Research Interests
- Attention
- Vision
Research Description
In my work on visual attention I use a variety of methodologies and approaches: behavioral psychophysics, eye-tracking, and computational modeling.
For more information on my ongoing projects visit: https://publish.illinois.edu/visionlab/projects/
Education
- PhD. from the University of Geneva (Switzerland)
Awards and Honors
Awarded a 2019 research grant from the National Science Foundation (Behavioral and Cognitive Science Division, award number: 1921735). Role: PI. Title: CompCog: Template Contrast and Saliency (TCAS) Toolbox: a tool to visualize parallel attentive evaluation of scenes.
Awarded a 2016 research grant from the BRIDGE Birmingham-Illinois partnership initiative.
Awarded the 2014 NARSAD Young Investigator Grant, Brain & Behavior research Foundation
Courses Taught
Psyc230 Perception and Sensory Processes (face-to-face: Fall and Spring; Online: Winter and Summer)
Psyc396 The Attentive Mind
Global Eduction and Training (GET) in the context of the Engeneering Research Summer School
Additional Campus Affiliations
Research Associate Professor, Psychology
Recent Publications
Lleras, A., Buetti, S. & Xu, Z.J. Incorporating the properties of peripheral vision into theories of visual search. Nat Rev Psychol (2022). https://doi.org/10.1038/s44159-022-00097-1.
Ng, G.J.P., Patel, T. N., Buetti, S., & Lleras, A. (2021). Prioritization in Visual Attention Does Not Work the Way You Think It Does. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human, Perception and Performance. 47(2):252-268. doi: 10.1037/xhp0000887. Epub 2020 Dec 14.
Xu, J., Lleras, A., Shao, Y., & Buetti, S. (2021). Distractor–distractor interactions in visual search for oriented targets explain the increased difficulty observed in nonlinearly separable conditions. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human, Perception and Performance, 47(9), 1274-1297.
Xu, Z., Lleras, A. & Buetti, S. Predicting how surface texture and shape combine in the human visual system to direct attention. Nature Scientific Reports, 11, 6170 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-021-85605-8
Lleras, A., Wang. Z., Ng., G.J.P., Ballew, K., Xu, J., & Buetti, S. (2020). A target contrast signal theory of parallel processing in goal-directed search. Attention, Perception, & Psychophysics, 82, 394-425. https://doi.org/10.3758/s13414-019-01928-9
Buetti, S., Cronin, D. A., Madison, A. M., Wang, Z., & Lleras, A. (2016). Towards a better understanding of parallel visual processing in human vision: Evidence for exhaustive analysis of visual information. Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, 145(6), 672-707. http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/xge0000163