Anne Treisman, a professor of psychology at Princeton University, has won the 2009 University of Louisville Grawemeyer Award for Psychology. The prize carries a $200,000 award.

Ms. Treisman’s theory of “feature integration,” first proposed in 1980, helps explain how our brains build meaningful images from the bits of information we see, the award announcement states. The theory has prompted a wide variety of research. “Scientists are still using the concept to help airport baggage inspectors detect weapons, to design classrooms that stimulate children without overloading them, and to make it easier for people to tell pills apart,” the announcement says.

The Grawemeyer awards were created in 1984 by Charles Grawemeyer, a University of Louisville alumnus, and are given by the Grawemeyer Foundation in five categories to honor creative works and ideas in the arts, humanities, and sciences. The 2009 prizes in music composition and for ideas improving world order were announced on Monday and Tuesday. Winners in the other categories — education and religion — will be announced later this week.

More information about the awards can be found on the foundation’s Web site. —Charles Huckabee