Irvin Rock (1922-1995) was my mentor, teacher, friend and surrogate father for 30 years. The association began in 1965 at Yeshiva University in Manhattan where we worked on perceptual adaptation to prismatic distortion, form perception in the periphery, one trial learning, the moon illusion, and the influence of orientation on perceived form.

When he moved to the newly established Institute for Cognitive Studies at Rutgers-Newark, we did research in the areas of anorthoscopic perception, the 'barber pole' effect, and form perception without attention. Following his retirement, he took a position in the psychology department at UC Berkeley, experimenting and writing at an ever more intense pace. His book Inattentional Blindness written with Arien Mack and published posthumously, has contributed to the current interest in processes of attention.

An obituary written by Alan L. Gilchrist can be found at: http://www.perceptionweb.com/perc0496/obit.html

This photo of Irv, myself and his wife Sylvia was taken in Berkeley, following what was his final public lecture.

Since 1996, UC Berkeley hosts the Irvin Rock Memorial Lecture:

http://vision.berkeley.edu/VSP/content/news/meetings_events/oxyopia/oxyopia_rocklecture.html

Publications with Irvin Rock:

Rock, I. & Halper, F. Form perception without a retinal image. American Journal of Psychology,
1969, 82, 425-435.

Rock, I., Halper, F. & Clayton, T. The perception and recognition of complex figures. Cognitive Psychology, 1972, 3, 655-673.

Rock, I., Schauer, R., & Halper, F. Form perception without attention. Quarterly Journal of
Experimental Psychology, 1976, 28, 429-440.

Rock, I., Halper, F., DeVita, J. & Wheeler, D. Eye-movement as a cue to figure motion in anortho-
scopic perception. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Performance, 1987, 13(3),
344-352.