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Wheaton College     Norton, Massachusetts
Psychology > Cognitive Neuroscience Laboratory

Cognitive Neuroscience Laboratory


Location

158 Science Center

Lab Director

Jason E. Reiss, Ph.D.

Research Interests

General Topics

Cognitive Neuroscience; Visual Attention, Perception, and Awareness; Spatial Cognition and Cognitive Development, Object Substitution Masking; Attentional Blink; Inattentional and Change Blindness; Object- and Space-based Attention; Visual Search; Motion Perception; Orientation Perception; Williams Syndrome; Infant Perceptual Categorization

Specific Topics

Object Substitution Masking; Attentional Blink; Inattentional and Change Blindness; Object- and Space-based Attention; Visual Search; Motion Perception; Orientation Perception; Williams Syndrome; Infant Perceptual Categorization

Summary

As we go throughout our day and interact with the world, our impression is that we have a complete perceptual representation of our visual surroundings, this, however, is an illusion. The typical visual scene simply contains far too much information for the limited capacity of our visual processing machinery. In order to cope with information overload, our brains have developed attentional mechanisms that allow us to select visual information commensurate with current expectations and goals. Visual attention is a particularly important determinant of what information reaches awareness; people consciously experience what they pay attention to. This link between attention and awareness leads to a number of startling cognitive phenomena in which we lose conscious awareness for salient aspects of visual scenes. For example, under conditions of inattentional blindness (Mack & Rock, 1998), when attention is preoccupied with one facet of a scene, we fail to notice other salient visual stimuli that are otherwise in full view. Change blindness (Simons & Levin, 1997) is a related condition where drastic changes to visual stimuli remain undetected when attention is directed elsewhere.

The goal of the research in this lab is to use functional blindness to elucidate the relationship between visual attention, perception, and awareness. More specifically, we explore questions such as:

  1. How do perceptual representations differ between objects that occur within versus outside the focus of attention?
  2. What are the perceptual consequences of simultaneously attending to multiple objects?

In attempting to answer these questions, we use high-density, event-related brain potentials (ERPs; brain activity associated with specific stages of processing), eyetracking (our eyes are often directed at the focus of attention), and standard behavioral paradigms to assess specific processing stages and to constrain cognitive theories of selective attention and perception.

Research Facilities

Our high-density ERP research is conducted using a Geodesic Electroencephalography (EEG) System 300 from Electrical Geodesics Incorporated (EGI; see picture). This system records tiny electrical brain activity with millisecond timing, using 128 soft sponges which are soaked in a saltwater solution and rest on the individual's scalp. In addition to the high quality neural recordings that can be acquired with this noninvasive system, it has several other advantages over its competitors including (1) fast application without the need for any scalp abrading, (2) ease of cleaning compared to gel-based systems, and (3) ultra-light and portable design.



Collaborative Research

In addition to the work outlined above, the lab feels strongly about fostering collaborations. Working closely with students and colleagues has allowed us to combine resources and answer unique questions about fundamental issues in cognition. Examples include:

  • Spatial Cognition in Williams Syndrome: Work with researchers at the University of Delaware, Johns Hopkins University, and MIT on a project which examines the development of spatial cognition in children and adults with Williams Syndrome (WS), a rare genetically-based disorder that results in relatively preserved language capacities but profound impairments in spatial abilities. This population provides a unique case of specialization across/within cognitive domains and allows for the study of what constellations of skills or deficits go together. The approach to understanding the nature of deficits in WS is to conduct fine-grained analyses of performance in a variety of related tasks (e.g., motion perception, orientation perception, and visual short-term memory) in order to "zero in" on the specific subprocesses responsible for performance deficits. This approach is essential if we are to gain a clear understanding of the WS cognitive profile with the hope of developing ways to improve their daily lives. It is also possible that by studying the pattern of damage in WS, we may learn more about the cognitive architecture in other special populations as well as in the typically-developing individual.
  • Object Categorization in Infancy: Another relatively new line of collaborative research with researchers at the University of Delaware focuses on the development of human visual cognition, in particular, how young infants come to represent information about object categories. Several projects are currently underway that use both high-density ERPs as well as eyetracking to examine the mechanisms, visual cues, and developmental/experiential time course by which infants group visual objects into category representations (e.g., how do young infants learn to group heterogeneous visual stimuli into perceptual categories that adults would refer to as "cat", "dog", "beagle", "St. Bernard", etc.). In many ways, this remarkable ability has been suggested to serve as the foundation for higher-order human cognition.

Volunteering in the Lab

We are always looking for highly-motivated students to work in the lab through the WRP (Wheaton Research Program) and various grants during both the academic year and the summer. We also welcome volunteers who are interested in gaining experience in a research setting and who are interested in visual cognitive neuroscience. Please contact Professor Jason E. Reiss (reiss_jason@wheatoncollege.edu) if you would like to get involved!

 

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