Attention, Distractions, And Memory (ADAM) Lab
Team Advisor/PI
Project Description/Research Team Goals
Fluctuations of attention and memory: Our attention fluctuates from moment to moment, and we all have experiences of these fluctuations in our everyday lives. You might be completely focused one minute but staring out the window with a blank mind the next. The ADAM lab is interested in how fluctuations of attention impact working memory performance. We use modeling and EEG approaches to pin-point the neural mechanisms that underlie these failures (Adam*, Mance*, Fukuda & Vogel, 2015), and we are also studying whether participants are self-aware of these failures and how practice and performance feedback may be used to reduce the rate of these attention failures.
Learning to ignore irrelevant distractors: Because of a limited processing capacity, we can only actively pay attention to a subset of all available information at any given time. Usually, we can use our goals to focus on finding only the relevant information in a visual scene. However, despite our best intentions, we can sometimes get pulled off track when salient but irrelevant information is present (e.g., a flashing light will automatically pull your attention). The ADAM lab is interested in how we can learn to ignore initially salient information with experience. In ongoing projects, we are using eye-tracking, EEG, and behavior to better understand how we disengage our brains from salient distractions.
Issues Addressed
Cognitive neuroscience of cognition (visual attention and working memory)
Research Methods and Technology
Behavioral experiments and psychophysics, computational modeling and simulations of human behavior, electroencephalogram (EEG) and eye-tracking
Preferred Undergraduate Interests
Cognitive Neuroscience; Visual Cognition; Computational Approaches to Studying Cognition; (Note: our lab is a "basic research" lab, and we do not conduct work on clinical topics related to mental health or other clinical disorders. We welcome students with an interest in clinical psychology or medical school, but we do not directly study these topics in the lab.)
Academic Majors of Interest
Though open to all, most interested in certain courses of study (list below), Cognitive Sciences, Neuroscience, Psychological Sciences, Computer Science, Data Science, Electrical and Computer Engineering
Prior Preparation/Requisite Experience
Required: Willingness to learn new technical skills (scientific programming; scientific writing; statistical analysis), to interact with human participants, and to work both independently and as a team
Not strictly required, but can be helpful: Previous exposure to scientific programming (MATLAB, Python, R) or web-based programming (javaScript); coursework on neuroscience and cognitive psychology; strong written and verbal communication skills
Compensation
Yes
Course Credit
PSYC 485, CSCI 390, NEUR 310, UNIV 391
Team Meeting
Lab meeting (currently every other week for 1 to 1.5 hours)
Actively Onboarding New Members
No; but receiving applications via VIP team application.
Contact
For more information, please see the team's website or email Prof. Adam (adamlab@rice.edu).