I am pursuing my doctoral training at Concordia University towards an academic career in cognitive psychology. My interest in this field is closely tied to my interest in translating basic theoretical knowledge into real world practical applications. For example, my doctoral research explores both the theoretical and the practical aspects of visual perception, with particular emphasis on the gist representation of complex scenes (i.e., the ability of observers to rapidly and efficiently classify the category of a complex scene within two tenths of a second; Thorpe et al., 1996). My primary concern is to explore the role of attention in such rapid categorization. Computational models of gist perception have started to rely on the architecture of the gist mechanism in the primate visual system as a foundation for building image detection software; yet, despite this advancement, human observers still outperform the best biologically inspired models. This is due, in part, to the fact that few behavioral studies have investigated observers’ attentional limitations when completing ultra-rapid categorization tasks. The first part of my dissertation, therefore, will explore which modes of attention (e.g., global, focused, sustained) are important in the rapid categorization of complex scenes by using psychophysical techniques in conjunction with behavioural paradigms. These behavioural results will then be used to inform the second part of my dissertation in which such information will be used to develop improved computational models of scene recognition.