Dr James Macdonald

Conscious awareness and perception, particularly in vision, and their relationship with attention; neural correlates of consciousness; neural mechanisms of attention and cognitive control (e.g., inhibition); the role of oscillations (e.g., the alpha rhythm) in perception and cognition; computational modelling of EEG; perceptual decision making; paradigms such as inattentional blindness, change blindness, and response competition; the nature of 'the mind's eye', e.g., visual mental imagery, dreaming, visual short-term or working memory.

Publications

Macdonald, J. S. P., Mathan, S., & Yeung, N. (2011). Trial-by-trial variations in subjective attentional state are reflected in ongoing prestimulus EEG alpha oscillations. Frontiers In Psychology, 2 (82). Click here for full article (Open Access).

Macdonald, J. S. P., & Lavie, N. (2011). Visual perceptual load induces inattentional deafness. Attention, Perception & Psychophysics, 73, 1780-1789. Click here for full article (Open Access) or click here for pdf.

Macdonald, J. S. P., & Lavie, N. (2008). Load induced blindness. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception and Performance, 34, 1078-1091. Click here for article.

Teaching

PS51006A Biological and Comparative Approaches to Psychology

PS51014A Career Development and Employability in Psychology

PS52007A Research Methods in Psychology

PS53012A Research Project

Research interests

Conscious awareness and perception, particularly in vision, and their relationship with attention; neural correlates of consciousness; neural mechanisms of attention and cognitive control (e.g., inhibition); the role of oscillations (e.g., the alpha rhythm) in perception and cognition; computational modelling of EEG; perceptual decision making; paradigms such as inattentional blindness, change blindness, and response competition; the nature of 'the mind's eye', e.g., visual mental imagery, dreaming, visual short-term or working memory.

Selected publications