University of East Anglia


University of East Anglia
School of Psychology
Lawrence Stenhouse Building
Norwich Research Park

Norwich NR4 7TJ, United Kingdom

External Homepage

    2024

  • ROBOVERINE: A human-inspired neural robotic process model of active visual search and scene grammar in naturalistic environments
    Grieben, R., Sehring, S., Tekülve, J., Spencer, J. P., & Schöner, G.
    In 2024 IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS) IEEE
  • Visual selective attention: Priority is all you need
    Grieben, R., Spencer, J. P., & Schöner, G.
    In L. K. Samuelson, Frank, S. L., Toneva, M., Mackey, A., & Hazeltine, E. (Eds.), Proceedings of the 46th Annual Conference of the Cognitive Science Society
  • 2023

  • Formal theories clarify the complex: Generalizing a neural process account of the interaction of visual exploration and word learning in infancy
    Bhat, A. A., Samuelson, L. K., & Spencer, J. P.
    Child Development
  • 2022

  • Neural interactions in working memory explain decreased recall precision and similarity-based feature repulsion
    Johnson, J. S., van Lamsweerde, A. E., Dineva, E., & Spencer, J. P.
    Scientific Reports, 12(1)
  • Word-Object Learning via Visual Exploration in Space (WOLVES): A neural process model of cross-situational word learning.
    Bhat, A. A., Spencer, J. P., & Samuelson, L. K.
    Psychological Review, 129(4), 640–695
  • Testing predictions of a neural process model of visual attention in infancy across competitive and non-competitive contexts
    Spencer, J. P., Ross-Sheehy, S., & Eschman, B.
    Infancy, 27(2), 389–411
  • 2021

  • Probing the Neural Systems Underlying Flexible Dimensional Attention
    Buss, A. T., Magnotta, V., Hazeltine, E., Kinder, K., & Spencer, J. P.
    Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience, 33(7), 1365–1380
  • Learning words in space and time: Contrasting models of the suspicious coincidence effect
    Jenkins, G. W., Samuelson, L. K., Penny, W., & Spencer, J. P.
    Cognition, 210, 104576
  • Toward a Precision Science of Word Learning: Understanding Individual Vocabulary Pathways
    Samuelson, L. K.
    Child Development Perspectives, 15(2), 117–124
  • How do neural processes give rise to cognition? Simultaneously predicting brain and behavior with a dynamic model of visual working memory
    Buss, A. T., Magnotta, V. A., Penny, W., Schöner, G., Huppert, T. J., & Spencer, J. P.
    Psychological review, 128(2), 362–395
  • 2020

  • The Development of Working Memory
    Spencer, J. P.
    Current Directions in Psychological Science, 29(6), 545–553
  • 2018

  • Changes in frontal and posterior cortical activity underlie the early emergence of executive function
    Buss, A. T., & Spencer, J. P.
    Developmental Science, 21(4), e12602
  • 2017

  • Changes in frontal and posterior cortical activity underlie the early emergence of executive function
    Buss, A. T., & Spencer, J. P.
    Developmental Science, (June 2017), 1–14
  • Empirical Tests of a Brain-Based Model of Executive Function Development
    Perone, S., Plebanek, D. J., Lorenz, M. G., Spencer, J. P., & Samuelson, L. K.
    Child Development, 00, 1–17
  • Model-based functional neuroimaging using dynamic neural fields: An integrative cognitive neuroscience approach
    Wijeakumar, S., Ambrose, J. P., Spencer, J. P., & Curtu, R.
    Journal of Mathematical Psychology, 76, 212–235
  • Model-based functional neuroimaging using dynamic neural fields: An integrative cognitive neuroscience approach
    Wijeakumar, S., Ambrose, J. P., Spencer, J. P., & Curtu, R.
    Journal of Mathematical Psychology, 76, 212–235
  • 2016

  • Testing a dynamic-field account of interactions between spatial attention and spatial working memory
    Johnson, J. S., & Spencer, J. P.
    Attention, Perception, and Psychophysics, 78(4), 1043–1063
  • 2015

  • Rule Representation
    Buss, A. T., & Spencer, J. P.
    (Vol. 3) Elsevier Inc.
  • Journal of Experimental Psychology : Human Perception and Performance A Dynamic Neural Field Model of Temporal Order A Dynamic Neural Field Model of Temporal Order Judgments
    Hecht, L. N., Spencer, J. P., Vecera, S. P., Hecht, L. N., Spencer, J. P., & Vecera, S. P.
  • Enhancing the executive functions of 3-year-olds in the dimensional change card sort task
    Perone, S., Molitor, S., Buss, A. T., Spencer, J. P., & Samuelson, L. K.
    Child Development, 86, 812–827
  • The Infant Orienting With Attention Task: Assessing the Neural Basis of Spatial Attention in Infancy
    Ross-Sheehy, S., Schneegans, S., & Spencer, J. P.
    Infancy, 20(5), 467–506
  • Grounding cognitive-level processes in behavior: The view from dynamic systems theory
    Samuelson, L. K., Jenkins, G. W., & Spencer, J. P.
    Topics in Cognitive Science, 7(2), 191–205
  • 2014

  • Integrating the Behavioral and Neural Dynamics of Response Selection in a Dual-task Paradigm: A Dynamic Neural Field Model of Dux et al. ()
    Buss, A. T., Wifall, T., Hazeltine, E., & Spencer, J. P.
    Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience, 26(2), 334–351
  • The emergent executive: a dynamic field theory of the development of executive function
  • Change occurs when body meets environment: A review of the embodied nature of development
    Maruyama, S., Dineva, E., Spencer, J. P., & Schöner, G.
    Japanese Psychological Research, 56, 385–401
  • The Co-Development of Looking Dynamics and Discrimination Performance
    Perone, S., & Spencer, J. P.
    Developmental Psychology, 50(3), 837–852
  • Dynamic interactions between visual working memory and saccade target selection
    Schneegans, S., Spencer, J. P., Schöner, G., Hwang, S., & Hollingworth, A.
    Journal of vision, 14(11), 9
  • 2013

  • Autonomous visual exploration creates developmental change in familiarity and novelty seeking behaviors
    Perone, S., & Spencer, J. P.
    Frontiers in Psychology, 4(648), 1–21
  • Autonomy in Action: Linking the Act of Looking to Memory Formation in Infancy via Dynamic Neural Fields
    Perone, S., & Spencer, J. P.
    Cognitive Science, 37(1), 1–60
  • 2012

  • Behavioral dynamics and neural grounding of a dynamic field theory of multi-object tracking.
    Spencer, J. P., Barich, K., Goldberg, J., & Perone, S.
    Journal of integrative neuroscience, 11(3), 339–62
  • A neurobehavioral model of flexible spatial language behaviors
    Lipinski, J., Schneegans, S., Sandamirskaya, Y., Spencer, J. P., & Schöner, G.
    Journal of experimental psychology. Learning, memory, and cognition, 38, 1490–1511
  • When seeing is knowing: The role of visual cues in the dissociation between children′s rule knowledge and rule use
    Buss, A. T., & Spencer, J. P.
    Journal of Experimental Child Psychology, 111(3), 561–569
  • The Function and Fallibility of Visual Feature Integration: A Dynamic Neural Field Model of Illusory Conjunctions
    Lins, J., Schneegans, S., Spencer, J., & Schöner, G.
    Frontiers in Computational Neuroscience, (128)
  • A Neuro-Behavioral Model of Flexible Spatial Language Behaviors
    Lipinski, J., Schneegans, S., Sandamirskaya, Y., Spencer, J. P., & Schöner, G.
    Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory and Cognition., 38(6), 1490–1511
  • Contributions of dynamic systems theory to cognitive development
    Spencer, J. P., Austin, A., & Schutte, A. R.
    Cognitive Development, 27, 401–418
  • 2011

  • Stronger neural dynamics capture changes in infants′ visual working memory capacity over development
    Perone, S., Simmering, V. R., & Spencer, J. P.
    Developmental Science, 14(6), 1379–1392
  • Grounding word learning in space
    Samuelson, L. K., Smith, L. B., Perry, L. K., & Spencer, J. P.
    PloS one, 6, E28095
  • Twenty years and going strong: A dynamic systems revolution in motor and cognitive development
    Spencer, J. P., Perone, S., & Buss, A. T.
    Child Development Perspectives, 5(4), 260–266
  • 2010

  • The role of experience in location estimation: Target distributions shift location memory biases
    Lipinski, J., Simmering, V. R., Johnson, J. S., & Spencer, J. P.
    Cognition, 115(1), 147–153
  • Biased feedback in spatial recall yields a violation of delta rule learning
    Lipinski, J., Spencer, J. P., & Samuelson, L. K.
    Psychonomic Bulletin and Review, 17(4), 581–588
  • Biased feedback in spatial recall yields a violation of delta rule learning
    Lipinski, J., Spencer, J. P., & Samuelson, L. K.
    Psychonomic Bulletin & Review, 17(4), 581–588
  • Filling the gap on developmental change: Tests of a dynamic field theory of spatial cognition
    Schutte, A. R., & Spencer, J. P.
    Journal of Cognition and Development, 11(3), 328–355
  • A Dialogue on the Role of Computational Modeling in Developmental Science
    Simmering, V. R., Triesch, J., Deak, G. O., & Spencer, J. P.
    Child Development Perspectives, 4(2), 152–158
  • Scenes and tracking with dynamic neural fields: How to update a robotic scene representation
    Zibner, S. K. U., Faubel, C., Iossifidis, I., Schöner, G., & Spencer, J. P.
    In Development and Learning (ICDL), 2010 IEEE 9th International Conference on (pp. 244–250) IEEE
  • 2009

  • A layered neural architecture for the consolidation, maintenance, and updating of representations in visual working memory.
    Johnson, J. S., Spencer, J. P., & Schöner, G.
    Brain research, 1299, 17–32
  • Integrating the Behavioral and Neural Dynamics of Response Selection in a Dual-task Paradigm : A Dynamic Neural Field Model of Dux et al. (2009)
    Buss, A. T., Wifall, T., Hazeltine, E., & Spencer, J. P.
    , 334–351
  • A dynamic neural field model of visual working memory and change detection.
    Johnson, J. S. J. S., Spencer, J. P., Luck, S. J., & Schöner, G.
    Psychological science, 20(5), 568–577
  • A layered neural architecture for the consolidation, maintenance, and updating of representations in visual working memory
    Johnson, J. S., Spencer, J. P., & Schöner, G.
    Brain Research, 1299, 17–32
  • Tests of the dynamic field theory and the spatial precision hypothesis: capturing a qualitative developmental transition in spatial working memory.
    Schutte, A. R. A. R., & Spencer, J. P.
    Journal of experimental psychology. Human perception and performance, 35(6), 1698–725
  • Response to on "Infants′ Perseverative Search Errors Are Induced by Pragmatic Misinterpretation"
    Spencer, J. P., Dineva, E., Smith, L. B., Topal, J., Toth, M., Gergely, G., & Csibra, G.
    Science, 325(5948), 1624–1624
  • 2008

  • Moving to a higher ground: the dynamic field theory and the dynamics of visual cognition
    Johnson, J. S., Spencer, J. P., & Schöner, G.
    New Ideas in Psychology, 26, 227–251
  • Generalizing the dynamic field theory of spatial cognition across real and developmental time scales
    Simmering, V. R., Schutte, A. R., & Spencer, J. P.
    Brain Research, 1202, 68–86
  • Generality with specificity: The dynamic field theory generalizes across tasks and time scales
    Simmering, V. R., & Spencer, J. P.
    Developmental Science, 11(4), 541–555
  • Defending Qualitative Change : The View From Dynamical Systems Theory Defending Qualitative Change : The View From Dynamical Systems Theory
    Spencer, J. P., & Perone, S.
    , 79(November 2008), 1639–1647
  • 2007

  • Planning ′discrete′ movements using a continuous system: Insights from a dynamic field theory of movement preparation
    Schutte, A. R., & Spencer, J. P.
    Motor Control, 11, 166–208
  • 2006

  • Reference-related inhibition produces enhanced position discrimination and fast repulsion near axes of symmetry.
    Simmering, V. R., Spencer, J. P., & Schöner, G.
    Perception & psychophysics, 68(6), 1027–46
  • Moving toward a grand theory of development: In memory of Esther Thelen
    Spencer, J. P., Clearfield, M. W., Corbetta, D., Ulrich, B. D., Buchanan, P., & Schoner, G.
    Child Development, 77, 1521–1538
  • Toward a formal theory of flexible spatial behavior: Geometric category biases generalize across pointing and verbal response types
    Spencer, J. P., Simmering, V. R., & Schutte, A. R.
    Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception & Performance, 32, 473–490
  • 2003

  • Testing the dynamic field theory: Working memory for locations becomes more spatially precise over development
    Schutte, A. R., Spencer, J. P., & Schöner, G.
    Child Development, 74(5), 1393–1417
  • Bridging the representational gap in the dynamic systems approach to development
    Spencer, J. P., & Schöner, G.
    Developmental Science, 6(4), 392–412
  • 2002

  • Generalizing the dynamic field theory of the A-not-B error beyond infancy: Three-year-olds′ delay- and experience-dependent location memory biases
    Schutte, A. R., & Spencer, J. P.
    Child Development, 73(2), 377–404
  • 2001

  • Tests of a dynamic systems account of the A-not-B error: The influence of prior experience on the spatial memory abilities of 2-year-olds
    Spencer, J. P., Smith, L. B., & Thelen, E.
    Child Development, 72, 1327–1346