In the Learning and Attention Lab, we are interested in how learning to associate objects with positive or negative outcomes, along with other kinds of learning (which, collectively, are referred to in the attention literature as selection history), changes how these objects are processed by the brain. To do this, we employ human psychophysics (response time, accuracy, eye movements) and functional neuroimaging (mostly fMRI) methodologies, using the techniques of experimental psychology and perception science.
Most of our research examines cognitive and perceptual processes in healthy young adults, with implications for patterns of attentional control that are relevant to our understanding of habit learning and addiction, although given the broad applicability of our research interests, we are engaged in a wide array of collaborative research efforts as well. These collaborative efforts include attentional biases in drug-dependent patients, habituation to warning signals in a construction setting (using virtual reality technology), the attention of automobile drivers to bicyclists (using a driving simulator), value-driven attention in an avian model, attention to security prompts in the context of cybersecurity, attentional biases in hording disorder and compulsive buying, and adaptive oculomotor feedback in a decision-making context (military command center), among others.