The Perception lab is a 3-room suite that is designed for research in perception and human performance. The lab houses a variety of reseach projects in visual attention and perception.
Recent projects are described below.Effects of Presentation Format on Working Memory
We compare participants recall of material presented as pictures, spoken words and printed words. These findings contribute to our understanding of working memory by identifying the influence of format, modality, and length of to-be-remembered material on processing and storage components of a dual task. The results have implications for both Web-based and classroom instruction.
Conceptual Priming with Ambiguous Figures
Primes are presented in varied formats and we investigate their impact on recognition of ambiguous figures. This project investigates the degree to which semantically related primes can influence object perception.
Pain Reactions of Chronic Pain patients
A number of projects with chronic pain patients have also been conducted in the lab. We have worked with patients suffering from fybromyalgia and pain associated with the upper spine. We developed and validated a Neck Pain Scale and have run several studies evaluating the effectiveness of cognitive behavioral therapy and Botox injections on chronic pain.
Conceptual representation of Urban areas
This is a joint project with researchers in architecture and computer science. The goal is to study how people conceptualize a city and to use that knowledge to develop smart maps.
Copies of recent publications describing research work in the lab are available from my Web site.
The Human Computer Interaction is a research lab investigating novel ways for people to interact with computers, and through computers with their environments.
The lab is located in the Software and Information Systems department in 330A Woodward Hall.
Current Research Title: Privacy and Sharing in Online Social Communities
Online social communities such as Facebook, MySpace, and Flickr are experiencing tremendous user growth, with at least 84% of Internet user involvement. Users of these communities share large amounts of personal information to build stronger social relationships, yet put their privacy and identity at risk by their disclosures. We are investigating how people are sharing and protecting their information in online social communities in order to improve the privacy mechanisms and reduce the risks of participating while still maintaining the benefits of these communities.
Celine Latulipe--Human Computer Interaction Lab
Current Research Title : Visual Feedback as Spatial Memory Cues in Digital Photo Manipulation
Description:
The symTone application allows people to edit digital photos using two hands (controlling two computer mice). The users control the position and size of a rectangle (the ToneZone) that is super-imposed over the photo. By adjusting the rectangle, the image is modified. I hypothesize that the rectangle acts in two ways: to facilitate motor coordination between the two hands and as a spatial memory cue during image exploration. The latter idea is that the rectangle acts as a memory cue so that while exploring possible image modifications the user can quickly return the rectangle to a configuration where the image looked good.
This project involves designing and running user studies to test this hypothesis by isolating the two effects of the ToneZone rectangle (the motor manipulation and the spatial memory cue effects).
The focus of the lab is the cognitive neuroscience and cognitive psychology of cognitive control processes that modulate the more specific processes employed in performing cognitive tasks. For example, cognitive control processes might work to make the perceptual and linguistic processes involved in reading a word more efficient, or they might work to perform a mental reconfiguration of goals and strategies during a switch from one mental task to another. The lab has a 40 channel EEG system for recording ERPs (event-related potentials that reflect the average brain electrical activity, as measured from outside the head, following presentation of a stimulus event), and 2 cognitive testing stations for measuring response times during performance of cognitive tasks.
One line of research in the lab involves examining the cognitive control processes that operate during a switch from one cognitive task to another. The question of interest is the extent to which cognitive control processes can completely inhibit the processes associated with performance of the prior switched-from task. We have developed a behavioral measure that assesses the extent to which aspects of the switched-from task have been inhibited and have conducted a series of experiments that measure response time and percent correct to examine this prior-task inhibition. We are looking forward to a new series of experiments that will assess ERPs during task switching.
Other recent lines of research in the lab have looked at cognitive control processes during the Stroop color naming task (assesses the ability to deal with conflicting information), meditation and cognitive control, and the role of cognitive control processes during preferential choice tasks (e.g., Do you prefer car A or car B?).The focus of the lab is the cognitive neuroscience and cognitive psychology of cognitive control processes that modulate the more specific processes employed in performing cognitive tasks. For example, cognitive control processes might work to make the perceptual and linguistic processes involved in reading a word more efficient, or they might work to perform a mental reconfiguration of goals and strategies during a switch from one mental task to another. The lab has a 40 channel EEG system for recording ERPs (event-related potentials that reflect the average brain electrical activity, as measured from outside the head, following presentation of a stimulus event), and 2 cognitive testing stations for measuring response times during performance of cognitive tasks.
One line of research in the lab involves examining the cognitive control processes that operate during a switch from one cognitive task to another. The question of interest is the extent to which cognitive control processes can completely inhibit the processes associated with performance of the prior switched-from task. We have developed a behavioral measure that assesses the extent to which aspects of the switched-from task have been inhibited and have conducted a series of experiments that measure response time and percent correct to examine this prior-task inhibition. We are looking forward to a new series of experiments that will assess ERPs during task switching.
Other recent lines of research in the lab have looked at cognitive control processes during the Stroop color naming task (assesses the ability to deal with conflicting information), meditation and cognitive control, and the role of cognitive control processes during preferential choice tasks (e.g., Do you prefer car A or car B?). [More Information]
Mary Michael -Language Lab
My field is the psychology of language and my current research focuses on the relationship of individual differences in cognition with language processes, specifically in reading.
Ongoing project: Individual differences and reading comprehension.
The goal of this project is to understand the degree to which performance on different cognitive tasks including working memory is related to reading comprehension of more or less complex sentences. Working memory and reading experience have both been suggested as possible sources of difference in reading ability.
Upcoming project: Eye movements and reading complex sentences with and without context.
This project seeks to extend existing work on eye movements required for reading by relating the difficulties registered by eye-movements with other measures of cognition.
There are three projects currently being conducted in the Gerontology lab. One project is examining attitudes toward and images of aging and older adults. We are in the process of redesigning a survey that has been used to assess attitudes and has found age, gender, and racial group differences in those attitudes. We seek to include additional groups (e.g., Asian, Hispanic, and Native as well as African and White Americans) and to attempt to determine which factors are most important in the formation of negative attitudes previously obtained. A second project is examining changes in memory and cognition with advanced age. One part of this project is examining age differences in modality/format effects. Prior work shows that pictures and spoken words are remembered better than printed words and a part of this difference is due to an attenuation of attention for printed words. We are examining these factors in older adults who are already known to have fewer resources to devote to mental processing. A second part of this project seeks to examine adult age differences in creativity. The third project underway is an examination of age, gender, and ethnic group differences in dream content. This project is the first to compare dreams for all of these groups at the same time and uses the Hall and van de Castle (1996) system of content coding. Students working on this project are expected to learn that system.
An emerging literature suggests that poor sleep in children has important consequences in terms of behavior and cognition. The problem
goes beyond being sleepy; lack of sleep or poor quality of sleep may impact the development and functioning of the frontal cortex, thereby
impairing functions such as attention, impulsivity, planning, and learning. Lost learning in children may impair not only their current
academic performance but continue to do so into the school years. This project proposes to study sleep in children and its effect on their
physical, emotional/social, and cognitive readiness or performance. We will assess sleep quality in children using a validated sleep
questionnaire filled out by a parent. Physical development will be operationalized as body mass index (poor sleep is often associated with
under development or obesity). Parents and teachers will complete checklists to assess the child's emotional, social, or cognitive
development. The student may also collect individual data on the children.
Potential long-term effects of untreated sleep disorders are not trivial. Some cognitive/behavioral/affective effects may not be
completely reversible. Sleep-related deficits in learning may keep children from reaching their potential, may produce a mind set in
children similar to learned helplessness, and may lower the expectations of significant others in the child's life. Sleep loss may produce
changes in experience-dependent cortical plasticity, concluding that sleep in a young organism may have an important impact on brain
development. All of these possibilities argue for the diagnosis of sleep disorders as early in life as is possible, preferably before
beginning formal schooling.
My current research focus is on the modulation of pain through cognitive and affective processes. Specifically, I am interested in both the behavioral and neuronal changes that occur when pain is manipulated through these mechanisms.
Ongoing project: Cognitive control of Pain
The goal of this project is to understand the degree to which different tasks change subjects’ perception of a painful stimulus. This project involves stimulating subjects with brief electrical pulses while they engage in one of three tasks. The subjects recall and re-experience a pleasurable memory, perform the Stroop task, and consciously attempt to control the perception of the stimulation.
Upcoming project: Emotion Induction paradigm development
The goal of this project is to develop effective emotion induction paradigms. Current paradigms do not effectively induce all emotional conditions. Example stimuli to be tested include self-selected pictures and music, video clips and imagery. These paradigms will be used in a variety of projects.
The Games + Learning Lab at UNC Charlotte explores the creation, use, and study of games and game technologies. In this lab, scholars work together to better understand and build interactive technologies that inspire, teach, and connect people, while also exploring both human and machine learning in game environments. The Games + Learning Lab currently houses several research projects including:
Game2Learn- researching the use of games for learning and promoting interest in computer science.
Game Intelligence Group(GIG) - developing and researching tools for video game analysis.
GameCATS- using culturally situated disign tools to present math and computer science to middle school students through culture.
Educational Data Mining - researching how to improve learning using AI and statistical techniques for student support, particularly applied to generating help and study guides.
Michael Youngblood -