Congratulations to U of U Psychology PhD students Mirinda Whitaker and Jack Silcox for their recent participation at the Psychonomic Society’s 63^rd Annual Meeting. Their presentations were two of only eight total presentations highlighted in the conference’s daily features, a testament to the quality and importance of their work.

Mirinda Whitaker’s research presentation focused on the accuracy of people’s perceptual judgements about their capacity to interact with objects in real or virtual environments. Understanding how accurately people perceive and act in VR environments (i.e., perceptual fidelity) is increasingly essential in applied scenarios. For example, VR can be a training tool for high-risk activities, including medical and military applications.

Read more about Mirinda’s research here: https://www.psychonomic.org/page/FridayNov18

Mirinda works with Prof. Jeanine Stefanucci, Prof. Sarah Creem-Reghr and Assoc. Prof. Pascal Deboeck. She is a member of the VAAST (Vision Audition and Action in Space and Time) Lab. Speaking about her research interests, Mirinda notes, “My two primary areas of research are in perceptual psychology and quantitative methodology. Overall, my research focuses on how perceptual experiences unfold over time, and how we can best measure and model these perceptual dynamics. I have a particular interest in pain perception (in the context of both acute and chronic pain). My research investigates how pain may impact and interact with other perceptual, cognitive, and affective processes. In my quantitative methods work, I develop and implement statistical tools to model dynamic processes captured in repeated measures data, with an emphasis on intensive, intraindividual time series methods, and Bayesian statistics. My program of research aims to develop novel statistical/quantitative methods that can be applied to further understand how we perceive and interact with the world around us.”

Jack Silcox, M.S. works with research mentor and Asst. Prof. of Psychology, Brennan Payne, in the Language and Memory Aging Lab. His research presentation focused on the effects of listening effort on speech processing. Everyday speech perception is subject to a lot of noise, and is thus inherently demanding. This may lead to problems in understanding or remembering what was heard. His research demonstrates the nuanced relationship between listening effort, speech processing, and downstream memory.

Read more about Jack's research here: https://www.psychonomic.org/page/SaturdayNov19

Jack’s research interests focus on language, memory, and aging. Regarding his work, Jack notes, “I am broadly interested in how language and memory processes change as we age. Most recently, I have been investigating how speech comprehension changes when we listen in challenging scenarios (e.g., when listening to speech with background noise or while driving a car). I use a multi-method approach to my research employing techniques such as electroencephalography, pupillometry, transcranial magnetic stimulation and behavioral outcomes."