Biography

Education:
Ph.D., Experimental Psychology: Cognitive, Kent State University
M.A., Experimental Psychology: Cognitive, Kent State University
B.A., Psychology, University of Tulsa

Research Expertise:
Visual Attention | Change Detection | Working Memory

Generally I study visual attention; it has been thought that we retain an accurate portrayal of our visual world simply by using our sense of vision. However, people are often poor at detecting large changes in their visual environment and they miss important information when their attention is focused on a primary task. My research focuses on examining factors that influence people’s ability to detect visual information that is vital to an accurate representation, because in many situations it is this information that if missed can lead to deleterious effects. There are many image properties that can affect visual attention, such as salience, scene context, and complexity. In addition, there may be factors within the individual that influence visual attention abilities, such as expertise and working memory capacity.

Teaching Narrative:
Teaching is my passion! I enjoy guiding students through the learning process and showing them how psychology is intertwined in their everyday lives. Having a more complete understanding of how their minds are operating to process the plethora of information coming in at any one moment can bring them closer to the human experience. I generally teach Perception, Cogntion and Statistics in Psychology. - see you in the classroom.

Honors and Awards:
Nomination, Lindback Distinguished Teaching Award, 2014
Wall of Fame Teaching Award, 2008

Professional Memberships:
Vision Sciences Society 
Psychonomic Society