces reveals that angry faces are represented as more masculine. Poster presented at the 18th annual meeting of the Vision Sciences Society, 5/20/18, St. Pete Beach, FL.
Abstract

Uddenberg, S., & Scholl, B. (2017). “TeleFace”: Revealing default attractors in face space with serial reproduction. Talk given at the Vision Lunch Series, Stanford University, 7/23/17, Stanford, CA.

Uddenberg, S., & Scholl, B. (2017). Angrier = Blacker?: The influence of emotional expression on the representation of race in faces, measured with serial reproduction. Talk given at the 17th annual meeting of the Vision Sciences Society, 5/23/17, St. Pete Beach, FL.
Abstract

Uddenberg, S., Newman, G., & Scholl, B. (2016). Perceptual averaging of scientific data: Implications of ensemble representations for the perception of patterns in graphs. Poster presented at the 16th annual meeting of the Vision Sciences Society, 5/16/16, St. Pete Beach, FL.
Abstract

Ongchoco, J. D. K., Uddenberg, S., & Chun, M. M. (2016). Statistical learning of movement. Poster presented at the 16th annual meeting of the Vision Sciences Society, 5/16/16, St. Pete Beach, FL.
Abstract

Uddenberg, S., & Scholl, B. (2015). Revealing mental defaults in face space with serial reproduction. Poster presented at the 15th annual meeting of the Vision Sciences Society, 5/19/15, St. Pete Beach, FL.
Abstract

Familiar, A., Uddenberg, S., & Shim, W. M. (2015). Positive affect reduces visual crowding. Poster presented at the 15th annual meeting of the Vision Sciences Society, 5/17/15, St. Pete Beach, FL.
Abstract

Guerin, S., Uddenberg, S., Johnson, M., & Chun, M. M. (2015). Decoding the temporal structure of perception and reflection. Poster presented at the 15th annual meeting of the Vision Sciences Society, 5/18/15, St. Pete Beach, FL.
Abstract

van Buren, B., Uddenberg, S., & Scholl, B. (2015). The automaticity of perceiving animacy: Seeing goal-directed motion in simple shapes influences visuomotor behavior even when task-irrelevant. Poster presented at the 15th annual meeting of the Vision Sciences Society, 5/19/15, St. Pete Beach, FL.
Abstract

Shim, W.M., Uddenberg, S., & Lee, Y. S. (2013). Changing pitch modulates motion-direction information in V1. Talk given at the 13th annual meeting of the Vision Sciences Society, 5/12/13, Naples, FL.
Abstract

Uddenberg, S., & Shim, W. M. (2012). The influence of emotion on feature-based attention: positive emotion broadens perceptual tuning curves. Poster presented at the 12th annual meeting of the Vision Sciences Society, 5/11/12, Naples, FL.
Abstract

Patents

Todorov, A. T., Uddenberg, S. D., Peterson, J. C., Griffiths, T. L., & Suchow, J. W. (2022). Data-driven, photorealistic social face-trait encoding, prediction, and manipulation using deep neural networks (U.S. Patent No. 11,250,245). U.S. Patent and Trademark Office. [About ethical licenses]

Contact

  • 5807 South Woodlawn Ave, Chicago, IL 60637