Irving Biederman is an American vision scientist specializing in the study of brain processes underlying humans' ability to quickly recognize and interpret what they see. He has a Ph.D. degree from the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor (1966).
While best known for his Recognition by Components Theory that focuses on object recognition, his more recent work has tended to examine the recognition of human faces. Biederman argues that face recognition is separate and distinct from the recognition of objects.
In addition to being professor of psychology and computer science at the USC College of Letters, Arts and Sciences, he is holder of the Harold Dornsife Chair in Cognitive Neuroscience, and is also a member of the USC Program in Neural, Informational and Behavioral Sciences.
Biederman recently appeared on an episode of Penn & Teller: Bullshit!, explaining the thought process of UFO hunters.