Project Stroop involves an investigation into the multimodal attention using a Stroop-like target selection task.

Project Vigil explores multimodal vigilance performance, including (potential) crossmodal differences in neurophysiological resources.

Project Stroop

Project Vigil

Applied Sensory Psychology Laboratory

Text Box: A Brief History of the Applied Sensory Psychology (ASP) Laboratory
Text Box: Current and Ongoing Projects
Text Box: Research Focus

· Psychophysiological manifestations of sopite syndrome

· Differentiation of sopite syndrome symptomatology as a function of stimulus type

· Effects of secondary loading task modality on attentional reserve capacity

· Modality differences in sustained attention

· Detection of visual, auditory, and tactile signals during performance of a visuomotor task

· Body orientation and the perception of spatial auditory and tactile cues 

· Multimodal interactions and the Stroop Effect

· Multimodal interactions and vection

Text Box: Representative Titles of Investigations

Continuing research and development involving the M-SWAP, the Multi-Sensory Workload Assessment Protocol, a secondary reserve capacity task for assessing mental workload.

Project CogWork

Text Box:

Old Dominion University

Department of Psychology

 

Norfolk, Virginia

J. Christopher Brill, PhD

Project Unity explores the limits of spatiotemporal binding for multimodal signals.

Project Unity

Project BuzzRun is part of collaboration with the Air Force Research Laboratory at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base.  We’re determining the masking effects of locomotion on detection of vibrotactile signals.

Project BuzzRun

Project TacNav is also part of collaboration with the 711th Human Performance Wing (HPW) of the Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL) at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base (WPAFB).  We’re investigating the effectiveness of multimodal navigation systems and how manner of signal presentation influences mental map development for novel environments.

Project TacNav

New!  Project Localize is funded by the U.S. Army and concerns using audio and tactile cues for navigation and target localization among normal and hearing-impaired pilots.

Project Localize

I founded the Applied Sensory Psychology Laboratory in 2001.  At the time, it was called the Applied Tactile Research Laboratory and was located at the University of Central Florida.  As our investigations expanded to include spatial audio, visual displays, and multimodal assessment protocols, the laboratory was renamed the Applied Sensory Psychology (ASP) Laboratory.  In 2007, the ASP Lab moved to Michigan when I accepted a faculty position at Michigan Tech.  I was productive at Michigan Tech, but resources were limited.  After two years, I was offered and accepted a position as a faculty member for Old Dominion University’s Human Factors PhD program, where I am currently working to rebuild the laboratory in Norfolk, VA.  The move to ODU represents a significant and exciting time in the lab’s history.  We’re in the process of acquiring and manufacturing additional research equipment, which will greatly expand our research capabilities.  Further, the laboratory is now housed in a much larger facility, which is capable of supporting funded research and graduate student mentorship.

The overriding themes in my research are applied perception and performance assessment in complex systems.  Most of my research pertains to two areas: 1) multiple resource theory and multimodal displays (primarily vibrotactile and spatial audio) and 2) responses to motion (e.g., sopite syndrome).  The "glue" that binds these disparate topics together is an interest in human performance assessment and measurement.

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Dr. Brill with Samantha Hendricks at the 2009 Human Factors and Ergonomics Meeting in San Antonio, TX.  A former undergraduate research assistant for the ASP Lab, Samantha is now enrolled in a doctoral program for human factors.

Above: Set-up for a psychophysiological investigation.

Right: An assistant organizes sampling vials.  Some of our investigations make use of psychoneuroendocrinology, which involves identifying biomarkers thought to be present during certain psychophysiological responses. In this case, we’re examining changes in neurotransmitter/hormone concentrations as a response to exposure to motion.  Saliva samples are obtained, frozen, and then shipped to be assayed and analyzed at an external laboratory.

Left to Right: Brittany Neilson, Lindsey Chase, Dr. Brill, Liz Ferguson, and Bekki Tiefenback at the 2011 meeting of the Virginia Academy of Sciences.

Applied Sensory Psychology Laboratory—Fall 2012

Left: A lieutenant wears a wireless vibrotactile display for Project BuzzRun.

Left, below: Veronica sets up navigation courses in virtual Kandahar for Project TacNav during a faculty/student  summer research fellowship.

Below: A lieutenant participating in Project BuzzRun.  Her identity is obscured in accordance with US Air Force IRB protocols.  The runs are performed at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base in Dayton, Ohio.  The project is helping us identify, and hopefully circumvent, potential issues related to detecting potentially life-saving information transmitted through a vibrotactile display.

Veronica Scerra (Experimental Psychology MS Program) speaks at the 2013 Virginia Space Grant Consortium Student Conference.

Amanda Allen (Human Factors PhD Program), Dr. Chris Brill, and Isabella Gagliano (Experimental Psychology MS Program) at the 2013 Annual Meeting of the Human Factors and Ergonomics Society Meeting in San Diego, CA.

Isabella Gagliano (MS Experimental Psych Program) fields questions during her first HFES presentation.