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David A.
Washburn, Ph.D.
GEORGIA STATE UNIVERSITY DEPT OF
PSYCHOLOGY DR. WASHBURN’S
DEPARTMENTAL HOMEPAGE GSU
SOCIAL-COGNITIVE PROGRAM IDEA
LABORATORY CRIG PAGE ARTS & SCIENCES
LANGUAGE RESEARCH CENTER Brain, Behavior and
Emergents of Cognitive Competence (B2EC2)
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November, 2004
Information about background images on this web site
Disclaimer: The information contained within these web pages does not
necessarily reflect the views of Georgia State
University. Construction and use of these pages are regulated by the GSU Computer Ethics Policy.
6. Psychology links and bookmarks:
|
JOURNALS |
OTHER |
|
Psychonomic Society Publications |
Stanford:
New in Cognitive Science
Copyright Issues for
Psychologists |
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9. Research Interests
My research emphasizes two parallel lines
of inquiry, one from the perspective of comparative psychology (cognition as it
is manifest across species) and the other from the perspective of psychometrics
(individual differences and human factors in performance). These two
perspectives complement one another in the psychological processes that I
currently study: attention/executive functions, and learning/training. Thus,
recent experiments include studies of individual and group differences in
attention profiles, comparative studies of uncertainty monitoring, procedures
that improve the effectiveness of computer-based instruction, and the effects
of spaceflight on behavior and performance. These research interests are also
illustrated by some recent presentations.
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12.
About the background images on this website
Visual illusions, reversible images and
impossible figures such as the ones used as a background on this web site have
a long history of interest in psychology. They help to illustrate the
interaction of stimulation (and so-called "bottom-up processes") and
expectation ("top-down") in perception.
Similarly, the color-words
"blue" and "red" -- both printed in blue -- were stimuli
from an important and popular experiment reported first by Stroop (1935) and
replicated hundreds of times since. Generally, people are slower and less
accurate naming the color of the word when the word itself names an incongruous
color (e.g., RED)
than a congruous color (e.g.,BLUE) . Humans and monkeys show comparable effects with numerical
versions of the Stroop task.
Together, these images serve to
illustrate the fact that, often in psychology, "failures" in
cognition are interesting and meaningful. It is the fact that we see patterns
that aren't really on the screen and that we cannot ignore the meaning of words
and numbers even when they hinder performance that makes such instances so
revealing about the nature of perception, attention, learning and memory.
My research, like the studies of many
other contemporary psychologists, is designed to examine the competition
between the environment, experience, expectations, and executive functions
(e.g., intentions, plans, metacognitions) as they vie to constrain or control
human and nonhuman-animal behavior at any moment in time.
For more information on this
research, contact me at dwashburn@gsu.edu.
David A. Washburn, Ph.D.
Associate Professor, Department of Psychology
Director, Language Research Center
Georgia State University
Atlanta, Georgia, USA 30303
dwashburn@gsu.edu