Our next OPAM workshop is August 13. Michael Paavola (University of Iowa) will be presenting on how to use virtual reality in your research. As always, presentations will be on Zoom, and will be shared on our website thereafter. Learn more and register here: www.opamconference.com/workshops-su...

NMSU News has run a story (being picked up by various other outlets) on our work with the Child Safety Network; new initiatives to study school bus safety, and the reasons that drives pass stop-arms illegally. KTSM Coverage: www.ktsm.com/local/el-pas...

NMSU professor leads national school bus safety initiative

EL PASO, Texas (KTSM) — A New Mexico State University professor of psychology and kinesiology is leading a nationwide initiative to improve school bus safety. Michael Hout and his team are in…

ktsm.com

We are hiring in the College of HEST. We're looking for a new Academic Department Head to lead our excellent Department of Kinesiology. Please consider applying, and share in your networks and with folks you know that might be interested. careers.nmsu.edu/jobs/academi...

Academic Department Head - Las Cruces, New Mexico, United States

Department Contact: Christopher Aiken, aiken@nmsu.edu, (575) 646-4296 Internal or External Search: External - Open to all applicants   Advertising Summary: The College of Health, Education, and Social...

careers.nmsu.edu

Back in May, I was invited to come down to UTEP to give an interview for Science Studio. Dr Keith Pannell and I chatted about scientific influences, cognition, the brain (and more) ahead of my Science on Screen lecture. The interview has now been released: www.ktep.org/show/science...

Dr. Michael Hout

This weeks episode of Science Studio, Dr. Keith Pannel interviews Dr. Michael Hout about his life, his field of research, and about his presentation for the screening of Oliver Sacks: His Own Life at ...

ktep.org

Our latest paper is out in Psychological Research. It is on how the processing of threatening content can lead to learned associations that give rise to anticipatory attentional avoidance. The paper was led by Dr Botond Kiss at University of Pecs. Read it here: link.springer.com/article/10.1...

Anticipatory attentional avoidance in learned threat associations - Psychological Research

The processing of threatening content tends to take priority over neutral or other emotional stimuli. Compared to other attentional biases (in response to threat), less research has been dedicated to ...

link.springer.com

Gio Del Sordo has a new paper out in BRM, focusing on data sharing practices in the visual cognition literature (with particular emphasis on data column naming conventions and their impact on reproducibility). Read it here: link.springer.com/epdf/10.3758...

We have a new paper out in AP&P led by Dr Haden Dewis. It presents data that suggests some portion of the well-documented prevalence effects may occur because of mind-wandering during periods in which targets are infrequently encountered. Read it here: link.springer.com/article/10.3...

Low prevalence targets are primarily missed due to mind wandering - Attention, Perception, & Psychophysics

The impact of target prevalence (the proportion of trials in which a target appears) has been widely studied within visual search. The low prevalence effect is the finding that rare targets are often ...

link.springer.com

We’re looking for an additional Associate Editor at AP&P, particularly in the field of auditory perception/attention. If you’re interested, please check out this flyer and please share this post so that this may find its way to others!

I recently spoke with School Transportation News. We discuss issues of school bus safety, stop-arm violations, visual attention, technology, and what we should be doing to stop kids from being injured (or worse) as a result of illegal stop-arm passing behavior. stnonline.com/multimedia/s...

(STN Podcast E311) Leadership & Lawbreakers: Top STN EXPO West Picks, Illegal Passing Deep Dive

(STN Podcast E311) Leadership & Lawbreakers: Top STN EXPO West Picks, Illegal Passing Deep Dive School Transportation News Multimedia

stnonline.com

Our next free OPAM workshop will be presented by Dr Zitong Lu, from the McGovern Institute for Brain Research (at MIT). Please join us for a great workshop on EEG analysis in Python. You can register here: www.opamconference.com/workshops-su...

The OPAM Team is excited to announce Dr. Geoffrey Woodman as the OPAM 2026 Keynote Speaker! Dr. Woodman is the E. Bronson Ingram Chair of Neuroscience and Professor of Psychology at Vanderbilt University, where he leads the Woodman Brain Lab. Join us for his keynote!

OPAM34 is now accepting abstract submissions! The conference embraces a diversity of approaches, including psychophysics, eye-tracking, and neuroimaging. OPAM occurs immediately before the Psychonomic Society meeting and at the same venue. Learn more here: www.opamconference.com/opam2026

Gio Del Sordo has a new paper out in CABN. It extends her dissertation work in using pupillometry to support the argument that sustained attention comprises two distinct yet complementary modes of engagement. Read it here: link.springer.com/epdf/10.3758...

On 5/26, I'll be trying something new (to me) in the world of Sci-Comm. At the Fountain Theatre, I'll present a short public lecture following a screening of the movie "Oliver Sacks: His Own Life." mesillavalleyfilm.org/science-on-s...

Dr Giovanna Del Sordo has led another kid-friendly science communication article in Frontiers for Young Minds. This one is on using pupillometric methods to index individual differences in mental imagery. Check it out, here: kids.frontiersin.org/articles/10....

The Pupils Tell All: How Our Eyes Reveal How Well We Can Imagine

When you step outside on a sunny day, your pupils (the dark spots in the center of your eyes) shrink to block out light. In the dark, however, your pupils grow to let more light in. This automatic rea...

kids.frontiersin.org

Upcoming Vision Sciences Society presentations: Gio Del Sordo will lead our poster on an AI-Human similarity database for medical image perception. And Eben Daggett will lead the poster on our work on contexts effects in AI-Human representational alignment. Both also include Jon Art from our lab.

Congrats to Ashley Mathis on the successful completion of her comprehensive exams this week! Ashley now moves on to her dissertation. Way to go, Ashley!

Collin Scarince and I have a new paper out in QJEP. This is an impressive feat by Collin to modify the Guided Search model with a multidimensional scaling "plug in" that helps extend computational capacity to capture performance with featurally complex stimuli. journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/...

The OPAM training workshop series is back, starting with Dr Sarah Merrill (from UMass Lowell) who will be presenting on how to write competitive NSF GRFP/Fellowship applications. Workshops happen live (uiowa.zoom.us/j/94840104986) and are recorded and posted to our website thereafter. Join us!

The Discovery Scholars Program is back in NMSU News with a feature story describing the impact is has by broadening access to research opportunities for undergraduates in the College of HEST and College of Arts & Sciences. Read the story here: newsroom.nmsu.edu/news/discove...

Discovery Scholars Program expands research opportunities for NMSU undergraduates

A full class schedule, work, family and other life obligations can make it difficult for many undergraduate students to gain research experience early in their careers. The Discovery Scholars...

newsroom.nmsu.edu

It's not every day that you give your first research poster and the President of your University shows up. Yesterday, Michelle Kass (undergraduate Discovery Scholar mentored by Dr Gio Del Sordo and myself) presented her work at URCAS 2026 and got a visit from President Ferme. Nice work, Michelle!

This week, Mr Jon Art (an under Discovery Scholar in our lab) travelled to the Rocky Mountain Psychological Association meeting. There, he was met by Dr Eben Daggett (and a special guest!). Jon presented on his project focusing on the impacts of similarity and timing on the attentional blink.

We recently published an article in The Conversation. (Led by Arryn Robbins and co-authored by Eben Daggett and myself.) The article is about how AI learns to see and categorize, and the important ways (and implications of) that that is different from humans. theconversation.com/ai-doesnt-se...

AI doesn’t ‘see’ the way that you do, and that could be a problem when it categorizes objects and scenes

People and computers perceive the world differently, which can lead AI to make mistakes no human would. Researchers are working on how to bring human and AI vision into alignment.

theconversation.com

EIN Presswire has posted a story (being picked up elsewhere) about my appointment to the Advisory Board for the Child Safety Network, and my role as Chief Scientific Investigator on their work to combat school bus stop-arm runners. Read it here: www.einpresswire.com/article/8973...

Child Safety Network (CSN) Appoints Dr. Michael C. Hout, Ph D Lead Investigator to Combat School Bus Stop-Arm Runners

Each school day, nearly 25 million children board and exit approximately 500,000 school buses across America. Yet national estimates suggest tens of millions of

einpresswire.com

Dr Eben Daggett and I have a book chapter coming out very soon. It's on modeling similarity using MDS, and it can be found in the upcoming 2nd edition of the Encyclopedia of Measurement in Social Sciences.

We have a new young-audience science communication out in Frontiers for Young Minds. This one was led by Virginia Millsap and co-written by Dr Andras Zsido (of University of Pecs). It describes the science of phobia development, and you can find it here: kids.frontiersin.org/articles/10....

The STEM Ed Research Institute is hiring a post-doctoral researcher to work on research, assessment, and more, in collaboration with NMSU Global, and the Institute for Applied AI and Machine Learning. Please share with interested parties and in your networks. careers.nmsu.edu/jobs/post-do...

The OPAM conference is looking for new organizers, and senior grads and postdocs are eligible. Please share and post widely! This was one of the best things I ever did for my career, and as a service, and I cannot recommend it enough. Deadline 3/1/26; questions to me or opam.info@gmail.com.

newsroom.nmsu.edu/news/nmsu-re...

NMSU renews designation as Carnegie Community Engaged University

New Mexico State University has once again earned the Carnegie Community Engagement Designation, an elective designation awarded by the American Council on Education and the Carnegie Foundation...

newsroom.nmsu.edu

This week I had the opportunity to moderate a panel discussion ("AI Everywhere: Empowering Educators and Students") at the AI & Energy conference put on by the Mesilla Valley Economic Development Alliance. I believe a full recording is forthcoming. www.linkedin.com/posts/michae...

This week I had the opportunity to moderate a panel discussion ("AI Everywhere: Empowering Educators and Students") at the AI & Energy conference put on by the Mesilla Valley Economic De...

This week I had the opportunity to moderate a panel discussion ("AI Everywhere: Empowering Educators and Students") at the AI & Energy conference put on by the Mesilla Valley Economic Development Alli...

linkedin.com