Jussi Saarinen

Erik Allardt Fellow, SCAS.
University Lecturer in Perception and Cognition, University of Helsinki

After receiving a PhD in Psychology from the University of Helsinki in 1989, Jussi Saarinen was a
post-doctoral Research Fellow at Bela Julesz’s (State University of New Jersey) and Dennis Levi’s
labs (University of Houston). He has also been a Visiting Scientist at Riitta Hari’s MEG neuroscience
lab (Aalto University) and at the Helsinki Collegium for Advanced Studies. Currently, he works as Uni-
versity Lecturer of Perception and Cognition at the Department of Psychology and Logopedics (Univer-
sity of Helsinki).

Saarinen’s recent research – published in such journals as Vision Research and Journal of Vision –
focuses on cognitive mechanisms underlying implicit (non-verbal) visual memory and learning. For
example, Saarinen, together with Crista Koski and Ilmari Kurki, has employed statistical Classification
image methods in testing whether decay in implicit visual memory could be a random process, or
whether some visual features could be more prone to fading. Preliminary results suggest that the relative
weighting of image components in visual memory does not change as time passes – implicating, counter-
intuitively, that forgetting is not feature specific, but that memories are corrupted in a random fashion.

At SCAS, Saarinen will elaborate on the notion that modern art may partly echo the characteristics of
mechanisms underlying human visual perception and memory.


This information is accurate as of the academic year 2020-21.