This site is about: (1) my professional self, (2) my research into cognition and (3) musings about the intersection of cognition and design.
Jason H. Wong
Basic cognitive research is a necessary component of successful user-centered design. Only through scientific thinking can we make technology intuitive and productive. My goal is to integrate basic research with useful applications.
About Me
 Jason hiking at the Grand Canyon |
I’m a PhD student in the Human Factors and Applied Cognition program at George Mason University. I am currently working on several projects and also working towards completing my dissertation with Dr. Matthew Peterson. I received my bachelor’s degree in Psychology from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in May 2004. I started out as a computer science major, but I soon realized that I wasn’t cut out for it. I still wanted to work with computers, and that led me to discover human-computer interaction, cognitive psychology and related fields.I have broad interests in how visual attention affects how information is processed. One of my major research themes explores the relationship between attention and working memory. Another theme looks at visual search performance in dual-task situations, which occurs often in the real world. Finally, a recent project involves looking at the distribution of attention and the eyes in different video game situations. My experiments involve behavioral, eyetracking, and neuroscience measures, integrating them to develop solid cognitive theory.
After I receive my doctorate, I will begin a two-year position with the Navy, where I will be working at the Naval Undersea Warfare Center in Newport, RI. The Human-Systems Integration group there does a lot of human factors work on submarines, especially focusing on information displays. I am excited about working in this entirely foreign environment. I love the freedom of academia, but I am looking forward to applying my basic vision research in such an applied area. In my spare time (yes, I have spare time in graduate school), I enjoy non-work-related reading, television (The Office, Battlestar Galatica, and 30 Rock especially), cooking, and traveling. Since I can only travel so far on my limited budget, I mostly explore Washington, DC. At least there is a lot to explore! I am also a complete technology geek, but Mac OS X only. I used to be a Windows user, but I’ve been spoiled by Macs. I’m sure that Macintosh usability (good and bad) will be the topic of many a post! |
Categories
- animal cognition (1)
- arch lab (2)
- attention (12)
- audition (1)
- automation (2)
- bad design (20)
- clutter (12)
- consciousness (1)
- data visualization (8)
- decision making (4)
- driving (8)
- eye movements (7)
- faces (2)
- good design (16)
- imagery (5)
- interruptions (5)
- language (2)
- marketing (4)
- memory (5)
- mental map (7)
- navigation (3)
- neuropsychology (2)
- neuroscience (6)
- perception (19)
- physical ergonomics (7)
- research (14)
- robots (3)
- social (1)
- teaching (1)
- thoughts (12)
- transfer of training (7)
- user testing (11)
- video games (9)
- visual search (3)
Blogroll
Cognitive Daily
- John McCain, risk, and anger
- Prius owners: Just like Mac owners but less attractive?
- Sex-ed in the real world: Do intentions affect actions in the heat of the moment?
- Toddlers play with impossibly small toys as if they're the real thing
- Operant conditioning at the NC Zoo
- Casual Fridays: Are Mac owners like Prius owners?
- A simple toy, and what it says about how we learn to mentally rotate objects
- Meet us at the North Carolina Zoo this Saturday -- ScienceBlogs will pay for your ticket!
- Even music played before or after a film character is shown affects our perception of their emotion
- Casual Fridays: Who's losing sleep over Michael Phelps? What about Sarah Palin?