Research Approach

• Dr. Karen Arnell, Director of the Brock Attention Lab, is a cognitive psychologist who received her PhD from the University of Waterloo in 1996. Since 1990 she has been performing studies of dual-task attention to look at the nature of temporal limitations on attention, and their functional significance.
  
  
• All of the projects we work on in the Attention Lab involve examining the nature and limitations of attention in average adult humans.
  
  
• For most studies, we use dual-task paradigms (particularly the attentional blink and PRP-type paradigms) to look at the limits and workings of attention under dual-task conditions. [Click here for a PDF of our 1992 article introducing the attentional blink.]
  
  
• We typically present computer displays to participants. We take behavioural measures (accuracy and/or response time) and sometime also take scalp recordings of the brain's electrical response to stimulus events (event-related potentials or ERPs).
  
  
• We use ERPs in the manner of a cognitive psychologist in that we look at which waveform components are reduced and/or delayed under dual-task conditions so that we can infer the cognitive stage at which processing breaks down under dual-task conditions. We do not use ERPs to test models of brain function or to localize ERP source generators within the brain.
  
  
• For more information on the type of projects we are working on now, visit the "current projects" link.

Research Facilities

• Brock University sits on top of the Niagara escarpment in St. Catharines, Ontario, Canada. St. Catharines is in the heart of the beautiful Niagara wine region, about 1.5 hours drive from Toronto, and about 40 minutes drive to Buffalo or Hamilton.
  
  
• The lab is situated in the Psychology department in the heart of the Brock campus. Set-up of the lab was funded by a grant to Dr. Arnell from CFI (Canadian Foundation for Innovation) and OIT (Ontario Innovation Trust). Current operations of the lab are funded by an NSERC Operating grant and a grant from CLLRNet (Canadian Language and Literacy Research Network).
  
  
• We record and process ERPs using a 64-channel NeuroScan system and ElectroCap International caps.
  
  
• We have 3 cubicles dedicated to collection of behavioural data, and one larger room dedicated to the collection of ERP data. There is a large work room in the middle of these where students and research assistants can work while running participants. There is also a separate very large room we use for data analysis, writing, and hanging out.