Me
Father. Husband. Gardener. Climber. Fermentation Enthusiast.
I love research, data, and trying to understand the underlying influences of events. I am an enthusiast of efficiency, automation, and work flow. I’ve been called contrarian and told I think too much, yet I believe challenging the status quo moves us forward. I enjoy teaching others to do the same.
“Rivalry of scholars advances wisdom.” – Hebrew Proverb
Education
The University of Georgia | Athens, Georgia | PhD in Cognitive Psychology | May 2005
Bloomsburg University of Pennsylvania, now Commonwealth University - Bloomsburg | Bloomsburg, Pennsylvania | BA in Psychology | May 1999
In a nutshell
I am research scientist and Associate Professor with a specialization in the cognitive mechanisms underlying memory, attention, and decision making. My research focuses on how cognitive processes influence our understanding of data visualizations as well as other daily tasks like remembering (or forgetting) to fulfill everyday intentions at home, school, or in the workplace.
Teaching & Research
I have been a professor at Claremont McKenna College since 2005 and have taught courses on statistics, research methods, memory, cognition, decision making, data science methods using R, and Data Visualization.
Research
Early in my career, my research focused on understanding how people remember to fulfill daily intentions (e.g., prospective memory) as well as remember or infer memorial details of events (e.g., source memory; reality monitoring). My current research focuses on how we make sense of data visualizations, remember them, and use them to inform decisions. Various levels of this information-processing stream are influenced by perception, visual attention, executive attention, memory, and decision making. As an individual living with vision difficulties associated with pathological myopia, I am also interested in understanding how the rich visual information communicated through data visualizations can be made accessible to individuals with vision difficulties (e.g., blindness, low-vision, etc.).
Some other research has focused on understanding whether financial gains or losses can influence memory for carrying out such tasks, which may have implications for workplace performance and bonus structures and understanding how people remember the origin of information, which plays a role in distinguishing between reality and imagination as well as attributing ideas to team members accurately.
Students interested in studying data visualization should contact me here or visit me on campus.
Hobbies & Other Interests
I enjoy a simple, minimalist lifestyle and the flexibility that comes with that freedom. I love deep conversation with anyone who is willing to share his or her views about reality and fantasy or anywhere between. In my spare time, I especially enjoy doing arts and crafts with my daughter, bouldering with and wife, tending to our garden, preserving our bounty, and fermenting foods. When I have time, I share some still life of our gardening at sowingchange and help promote a family garlic stand at fatman’s garlic.
I am a fan of efficiency, automation, and work flow. If I can find any spare time, I enjoy visualizing data and writing scripts and programs that automate annoying or repetitive tasks for myself or for others. I believe there is more to life than doing manually what computers can do more accurately and efficiently.