Because our visual system cannot process all incoming information in the world, mental function called “attention” enables us to select and process the information relevant to our goal, while filtering out other irrelevant information. That is, we live through this world by prioritizing some information over other information.
My lab investigates how attention facilitates visual information processing in two contexts: (a) when the visual information remains in front of us—in the visual field (including scenes, during perceptual processing), and (b) when the visual information disappears from the visual field and no longer available for perceptual processing (during memory maintenance).
I conduct these investigations with a team of motivated students, using both eye-tracking and non-eye-tracking methods.
Contact: matsukm@wwu.edu