Our lab explores two main avenues of research - the study of audiovisual integration, and the psychology of music.  

In audiovisual integration, we have previously examined the relative contributions of temporal and stimulus-based factors on the integration process.  We found that when temporal factors are definitive, people tend to use them more than stimulus factors.  However, when temporal factors are ambiguous, then people rely on stimulus factors in integrating stimuli.  Additionally, we found that integration is more stable when there are more visual stimuli than auditory, while integration processes can be recalibrated when there is more auditory than visual information present.

Our current research is investigating the capacity of audiovisual integration, and the factors that affect it.  By considering factors such as visual perceptual load, proactive interference, and temporal predictability, we found that an intermediate difficulty level is best for increasing the capacity of integration.  Additional experiments showed that capacity can be increased by crossmodally congruent stimulus pairings, by inducing perceptual chunking, and by training to increase one's capacity.  We are continuing to explore additional factors that influence the capacity of integration, in an effort to build a comprehensive model of how integration occurs, including perceptual and cognitive factors, as well as health factors related to autism spectrum disorder and major depressive disorder.

In our research into the psychology of music, we are focused mainly on effects of musical training.  We look into how having had musical training through one's life may lead them to have an improved memory - for words, and for music - when compared to people without musical training.  We also have worked with a participant with congenital amusia who was trying to learn to sing even though he had no previous musical training or experience.

A list of recent and submitted publications is here.