Observation

Barbara Tversky Receives Kampé de Fériet Award

Barbara Tversky

APS Past President Barbara Tversky (Teachers College, Columbia University, and Stanford University) has received the Kampé de Fériet Award for her research on memory, thought, spatial models, and event perception. The award, named for the French scientist Joseph Kampé de Fériet, recognizes significant work in the field of information processing and the management of uncertainty.

Tversky, an APS Fellow, received the award virtually June 17th during the 18th International Conference on Information Processing and Management of Uncertainty in Knowledge-Based Systems. During the conference, she also presented a keynote speech on how action shapes thought. As a cognitive psychologist, Tversky has contributed to research on everything from memory and categorization to creativity and design with a particular focus on how people’s perceptions of space and action inform thinking and communication.

During her Presidential Symposium at the 31st APS Annual Convention in Washington, D.C., in 2019, “Making Thinking Visible,” Tversky invited researchers and experts in the arts to illustrate how creative pursuits such as film, drawing, dancing, architecture, and music connect our internal and external worlds. Tversky further explores the connection between movement and thinking in her 2019 book Mind in Motion: How Action Shapes Thought,which explores the foundational role of spatial thinking, including our perceptions of space and our actions in it, to thought as a whole.

Previous recipients of the Kampé de Fériet Award include APS William James Fellow Daniel Kahneman for his research on decision making under uncertainty.

Read Barbara Tversky’s collection of Presidential Columns here.


APS regularly opens certain online articles for discussion on our website. Effective February 2021, you must be a logged-in APS member to post comments. By posting a comment, you agree to our Community Guidelines and the display of your profile information, including your name and affiliation. Any opinions, findings, conclusions, or recommendations present in article comments are those of the writers and do not necessarily reflect the views of APS or the article’s author. For more information, please see our Community Guidelines.

Please login with your APS account to comment.