Cognitive Psychology

Steven B. Most

		Assistant Professor Ph.D., Harvard University, 2002 Research Interests Recent Publications Representative Publications Vita Website most@psych.udel.edu Office: 222 Wolf Hall Lab: 428 Wolf Hall Preferred contact method - email

Research Interests

Integrative approaches to attention and emotion; Individual differences in "motivated perception"

Research Summary:

To what degree do we control what we see, and what implications might this have for how different people perceive the same events? Despite deeply held intuitions, conscious perception is not determined solely by where we direct our eyes. Instead, much of the brain is involved in constructing visual percepts from sensations received by the eyes, raising critical questions about the degree to which our expectations, motivations, and the ways in which we “tune” attention influence what we do or do not see. Through behavioral and neuroimaging (fMRI) experiments, I seek to elucidate motivational mechanisms directing visual attention and perception. As one part of this endeavor, I explore the influence of high-level individual differences, such as personality and emotional style, over such mechanisms. A major agenda of my research is to uncover ways in which visual cognition can both inform and be informed by other sub-disciplines, such as social-, clinical-, developmental-, and personality psychology.

Representative Publications

Most, S.B. & Astur, R.S.  (2007).  Feature-based attentional set as a cause of traffic accidents.  Visual Cognition, 15, 125-132.

Most, SB., Chun, M.M., Johnson, M.R., & Kiehl, K.A. (2006). Attentional modulation of the amygdala varies with personality. Neuroimage, 31, 934-944 .

Most, S.B., Sorber, A.V., & Cunningham, J.G. (in press). Auditory Stroop reveals automatic gender associations in adults and children. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology.

Most, S.B., Chun, M.M., Widders, D.M., & Zald, D.H. (2005). Attentional rubbernecking: Cognitive control and personality in emotion-induced blindness. Psychonomic Bulletin & Review, 12, 654-661.

Most, S.B., Scholl, B.J., Clifford, E., & Simons, D.J. (2005). What you see is what you set: Sustained inattentional blindness and the capture of awareness. Psychological Review, 112, 217-242.

Gray, J.R., Schaefer, A., Braver, T.S., & Most, S.B. (2005). Affect and the resolution of cognitive control dilemmas. In L. Feldman Barrett, P. Niedenthal, & P. Winkielman (Eds.), Emotion and Consciousness (pp. 67-94). New York: Guilford Press.

Most, S.B., Simons, D.J., Scholl, B.J. Jimenez, R., Clifford, E., & Chabris, C.F. (2001). How not to be seen: The contribution of similarity and selective ignoring to sustained inattentional blindness. Psychological Science, 12, 9-17.

Most, S.B. & Simons, D.J. (2001). Attention capture, orienting, and awareness. In C. Folk & B. Gibson (Eds), Attraction, distraction and action: Multiple perspectives on attentional capture (pp. 151-173). Amsterdam: Elsevier.

Most, S.B., Simons, D.J., Scholl, B.J., & Chabris, C.F. (2000). Sustained inattentional blindness: The role of location in the detection of unexpected dynamic events. Psyche, 6(14). URL: http://psyche.cs.monash.edu.au/v6/psyche-6-14-most.html

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