December 5, 2006: Interdisciplinary Speed Networking
Dr. Steve Mitroff
Assistant Professor, Psychological and Brain Sciences
mitroff@duke.edu
1. Please briefly describe your research and the way in which it is interdisciplinary. My research in the broad field of cognitive psychology focuses primarily on issues of visual cognition - the relationship between what we see and what we know. Much of my work is conducted with adult participants (college undergraduates) and asks questions about how we keep track of objects in the visual world as the same persisting individuals from one moment to the next. I also explore the role of awareness on perception, how we detect differences in the visual world, and the effects of video game playing on attention, memory, and perception. Through collaborations, at Duke and elsewhere, I ask many of the same questions with different populations (infants and the elderly) and with different techniques (brain activity through EEG measures). Many of the questions I ask are relevant to issues within philosophy and computer science and have the potential to be informative to the medical community as well.
2. How would you recommend that a student to learn more about your research? Visit my personal Web site and my lab Web site.
3. What kinds of interdisciplinary connections are you interested in making at Duke? I would be happy to work with individuals at all levels and from any group. Potential connections could be found with engineering, computer science, business, philosophy. Graduate students could join on-going projects but would need to add their own unique contribution. I would not be able to provide funding for the students at this point.
4. In what ways can you see a graduate student from another group or discipline fit into what you discussed above? I'd be open to various levels of interaction. If a student wanted to do a project that would be fine, and same for the other options listed (discussions, attending my lab meetings, visits, etc.).
5. What skills or expertise would help you move forward in your research? My work could benefit from the expertise of a clinician with access to specific populations (ADHD, autism, neglect, etc). There could also be benefits from working with engineers or computer scientists.
6. Who are the people at Duke that you collaborate with on interdisciplinary work or have regular discussions about your research? I work with Dr. David Madden, faculty in Psychiatry; Dr. Liz Brannon, faculty in Psychology, and Dr. Marty Woldorff, faculty in Psychiatry.
Last Updated (by wat@duke.edu): 11/27/2006