Research Opportunities
I am interested in working with undergraduate and graduate
students. Undergraduates are welcome to take part as research
interns (PSYC*3900), or thesis students (PSYC*4870
and PSYC*4880). I also supervise Masters and
Doctoral candidates as they work on their dissertations. I request that students who are interested in working with me have completed the following courses:
If you have completed those requisite courses, and are interested in performing research, please feel free to contact me.
Research Interests
My research centres on the study of attention and working memory, and how attention and memory operations change as individuals progress from childhood to old age. I have both basic and applied research programs.
Basic Research
My basic research centers around
item individuation, unit formation and grouping. Specific
topics include:
1) temporal and spatial enumeration - Try a subitizing demo!
2) multiple object tracking - Try a MOT demo!
3) reading and counting disorders in children and adults
4) visual and attentional factors that affect performance in
day to day tasks
5) factors in reasoning about uncertain situations (the
Gambler's fallacy)
Applied Research
In 2005, I acquired a Drive Safety
driving simulator. The simulator involves an actual car body
surrounded by viewing screens that immerse drivers in a
virtual reality allowing them to experience all the sights,
sounds, and feelings of driving without experiencing the risk.
With the collaboration of researchers from Computing and
Information Science and Engineering, I am using this simulator
in order to investigate the following issues:
1) age and experience related changes in crash risk as they
relate to multiple target tracking and the impact of
distraction
2) the effect of new technologies on driving performance (e.g.
cell phone use, in-vehicle navigation systems, collision
avoidance systems, multimedia devices, etc.)
3)simulator adaptation syndrome
a) galvanic vestibular stimulation
b) galvanic cutaneous stimulation
4) change blindness
5) useful field of view
6) attentional blink
7) impact of emotions on driving safety
Funding Agencies
My research is currently funded by the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada, the Canadian Foundation for Innovation,the Ontario Innovation Trust, the Auto21 National Centre of Excellence and CanDrive.
For further information about my research and our driving simulator, please visit: www.drive.uoguelph.ca.
Students:
Current Students:
2011-2012; Ece Subasi; MA
2008 & 2010-2012; Robert Ramkhalawansingh; MA, Psychology Honours
Click here to see a list of Alumni
I supervise students with some background and interest in sensation and perception for practica, honours thesis and graduate projects. Please contact me if you are interested.