Members of the Attention & Perception program area have interests in attention, perception, spatial cognition, and awareness, with emphases on both basic and applied research in perception and cognition. Research in the division adopts a variety of approaches and methodologies to explore both basic mechanisms of visual cognition as well as real-world applications of cognitive and perceptual principles. Faculty in the Attention & Perception program area interact closely with faculty and students in the other program areas in Psychology (particularly Cognitive and Cognitive Neuroscience), and faculty across these and other program areas collaborate and jointly advise students.
The program is designed to train students to become contributing scientists in academic or applied settings and/or to become teachers at the graduate and undergraduate levels. Over the course of the program, students work together with their advisor(s) to design a program of study fitted to the student's particular needs and interests. The program places a heavy emphasis on original research from the beginning of graduate studies, and all students complete a first-year research project which they then present in the division seminar.
Students, postdocs, and faculty in the division have access to state-of-the-art research facilities and tools including multi-modality brain imaging (fMRI, optical imaging, high-density EEG/ERP), exceptional eye tracking equipment, and virtual reality systems. They also have access to diverse subject populations (e.g., children, elderly).
Faculty in the Attention & Perception program area maintain close ties with researchers in many other departments, including Electrical Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, Physics, and Computer Science, among others, as well as other departments in the university (e.g., Industrial Engineering, Electrical Engineering, Kinesiology, Education). All of the members are also affiliated with the interdisciplinary Beckman Institute for Advanced Science and Technology.
