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Faculty Research

Don Evans, Ph.D. Department of Psychology

Professor Evans and his students are conducting an EEG study that evaluates how distractions affect attention and slow reactions to important events.  This research may shed light on common issues such as why texting has such a negative effect on driving.

Participants will first complete a visual task without distractions.  Next, they will complete the visual task while typing a series of numbers.  Their performance on the visual task with and without the number typing distraction will be analyzed.  More errors and slower responses are expected in the typing (texting?) condition.  The EEG data may also tell us more about how the distraction interferes with brain processes needed to perform the visual task.