Ian Spence (psychologist)


Ian Spence is a Scottish-Canadian psychologist, and Emeritus Professor in the Department of Psychology at the University of Toronto, known for his work on graphical perception, psychometric methods and the history of statistical graphics, specifically on the life and work of William Playfair.

Life and work

Born in Scotland, Spence received his Bsc in mathematics, physics, and psychology at the University of Glasgow, and his PhD in 1970 from the University of Toronto with the thesis, entitled "Multidimensional scaling; an empirical and theoretical investigation."
Spence started his academic career as Assistant Professor at the University of Western Ontario. Later on he moved to University of Toronto, where he became Professor in the Department of Psychology.
Spence's research interests are in the fields of "engineering psychology, graphical perception, psychophysics, psychometric methods with an emphasis on measurement and scaling, and statistics." His research projects in the new millennium included "the effective use of colour in scientific visualization, the role of colour in visual memory, individual differences in spatial cognition, and the navigation of dynamic information displays such as web sites."

Selected publications

Articles, a selection: