Hi, I am Alexander (Sasha) Pastukhov.
I am a behavioral neuroscientist / scientific programmer / data scientist keenly interested in visual perception, consciousness, attention, and decision making. My favorite psychophysical tool: multistable displays, like the rotating head (yes, that is me!) on the left. Currently, I teach courses on Bayesian statistics, machine learning, data science using R, programming using Python, and linear algebra.

  pastukhov.alexander@gmail.com

Curriculum Vitae

work_outline

Employment

2015– Assistant Professor (Akademischer Rat) at Department of General Psychology and Methodology, Otto-Friedrich Universität, Bamberg, Germany open_in_new
2004–2015 Research Scientist at Department of Cognitive Biology, Otto-von-Guericke Universität, Magdeburg, Germany
2003–2004 Research Scientist at Department of Cognitive Neuroscience, University of Plymouth, Plymouth, UK
2002–2003 Lecturer at CAD Systems Department, Volgograd State Technical University, Volgograd, Russia
2002–2002 Research Scientist at CAD Systems Department, Volgograd State Technical University, Volgograd, Russia

school

Education

2000–2001 Ph.D. (Kandidat Technicheskih Nauk) in Computer Science at Volgograd State Technical University, Russia
1998–2000 M. Sc. in Computer Science at Volgograd State Technical University, Russia
1994–1998 B.Sc. in Computer Science at Volgograd State Technical University, Russia

engineering

Experience and Skills

Academia 42 publications in referred journals expand_circle_down
2013 “Best of the Year” award from the Psychonomic Society open_in_new
70+ conference abstracts
Teaching Python open_in_new
R for data science open_in_new
Machine learning
Bayesian statistics open_in_new
Linear algebra open_in_new
Matlab
Neurobiology of visual and non-visual perception
Decision making
Neurobiology of consciousness
Data Science R and Python
Statistics, parameteric and non-parameteric resampling
Bayesian statistics via MCMC (Stan)
Machine Learning
Scientific
Programming
Python + PsychoPy
Matlab + Psychtoolbox
Otree online studies
Hardware: eye trackers, EEG, VR, Kinect, haptic devices
IT Docker/Docker Compose
Git
LAMP
SQL: MariaDB, PostgreSQL
Languages Russian (native)
English (fluent writing and speaking)
German (fluent speaking, good writing)
Hobbies kayaking White water kayaking open_in_new
directions_bike Bicycling

terminal

Programming skills

Python Python
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Data Science: NumPy, Pandas, SciPy
Machine Learning: Scikit-Learn, OpenCV
Web: Django
Scientific Programming: PsychoPy, PyGame, Piglet, OpenGL/GLSL
R R
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Data Science: Tidyverse, ggplot2
Package development with Rcpp and Stan expand_circle_down
RMarkdown/Bookdown
Shiny
STAN STAN
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Custom models
JavaScript JavaScript
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AJAX
WebGL
Matlab Matlab
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Data analysis
Psychtoolbox
Package development with MEX (C/C++) expand_circle_down
C/C++ C/C++
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Rcpp for R
MEX for Matlab
OpenCV
C# C#
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Unity
WPF
Java Java
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Android

Publications

2024

Ralf Bergner-Koether, Lasse Peschka, Alexander Pastukhov, Christian-Claus Carbon, Sabine Steins-Loeber, Göran Hajak, and Martin Rettenberger (2024). The Relevance of Hypersexuality and Impulsivity in Different Groups of Treatment-Seekers With and Without (Exclusive) Pedophilia. Sexual Abuse, 0(0), 1-28.


2023

Malin Styrnal, Christian-Claus Carbon, and Alexander Pastukhov (2023). When a bank becomes a bank, and a bank is the bank but not the bank: Multistability of homonyms’ meaning. i-Perception, 14(4), .
Alexander Pastukhov, Malin Styrnal, and Christian-Claus Carbon (2023). History-dependent changes to distribution of dominance phases in multistable perception. Journal of Vision, 23(3), 16.
Alexander Pastukhov, Lisa Koßmann, and Christian-Claus Carbon (2023). Reconstructing a disambiguation sequence that forms perceptual memory of multistable displays via reverse correlation method: Bias onset perception but gently. Journal of Vision, 23(3), 10.
Johannes Leder, Astrid Schütz, and Alexander Pastukhov (2023). Keeping the Kids Home. Social Psychology, 54(1-2), 27-39.


2022

Alexander Pastukhov and Christian-Claus Carbon (2022). Change not State: Perceptual coupling in multistable displays reflects transient bias induced by perceptual change. Psychonomic Bulletin & Review, 29(1), 97-107.
Stefan Josef Breitschaft, Alexander Pastukhov, and Christian-Claus Carbon (2022). Wheres My Button Evaluating the User Experience of Surface Haptics in Featureless Automotive User Interfaces. IEEE Transactions on Haptics, 15(2), 292-303.
Alexander Pastukhov (2022). bistablehistory: an R package for history-dependent analysis of perceptual time series. The Journal of Open Source Software, 7(70), 3901.


2021

Alexander Pastukhov (2021). Multistable Perception. Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Psychology .
Robin Cao, Alexander Pastukhov, Stepan Aleshin, Mattia Maurizio, and Jochen Braun (2021). Binocular rivalry reveals an out-of-equilibrium neural dynamics suited for decision-making. eLife, 10, e61581.
Alexander Pastukhov, Lisa Koßmann, and Christian-Claus Carbon (2021). When perception is stronger than physics: Perceptual similarities rather than laws of physics govern the perception of interacting objects. Attention, Perception, & Psychophysics, 84(1), 124-137.
Alexander Pastukhov and Christian-Claus Carbon (2021). Clever Cats: Do They Utilize Change Blindness as a Covered Approaching Strategy?. i-Perception, 12(1), 204166952199459.


2020

Alexander Pastukhov, Kristina Burkel, and Christian-Claus Carbon (2020). Shape specificity of neural persistence for the kinetic-depth effect matches perceptual adaptation but not sensory memory. Attention, Perception, & Psychophysics, 82(4), 1942-1948.
Johannes Leder, Alexander Pastukhov, and Astrid Schütz (2020). Social Value Orientation, Subjective Effectiveness, Perceived Cost, and the Use of Protective Measures During the COVID-19 Pandemic in Germany.. Comprehensive Results in Social Psychology, 4(3), 227-249.
Johannes Leder, Alexander Pastukhov, and Astrid Schütz (2020). Sharing with a Stranger: People Are More Generous with Time than Money.. Comprehensive Results in Social Psychology, 4(2), 109-138.


2019

Alexander Pastukhov, Philipp Kastrup, Isabel Friederike Abs, and Christian-Claus Carbon (2019). Switch rates for orthogonally-oriented kinetic-depth displays are correlated across observers. Journal of Vision, 19(6), 1, 1-13.


2018

Alexander Pastukhov, Christina Rita Zaus, Stepan Aleshin, Jochen Braun, and Christian-Claus Carbon (2018). Perceptual coupling induces co-rotation and speeds up alternations in adjacent bi-stable structure-from-motion objects. Journal of Vision, 18(4), 21.
Christian-Claus Carbon and Alexander Pastukhov (2018). Reliable top-left light convention starts with Early Renaissance: An extensive approach comprising 10k artworks. Frontiers in Psychology, 9(April), 1-7.
Alexander Pastukhov, Johanna Prasch, and Christian-Claus Carbon (2018). Out of sight, out of mind: lack of persistence for occluded moving bi-stable structure-from-motion displays. Attention, Perception, & Psychophysics, 80(5), 1193–1204.
Astrid Schütz, Dario Nalis, and Alexander Pastukhov (2018). The Bamberg Trucking Game: A Paradigm for Assessing the Detection of Win-Win Solutions in a Potential Conflict Scenario. Frontiers in Psychology, 9(February), 1-13.
Dina Devyatko and Alexander Pastukhov (2018). Extrinsic grouping factors in motion-induced blindness. PLOS ONE, 13(1), e0192133.


2017

Alexander Pastukhov (2017). First, you need a Gestalt: An interaction of bottom-up and top-down streams during the perception of the ambiguously rotating human walker. Scientific Reports, 7(1), 1158.


2016

Robin Cao, Alexander Pastukhov, Mattia Maurizio, and Jochen Braun (2016). Collective Activity of Many Bistable Assemblies Reproduces Characteristic Dynamics of Multistable Perception. Journal of Neuroscience, 36(26), 6957-6972.
Alexander Pastukhov and Jan-Nikolas Klanke (2016). Exogenously triggered perceptual switches in multistable structure-from-motion occur in the absence of visual awareness. Journal of Vision, 16(3), 14.
Alexander Pastukhov (2016). Perception and the strongest sensory memory trace of multi-stable displays both form shortly after the stimulus onset. Attention, Perception, & Psychophysics, 78(2), 674-684.


2015

Alexander Pastukhov, Solveiga Vivian-Griffiths, and Jochen Braun (2015). Transformation priming helps to disambiguate sudden changes of sensory inputs. Vision Research, 116, 36-44.


2014

Alexander Pastukhov, Anna Lissner, Jana Füllekrug, and Jochen Braun (2014). Sensory memory of illusory depth in structure-from-motion.. Attention, perception & psychophysics, 76(1), 123-32.
Alexander Pastukhov, Anna Lissner, and Jochen Braun (2014). Perceptual adaptation to structure-from-motion depends on the size of adaptor and probe objects, but not on the similarity of their shapes. Attention, Perception, & Psychophysics, 76(2), 473-488.


2013

Alexander Pastukhov, Pedro E García-Rodríguez, Joachim Haenicke, Antoni Guillamon, Gustavo Deco, and Jochen Braun (2013). Multi-stable perception balances stability and sensitivity. Frontiers in Computational Neuroscience, 7(17), 17.
Alexander Pastukhov, Jana Füllekrug, and Jochen Braun (2013). Sensory memory of structure-from-motion is shape-specific. Attention, Perception, & Psychophysics, 75(6), 1215-1229.
Alexander Pastukhov, Victoria Vonau, Solveiga Stonkute, and Jochen Braun (2013). Spatial and temporal attention revealed by microsaccades. Vision Research, 85(0), 45-57.
Alexander Pastukhov and Jochen Braun (2013). Structure-from-motion: dissociating perception, neural persistence, and sensory memory of illusory depth and illusory rotation. Attention, Perception, & Psychophysics, 75(2), 322-340.
Alexander Pastukhov and Jochen Braun (2013). Disparate time-courses of adaptation and facilitation in multi-stable perception. Learning & Perception, 5(Supplement 2), 101-118.


2012

Solveiga Stonkute, Jochen Braun, and Alexander Pastukhov (2012). The Role of Attention in Ambiguous Reversals of Structure-From-Motion. PLoS ONE, 7(5), e37734.
Alexander Pastukhov, Victoria Vonau, and Jochen Braun (2012). Believable change: Bistable reversals are governed by physical plausibility. Journal of Vision, 12(1), 17-17.


2011

Mariann Hudak, Patricia Gervan, Björn Friedrich, Alexander Pastukhov, Jochen Braun, and Ilona Kovacs (2011). Increased readiness for adaptation and faster alternation rates under binocular rivalry in children.. Frontiers in human neuroscience, 5(128), 128.
Alexander Pastukhov and Jochen Braun (2011). Cumulative history quantifies the role of neural adaptation in multistable perception. Journal of Vision, 11(10), 12-12.


2010

Alexander Pastukhov, Victoria Vonau, and Jochen Braun (2010). No Stopping and No Slowing: Removing Visual Attention with No Effect on Reversals of Phenomenal Appearance. Artificial Neural Networks – ICANN 2010, 6354, 510-515.
Alexander Pastukhov and Jochen Braun (2010). Rare but precious: Microsaccades are highly informative about attentional allocation. Vision Research, 50(12), 1173-1184.


2009

Alexander Pastukhov, Laura Fischer, and Jochen Braun (2009). Visual attention is a single, integrated resource. Vision Research, 49(10), 1166-1173.


2008

Alexander Pastukhov and Jochen Braun (2008). A short-term memory of multi-stable perception. Journal of Vision, 8(13), 7-7.


2007

Alexander Pastukhov and Jochen Braun (2007). Perceptual reversals need no prompting by attention. Journal of Vision, 7(10), 5.


Software


Bistable History R Stan

Estimates cumulative history for time-series for continuously viewed bistable perceptual rivalry displays. Computes cumulative history via a homogeneous first order differential process. I.e., it assumes exponential growth/decay of the history as a function time and perceptually dominant state. Supports Gamma, log normal, and normal distribution families. A package to compute a cumulative history for time-series of perceptual dominance in bistable displays.


eyelinkReader R

R package to import eye tracking recording generated by SR Research Eyelink eye tracker from EDF-files. It includes options to import events and/or recorded samples and extract individual events such as saccades, fixations, blinks, and recorded variables.


saccadr R

The package uses an ensemble of methods approach to label individual samples and then applies a majority vote approach to identify saccades. It uses several methods to label individual samples as belonging to a saccade, classifies a sample as a potential saccade if its proportion of votes exceeds a preset threshold, and then identifies saccades based on minimal saccade duration and minimal time between the saccades. Currently, the library implements saccade detection using methods proposed in Engbert and Kliegl (2003), Otero-Millan et al. (2014), and Nyström and Holmqvist (2010). For binocular data, 1) samples can be averaged before velocity computation, 2) votes can be merged so that function returns binocular saccades, or 3) saccades are extracted for each eye separately. The package can be extended via custom methods and it also uses a modular approach to compute velocity and acceleration from noisy samples with the possibility of using custom differentiation methods. Finally, you can obtain methods votes per gaze sample instead of saccades.


TriDimRegression R Stan

Package to calculate the bidimensional and tridimensional regression between two 2D/3D configurations. Uses Stan engine to provide posterior distribution of fits. Individual fits can be evaluated based on Bayesian R2 and compared via widely applicable information criteria (WAIC) or leave-one out cross-validation criteria (LOO).


BiDimRegression R

Package to calculate the bidimensional regression between two 2D configurations following the approach by Tobler (1965). Provides fits and statistics for Eucledian, affine, and projective transformation. Individual fits can be compared via ANOVA.


edfImport

The library provides a simple interface to import contents of the EDF files generated by Eyelink eye-tracker into Matlab. It imports events and/or samples, automatically parsing them into separate trials. In addition to that, several post-processing functions can be used to extract selected events (fixations, saccades and blinks), variable values (TRIAL_VAR events) and microsaccades.

Teaching Notes


Writing games with Python and PsychoPy open_in_new

A two-semester introductory course on programming and Python aimed at undergraduate psychology students. The aim is to learn how to program psychological experiments using Python and PsychoPy by writing computer games (because experiments are simply boring computer games). The course assumes no prior knowledge or programming skills. The first semester covers basics including conditional statements, lists, dictionaries and use of PsychoPy. The second semester covers topics such as classes, generators, etc. You will program classic games such as "Guess the Number", "Whack-a-Mole", "Memory", "Snake", "Life", "Guitar Hero", etc.

https://alexander-pastukhov.github.io/writing-games-with-python-and-psychopy/


Data analysis using R for Psychology open_in_new

An introductory course on how to use R to analyze a typical psychophysical and social psychology research data. The course will walk you through all the analysis stages from importing a raw data to compiling a nice looking final report that automatically incorporates all the figures and statistics. Although I will introduce base, the main focus is on using Tidyverse family of packages that make data wrangling easy.

https://alexander-pastukhov.github.io/data-analysis-using-r-for-psychology/


Notes on Statistics open_in_new

Currently, a haphazard collection of notes on statistics. The primaryaim is to clarify or expand on topics mentioned but not fully explained in the "Statistical Rethinking" book by Richard McElreath but also now include topics from frequentist statistics. The topics include detailed explanation of information criteria, loss functions, (hidden) collider bias, DAGs, multicolliniarity, etc.

https://alexander-pastukhov.github.io/notes-on-statistics/


R-version of the code for "Linear Algebra: Theory, Intuition, Code" by Mike X Cohen open_in_new

An R-version that tries to keep the code as close to the original as possible.

https://alexander-pastukhov.github.io/cohen-linear-algebra/


Python for social and experimental psychology (old version) open_in_new

A two-semester introductory course on programming and Python aimed at undergraduate psychology students. The aim is to learn how to program psychological experiments using Python and PsychoPy by writing computer games (because experiments are simply boring computer games). The course assumes no prior knowledge or programming skills. The first semester covers basics including conditional statements, lists, dictionaries and use of PsychoPy. The second semester covers topics such as classes, generators, NumPy and Pandas libraries, programming online experiments, etc. You will program classic games such as "Guess the Number", "Hunt the Wumpus", "Memory", "Snake", "Life", "Guitar Hero", etc.

https://alexander-pastukhov.github.io/python-for-experimental-psychology/