I'm a cognitive neuroscientist studying how human cognitive and perceptual performance is affected by context. Contextual effects can occur at many levels and I am interested not only in identifying contextual influences at a given level, but also in understanding how they interact across levels. At the most immediate contextual level, I have examined factors like the rules and responses used on previous experimental trials (e.g., post-error slowing; task switching). At a slightly broader level, I am interested in factors like task-specific practice, vigilance, and motivation. I am also interested in personality and expertise factors (i.e., individual differences) that participants bring with them to an experiment (e.g., personality traits like extroversion or impulsiveness; experiences with real-world activities like on-the-job training, playing video games, and consuming media). I beleive that a multi-level, multi-disciplinaty approach is needed to truly understand human behavior in a complex world.

Location

Greater Boston

Disciplines

• Psychology
• Neuroscience

Affiliation

U.S. Army Natick Soldier Research, Development, & Engineering Center

Website

http://www.mattcain.com