9 Teaching and Research in Alignment

My research program focuses broadly on the areas of perception and attention. The research I continued after coming to Gustavus addresses perceptual organization – a process that establishes early object representations by grouping features (e.g., color, texture) together and distinguishes between objects by segregating features. In particular, I examine its impact on other cognitive processes: temporal or spatial processing and attention. However, my collective research interests, including projects started at Gustavus, address the interaction between cognitive processes, either within a single sense (e.g., vision) or between multiple senses (e.g., audition and vision). Altogether these research efforts have led to several scholarly works[1], including peer-reviewed journal publications[2] and conference presentations.

Perceptual Organization & Spatial or Temporal Processing

Figure-ground assignment is another term for the process of distinguishing a grouped array of features (i.e., object) that falls into the foreground (i.e., figures) from those that fall into the background (i.e., grounds). My past and present studies investigate explanations for the apparent increased salience of figures relative to grounds. For example, my colleagues and I determined that completing figure-ground assignment increases spatial resolution of figures; that is, the representation of figures is more precise[3], similar to the same effect as increasing the number of pixels in a digital image. The increased spatial resolution is one mechanism that can give rise to the phenomenological experience of salience.

In other published sets of experiments, we determined that figure-ground assignment also changes temporal processing such that figures receive priority in processing[4] and are processed for longer durations[5]. Consequently, these changes in temporal processing result in poorer temporal resolution for figures, which is to say that figures are not processed as precisely over time[6]. Furthermore, we created a neurally plausible model to examine a mechanism that accounts for these changes in temporal processing within a single neural architecture.[7] Currently, I have one project that follows up on additional questions raised by this work. Gustavus undergraduates are helping with data collection and analysis.

Perceptual Organization & Attention

Other ongoing research projects focus on the interactions between perceptual organization and attention. One set of experiments suggests that the scale of attention (i.e., attending broadly or narrowly) can determine how information is perceptually organized.[8] In comparison, other experiments examine how objects and their properties influence where attention is placed and how it moves. For example, my colleague and I published a set of experiments demonstrating that in order for attention to shift according to the objects in a visual scene (i.e., object-based attention), the objects’ color must change at a logical position (i.e., the boundary between two parts).20

Another study indicates that object-based attention is sensitive to an object’s features, demanding that its edges or surface colors are consistent on either side of an occluder that blocks portions of the object from view.[9] Not only does an object’s properties influence shifts of attention, but its structure also has an impact. We are currently finding that increasing an object’s complexity delays shifts of object-based attention. I received positive feedback about this project when I presented it at an international conference[10] and am working with Gustavus undergraduates to finish data collection and analysis on a follow-up experiment raised in discussion with colleagues at the conference.

A new extension of this line of research focuses on studying perceptual organization and attention in a multimodal, specifically audiovisual, environment. This idea arose from my previously published study that demonstrated object-based shifts of attention within audition.[11] During the 2015-16 academic year, Hannah Oberle (‘16) collected data for an experiment examining attentional selection of audiovisual objects. She found exciting results that we intend to replicate in Fall 2016 before submitting for presentation at a national conference and for publication in a peer-reviewed journal.

Olfaction’s Influence on Attention

While teaching PSY-225, a student group completed a project investigating aromatherapeutic claims that particular scents could alter attention. As an attention researcher, I wondered if smells impacted specific attentional mechanisms or if the claims only address a broader sense of “attention”, something more akin to “alertness”. Honors student Matt Broschard (‘16) and I began conducting experiments to determine how olfactory experience (i.e., smell) impacts attentional mechanisms. In particular, we asked if exposure to peppermint changes visual alertness and influences the speed and accuracy of shifts of visual attention. During the research process, we received a Gustavus Presidential Faculty-Student Collaboration Grant[12] and spent a summer building an olfactometer in order to carefully control procedures for administering olfactory stimuli (smells) to participants. We used the equipment in 2015-16 to collect data, and Matt is leading preparations for a manuscript submission. Additionally, we are planning follow-up experiments that I will begin conducting in 2016-17.

Scale of Attention & Change Blindness

Since coming to Gustavus, I have supervised a number of student projects concerning the interaction between change blindness and other cognitive processes. Change blindness is a phenomenon whereby observers do not notice a change in a visual stimulus, such as an object disappearing from one image to the next. In Spring 2011, I supervised a PSY-225 group that examined the relationship between change blindness and experience. Specifically, they hypothesized that experience conducting a similar type of task (e.g., finding differences in pictures) would result in fewer instances of change blindness. Their interest in the project prompted them to continue conducting this research for an additional semester “just for fun” and to present their work on campus at the Celebration for Creative Inquiry (CCI).[13] Although their results were inconclusive, this project did spark other interesting questions. One served as the basis for Kathryn Ofstad’s (’13) Honors project, during which she asked if subliminal priming (e.g., unconsciously processing an object) impacts change blindness.

Additionally, the project prompted me to question the type of experience that might influence susceptibility to change blindness. One idea I am investigating is that the scale of attention (broad or narrow) might influence an observer’s ability to detect changes. I am currently examining this question by measuring multiple behavioral responses, including eye movements. Prior to beginning this experiment, I worked closely with Dan Marino (‘14) to test new eye-tracking equipment in the lab. After Dan graduated, Matt Broschard (‘16) continued the project by programming the change blindness experiment. Since then, other students have been trained on the eye-tracking equipment and are working to collect data for this project.

Technology & Attention Capture

My newest project asks how one student’s multitasking might impact other students in the room. Specifically, one student’s technology (e.g., computers, phones, etc.) might grab another student’s attention, pulling it away from the primary task at hand. By examining this issue, I hope to extend results into the classroom, showing how others’ technology may impact a student’s attention and, consequently, learning. I conducted a literature review, which I shared, extended, and discussed with my Advanced Methods in Cognitive Science (PSY-244; Fall 2014) students prior to preparing and conducting an exploratory experiment. Due to technology setbacks, we did not collect as much data as we intended; regardless, the experience informed the direction of this project and prompted additional literature review before moving forward.

Currently, I am teaching Ellyn Adelmann (‘18) how to program so that she can assist with preparing a basic experiment that aims to determine if a picture of technology (cell phone, laptop, etc.) captures attention by measuring how long it takes participants to find a target item (e.g., a shoe) as well as measuring the length and trajectory of their eye movements. Experiment programming and data collection will take place during 2016-17 and will inform the next steps in the project as I work toward designing increasingly applied experiments addressing attention capture by peers’ technology in the classroom.

Additional Undergraduate Research

To align with my teaching aims of exposing students to the science of psychology, I regularly involve undergraduates in my own research projects in order to provide additional experience and training in conducting scientific psychological research (see above), even though doing so requires dedicating additional time to training students. I teach them to use specific equipment, to program using specific experiment software, and/or to conduct data analysis on more complex data sets than they typically encounter. Students have also assisted with literature review, project design and implementation, data collection and analysis, and communicating results (e.g., presentations or written products).

Occasionally, I also supervise student-driven research projects. For example, I advised JeanPaul Noel’s (’12) honors project, which he completed over the course of 3 semesters in collaboration with Anthony Mefford (’12). They examined meta-awareness’ impact on time and distance perception. The project was originally conceived in Jean-Paul’s project for PSY-344: Attention. This work earned Sigma Xi funding[14] and was presented locally[15] and regionally[16]. Noel and Mefford also presented at two international, professional conferences[17], 30, and we co-authored a manuscript that was submitted to a high ranking, peer-reviewed journal[18]. Although the manuscript was rejected, the reviewers’ comments were extremely helpful for preparing it for submission to another journal. Unfortunately, Noel and Mefford decided not to resubmit to another journal in light of data loss following a computer failure that prevented fully addressing important concerns.

Conclusion

In conclusion, I have established a pattern of professional activity by conducting, presenting, and publishing research. Psychological research is often collaborative in nature, and in alignment with this ethos, I have conducted a number of projects with colleagues and consistently involve Gustavus students in my research projects. Additionally[19], I attend conferences, am a member of several professional organizations, serve as an ad hoc reviewer for several journals, and contribute to my field by completing book reviews[20]. In the coming years, I will continue to engage in all of these professional activities while actively involving students as I wrap up the perceptual organization research projects and further develop my newer research projects.