Arthur P. Shimamura

Arthur P. Shimamura
Born(1954-06-26)June 26, 1954
Los Angeles, California
DiedOctober 6, 2020(2020-10-06) (aged 66)
Kailua, Hawaii
NationalityAmerican
Alma materUniversity of Washington
Scientific career
FieldsPsychology
InstitutionsUniversity of California, Berkeley
ThesisComprehending logographic and phonetic symbols in Japanese and English-speaking individuals (1982)

Arthur Paul Shimamura (June 26, 1954 – October 6, 2020[1]) was a professor of psychology and faculty member of the Helen Wills Neuroscience Institute at the University of California, Berkeley. His research focused on the neural basis of human memory and cognition. He received his BA in experimental psychology from the University of California, Santa Barbara in 1977 and his PhD in cognitive psychology from the University of Washington in 1982. He was a post-doctoral fellow in the laboratory of Larry Squire, where he studied amnesic patients. In 1989, Shimamura began his professorship at UC Berkeley. He has published over 100 scientific articles and chapters, was a founding member of the Cognitive Neuroscience Society, and has been science advisor for the San Francisco Exploratorium science museum.

In 2008, Shimamura received a John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation fellowship to explore links between art, mind, and brain. His book, Experiencing Art: In the Brain of the Beholder,[2] explores the perceptual, conceptual, and emotional features that guide our encounters with art (e.g., paintings and photography). In 2013, Shimamura edited a volume, Psychocinematics: Exploring Cognition at the Movies,[3] which introduces psychocinematics, the term he coined for scientific investigations of the psychological and biological features of film.

Shimamura's research explored other psychological phenomenon, such as visual illusions (The Mystery Spot[4]), aging in UC Berkeley Professors,[5] and emotions in facial expressions.[6]

In 2017, he published Get SMART! Five Steps Toward a Healthy Brain,[7] a self-help book that offers guidelines for healthy aging and lifelong learning.

  1. ^ "Remembering Art Shimamura". University of California, Berkeley, Department of Psychology. Retrieved 6 December 2020.
  2. ^ Shimamura, Arthur (2013). Experiencing Art: In the Brain of the Beholder. New York: Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0190239077.
  3. ^ Shimamura, Arthur, ed. (2013). Psychocinematics: Exploring Cognition at the Movie. New York: Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0199862139.
  4. ^ Shimamura, Arthur; Prinzmetal, William (1999). "The Mystery Spot illusion and its relation to other visual illusions". Psychological Science. 10 (6): 501–507. CiteSeerX 10.1.1.17.5835. doi:10.1111/1467-9280.00196. S2CID 18304937.
  5. ^ Shimamura, Arthur; et al. (1995). "Memory and cognitive abilities in academic professors: Evidence for successful aging". Psychological Science. 6 (5): 271–277. doi:10.1111/j.1467-9280.1995.tb00510.x. hdl:2027.42/72229. S2CID 51841607.
  6. ^ Marian, Diane; Shimamura, Arthur (2013). "Context effects following dynamic facial expressions". American Journal of Psychology. 126 (1): 53–65. doi:10.5406/amerjpsyc.126.1.0053. PMID 23505959. S2CID 11496252.
  7. ^ Shimamura, Arthur (2017). Get SMART! Five Steps Toward a Healthy Brain. CreateSpace Publishers. ISBN 978-1548374051.