A tribute to scientific contributions of Charles W. Eriksen (1923-2018) / Lisa R. Fournier, Joseph S. Lappin, James E. Hoffman, Gordon D. Logan

Charles Walter 'Erik" Eriksen, a scientific giant in the field of visual perception and visual cognition and a professor emeritus of psychology at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, died at his home on February 16, 2018, at the age of 95. The scope and impact of Erik's scientific and methodological contributions to the visual and cognitive sciences are profound. These include discovering that most visual masking phenomena can be attributed to temporal integration within the visual system, developing the "flanker task" and instituting response competition logic as a means to understand the limitations of selective attention, creating the continuous flow model ofiåsual information processing, and introducing and critically evaluating several theories of selective attention. In fact, many of the methods used in visual attention research and a significant amount ofthe current knowledge ofthe temporal processes ofselective attention are due to Erik's research. Moreover, Erik is recognized for his role in freeing research on human perception and cognition from the constraints of behaviorism. Overviews of Erik's career and scientific contributions can be found in Lappin, Logan, Fournier, and Hoffman (2018) and in Kramer et al. (1994). Here, we briefly describe a subset of Erik's major accomplishments and ideas during his career at the University ofIllinois, Urbana-Champaign (1960s through the 1990s). Most of what is summarized here.

Psychology.