Faculty
Carryl Baldwin |
Raja Parasuraman |
Greg Trafton |
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Deborah Boehm-Davis |
Matt Peterson |
Robert Youmans |
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Pamela Greenwood |
Tyler Shaw |
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Patrick McKnight |
James Thompson |
John Fedota |
Raj Ratwani |
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Ming-Kuan Lin |
Maren Strenziok |
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Shimin Fu |
Martin Wiener |
HFAC Full-Time Faculty
Carryl Baldwin
Assistant Professor, HFAC Program.
Ph.D., Human Factors Psychology, University of South Dakota.
Carryl Baldwin joined GMU in the Fall of 2008. Primary research interests include Applied Auditory Cognition, including auditory display design for surface and air transport vehicles -collision avoidance and navigational displays in particular, sensory-cognition interaction, speech processing, spatial navigation and cognitive aging. Much of her research involves using driving simulation technologies to explore new human factors applications in these areas.
Deborah Boehm-Davis
University Professor, HFAC Program
Associate Dean in the College of Humanities and Social Sciences
Ph.D., Cognitive Psychology, University of California, Berkeley.
Deborah A. Boehm-Davis is University Professor and Chair of the Department of Psychology. She holds an A.B. in psychology from Rutgers the State University (Douglass College) and an M.A. and Ph.D. in cognitive psychology from the University of California, Berkeley. She worked on applied cognitive research at General Electric, NASA Ames and Bell Laboratories prior to joining George Mason University in 1984.
Pamela Greenwood
Associate Professor, HFAC Program.
Ph.D., Physiological Psychology, SUNY at Stony Brook.
Dr. Greenwood has research interests in cognitive aging and the genetics of cognitive aging, which she examines using behavioral, neuroimaging, and genetic methods. Specifically she studies the modulation by normal genetic variation of attention, working memory, and the role of attention in forming and maintaining mental representations in working memory. She and Parasuraman are conducting a longitudinal study of the genetics of cognitive change in midlife. In collaboration with Drs. Parasuraman, Thompson, and Peterson, and James Bicksel (Inova Memory Center) she recently began a randomized controlled trial of cognitive training in healthy older people and people diagnosed with Mild Cognitive Impairment.
Patrick McKnight
Assistant Professor, HFAC Program.
Ph.D., Clinical Psychology, University of Arizona.
After several years at the University of Arizona, Patrick came to GMU to form a similar group to EGAD. The MRES group is that group. Patrick’s interests are generally in research methods and data analysis with a particular interest in measurement. Most of his work to date is in health services research in diverse fields such as allergy, arthritis, asthma, cancer, cardiology, physical medicine and rehabilitation. Patrick actively contributes to VA’s Health Services Research and Development (HSR&D) and remains a fellow at the Arizona Cancer Center.
Raja Parasuraman
University Professor, Director HFAC Graduate Program Chair, Neuroimaging Core of the Krasnow Institute (NICKI).
Ph.D., Psychology, Aston University, Birmingham, U.K.
Raja Parasuraman, Ph.D. has been Professor of Psychology at George Mason University, Fairfax, VA since 2004. In 2007 he was appointed to the position of University Professor at George Mason University. He is Director of the Graduate Program in Human Factors and Applied Cognition. He is also Chair of the Neuroimaging Core of the Krasnow Institute (NICKI). Previously he held appointments as Professor and Associate Professor of Psychology at The Catholic University of America, Washington DC from 1982 to 2004. He received a B.Sc. (1st Class Honors) in Electrical Engineering from Imperial College, University of London, U.K. (1972) and an M.Sc. in Applied Psychology (1973) and a Ph.D. in Psychology from Aston University, Birmingham, U.K. (1976).
Matt Peterson
Associate Professor, HFAC Program and Neuroscience Program.
Ph.D., Experimental/Cognitive Psychology, University of Kansas.
Matt Peterson received his Ph.D.in Experimental Psychology with a Quantitative minor from the University of Kansas under the guidance of James Juola. After graduate school, he pursued his interests in visual attention at the Beckman Institute at the University of Illinois, where he collaborated with Art Kramer and Dave Irwin, among others. He is currently a faculty member with the Applied Cognition group in the Department of Psychology at George Mason University.
Tyler Shaw
Assistant Professor, HFAC Program
Ph.D., Psychology, University of Cincinnati.
Tyler Shaw is Research Assistant Professor in the Department of Psychology at George Mason University. He received his B.A. (2002) and M.A. (2006) from the University of Cincinnati, after which he earned a Ph.D. (2008) from the University of Cincinnati in experimental psychology/human factors under the mentorship of Dr. Joel Warm.
Dr. Shaw’s current research interests involve examining cognitive workload using non-invasive imaging techniques to monitor cerebral blood flow velocity (Transcranial Doppler Sonography) and oxygen saturation (Transcranial Cerebral Oximetry) during the performance of mental tasks. He also has interests in human-robot interaction and the dynamics of team collaboration.
James Thompson
Assistant Professor, HFAC Program, Neurosciences Program.
Ph.D., Cognitive Neuroscience, Swinburne University of Technology, Melbourne, Australia.
The ability to see how other people move is essential for many aspects of daily life – from things as simple as avoiding collisions to detecting suspicious behavior or recognizing someone else's emotions. The research efforts of the Perception & Action Neuroscience Group are focused on examining how we recognize human movement and make sense of other peoples' actions. We investigate these issues using a combination of behavioral paradigms, functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), and electroencephalography (EEG). The goal of the group’s research is to further the understanding of how we see and act with others as part of everyday life, in specialized settings such as surveillance, and in conditions in which human movement recognition may be impaired.
Greg Trafton
Affililate/Adjunct Professor, HFAC Program.
Ph.D., Psychology, Princeton University.
The Intelligent Systems Section at the Navy Center For Applied Research in Artificial Intelligence (NCARAI) performs state-of-the-art research in cognitive robotics and human-robot interaction, the cognition of complex visualizations, graph comprehension, interruptions and resumptions, spatial cogntion.
Robert Youmans
Assistant Professor, HFAC Program.
Ph.D., Experimental Psychology, University of Illinois at Chicago.
Robert J. Youmans is a cognitive psychologist engaged in teaching and researching ways to uncover the cognitive mechanisms associated with creativity and innovation and to apply those cognitive mechanisms to design and engineering. Doctor Youmans earned his Ph.D. in Cognitive Psychology at the University of Illinois at Chicago in 2007 for his work on how physical prototyping and group work lead to more functional and creative engineering designs. He also earned a doctoral minor in industrial design. His M.A. degree in Experimental Psychology was awarded in 2003 by Wake Forest University for his work on human decision-making. Current areas of research include: how attention and other cognitive traits affect creativity in the design process, how humans use technology, and how cognition and social behavior inform the safe, efficient, and fun design of technology and systems.
Dr. Youmans also has studied the role psychological factors may play in enhancing our understanding of the higher education experience. Included in his publications- press, print, and review- are articles and items examining: how students evaluate instructors, how students respond to quizzing, how students manage their time, how diversity on college campuses affects student behaviors, and how and why students plagiarize.
Links: Email
Affiliated Faculty and Postdocs
John Fedota
Post-doctoral Fellow, HFAC Program
Ph.D., Human Factors & Applied Cognitive Psychology, George Mason University.
John Fedota has been a CENTEC postdoctoral research fellow since fall of 2011. His research focuses on top-down executive control and its manifestation in sensory processes. The goals of this research are to better understand the mechanisms of executive control (e.g. conflict monitoring, response inhibition, attentional allocation) and how these control signals modulate activity in the extrastriate cortex. During his PhD, his research focused on event-related potentials (ERPs). He plans to incorporate functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) as part of his ongoing research. John holds a BA in Biology from Oberlin College, and an MA and PhD in Psychology from George Mason University.
Shimin Fu
Visiting Associate Professor from Tsinghua University, Beijing
Ph.D., Biophysics, University of Science and Technology of China.
Dr. Shimin Fu received his Ph. D. in Biophysics from University of Science and Technology of China under the guidance of professor Lin Chen. After that he worked as a research associate at the Department of Psychology, University of Oxford, and the Oxford Center for Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging of the Brain, where he studied the functional brain imaging of Chinese character and Pinyin reading under the guidance of professor Paul Matthews and professor Susan Iversen. He then joined professor Raja Parasuraman's Cognitive Science Laboratory at the Catholic University of America as a research fellow. He is currently a research fellow in the ARCH Laboratory, George Mason University. Dr. Shimin Fu's major research interest is to investigate the neural mechanisms of visual selective attention using event-related potentials (ERPs) and functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). Specifically, he focuses on the role of the striate cortex (indexed by the C1 component) and extrastriate cortex (indexed by the P1 component) in visual perception and selective attention.
Dr. Shimin Fu's other research topics include: mismatch negativity (MMN) and automatic processing in visual modality; selection negativity (SN) and visual attribute processing; N2pc and focusing visuospatial attention; P1/N1 and orienting/focusing visuospatial attention; behavioral and neuropsychological studies of object-based attention theory; and fMRI studies of Chinese character and Pinyin reading. He is also interested in extending his expertise in ERPs to healthy ageing and genetic studies, as well as other research topics in implicit learning, context cueing, face processing, and working memory.
Ming-Kuan Lin
Post-doctoral Fellow, HFAC Program
Ph.D., __________, George Mason University.
Bio Coming Soon
Raj Ratwani
Affiliate Faculty, HFAC Program.
Ph.D., Human Factors & Applied Cognitive Psychology, George Mason University.
Raj Ratwani is an affiliate faculty member and a senior research scientist at Perceptronics Solutions Inc. After receiving his Ph.D. in 2008, he was a National Academies post-doctoral fellow at the Naval Research Laboratory before joining Perceptronics. His research work has focused on applying low-level theories of cognition and perception to complex applied problems with the goal of understanding how cognition unfolds under these circumstances. This approach allows for the development of stronger theories as well as for the development of technologies that facilitate cognition. His primary research areas are in human error, task interruption and resumption, supervisory control, and the cognition of complex graphs and visualizations. He is currently working towards developing eye-movement based real-time technology to facilitate human performance which can be applied in several different domains (e.g. error prediction and prevention, operator situation awareness).
Maren Strenziok
Post-doctoral Fellow, HFAC Program.
Ph.D., Psychology, Humboldt University of Berlin.
Maren Strenziok joined the Psychology Department in August 2010. She received her Master’s Degree and a Ph.D. degree in Psychology from Humboldt University of Berlin, Germany. She is also a licensed psychotherapist and has several years of work experience with sexual and aggressive offenders. Dr. Strenziok’s previous research focused on the effects of violent stimuli on adolescents’ brain function and structure. During her postdoctoral fellowship in the Arch Lab, she will study the cognitive and neural signals of memory and attention in healthy aging using functional and structural neuroimaging tools.
Links: Email
Martin Wiener
Post-doctoral Fellow, HFAC Program.
Ph.D., Psychology, University of Pennsylvania
Martin Wiener is a Postdoctoral Researcher. His primary research interest is in the neural mechanisms underlying time perception and temporal processing. His research focus has utilized a variety of techniques, including functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), psychophysics, behavioral genetics, transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) and electroencephalography (EEG). This approach has allowed for a multi-modal perspective on time perception and action in the human brain. His current research focus is on understanding how the brain transforms sensory signals into a temporal code that may be utilized for different behavioral outcomes (i.e. musical performance, decision-making, navigation).