Robert J. Youmans, PhD

Laboratory Group

The Youmans Laboratory conducts applied cognitive research on a wide range of topics. Active research projects include: studies on automation in air-traffic control, individual differences in cognitive flexibility and situation awareness, predicting creativity in design via patterns of communication between design group members, the human factors of television remote controls, optimal touch-screen menu categorization, and how distance affects the ergonomics of control systems. These topics, while seemingly different, represent common areas of overlapping interest between Dr. Youmans’s research interests and those of the students working in his laboratory group. For more information on each of these projects, please feel free to contact either Dr. Youmans directly, or any of the students currently working on a given project.

Jared Ramsburg, BA

Jared is a second-year graduate student in CSUN’s General Experimental Masters Program. His research interests concern methods of improving people’s self-regulation using cognitive training. His current research projects include how cognitive training via meditation may improve persistence, consciously-directed attention, mood, and other cognitive and physiological measures of self-regulation. Jared’s thesis focuses on the question of whether self-regulation is enhanced or depleted in experienced meditators immediately after a meditation session. Jared’s research is important to those seeking to improve their self regulation or make lasting behavioral lifestyle changes because the focus is on clarifying how meditation affects self-regulation both in the short term and over time. Jared has received multiple honors and awards for his research on self regulation including a 2010 CSUN Association of Retired Faculty Research Award, and has been named a Research Infrastructure for Minority Institutions Scholar, a Sally Casanova Pre-Doctoral Scholar, and a Career Opportunities in Research Affiliate.  Download a copy of Jared’s Curriculum Vitae: Jared Ramsburg CV.pdf.

Ivonne Figueroa, BA

Ivonne is currently a second-year graduate student in CSUN’s Human Factors Masters Program, following her work to earn a BA in psychology from the University of California, Riverside in 2007. Her research interests include studies of situation awareness, vigilance, and cognitive flexibility. Ivonne’s work attempts to measure individual differences in cognitive flexibility, then use those differences to predict situation awareness in vigilance tasks. Her work stands to inform a variety of jobs where vigilance tasks are involved, but Ivonne is currently applying her work to the domain of loss prevention and security, as when an officer is required to identify a shoplifter. Based on previous literature and pilot data, Ivonne’s work predicts that individuals with high cognitive flexibility will be less susceptible to habituation and better able to maintain situation awareness, at least in the short term. This year Ivonne has been awarded a Research Infrastructure for Minority Institutions (RIMI) scholarship, allowing her to work as an intern for a community health program to create a research action plan that will include human factors principles.  Download a copy of Ivonne’s Curriculum Vitae: Ivonne Figueroa CV.pdf.

Olga Kramarova, BA

Olga Kramarova is currently a first-year graduate student in CSUN’s Human Factors Masters Program. After receiving her Bachelor’s Degree in Psychology at CSUN, she is currently working with Dr. Robert Youmans as a research assistant on his research pertaining to innovation in design and engineering. Olga enjoys studying human-machine interaction, specifically hands-on research experiments that involve usability testing and redesign of consumer products. Olga also has interests in teaching and the learning sciences: she is currently a teaching assistant to Dr. Jill Razani, and works as a statistics tutor for undergraduate students. Additionally, as a member of the Graduate Research Team in the Northridge chapter of the Psi Chi Honors Student Organization, Olga is also working with a team of graduate students on research on the effects of computers in classrooms, and how they impact student assessment. Download a copy of Olga’s Curriculum Vitae: Olga Kramarova CV.pdf.

Alex Lim, BA

Alex is a first-year graduate student in CSUN’s General Experimental Masters Program. He earned a BA in psychology from California State University, Dominguez Hills, while working with Dr. Larry Rosen on a project that examined how student learning is impacted when students receive text messages during class. Alex is a former McNair Scholar, and has presented research at the Annual Biomedical Research Conference for Minority Students (ABRCMS), the Society for Advancing Hispanics/Chicanos & Native Americans in Science, and the Psychological Undergraduate Research Conference (PURC UCLA). At PURC, he earned an award for “Outstanding Research in the Social and Behavioral Sciences.” At CSUN, he plans to expand his research on student learning and cognitive psychology to include new work that examines task-set switching behaviors. Download a copy of Alex’s Curriculum Vitae: Alex Floyd Lim CV - 9-27-10.pdf.

John Terceman, BA

John is currently a second-year graduate student in CSUN’s Human Factors Masters Program, following his undergraduate work in psychology and economics at CSUN. John is currently working on a collaborative project with Dr. Youmans, Dr. Nhut Ho (Assistant Professor of Mechanical Engineering), Dr. Walter Johnson (NASA Ames Research Center), and Todd Farley (NASA Ames Research Center) on the development of next generation air traffic control systems for commercial aircraft. His research focuses on how delays in systems affect user behaviors. John is the former President of the Northridge chapter of the Human Factors and Ergonomic Society, has won several behavioral science research awards, and recently completed an internship at NASA Ames Research Center. John plans to complete his thesis work in the spring of 2010.

Links: http://human-factors.arc.nasa.gov/organization/personnel_view.php?personnel_id=23

Matthew Hay, BA

Matt is currently a second-year graduate student in CSUN’s Human Factors Masters Program. Matt is currently working on a collaborative project with Dr. Youmans, Dr. Nhut Ho (Assistant Professor of Mechanical Engineering), Dr. Walter Johnson (NASA Ames Research Center), and Todd Farley (NASA Ames Research Center) on the development of next generation air traffic control systems for commercial aircraft. His research focuses on how increases in system complexity result in greater cognitive loads and changes in decision heuristics. Matt is currently collecting data on how cognitive load may affect pilot decision making, and plans to complete his thesis work in the spring of 2010.

Links: http://human-factors.arc.nasa.gov/organization/personnel_view.php?personnel_id=23

Current Graduate Students

Kimberlee Miller, BA

Kimberlee worked in the Youmans Lab as a research assistant from 2009-2010, where she helped to complete a large research study on the relationships between cognitive flexibility and working memory capacity. She was awarded a first-place prize in 2010 from CSUN for her presentation on her work in this area at their annual research conference. Kimberlee is currently pursuing an MA degree from CSUN in Marriage and Family Counseling.

Anastacia Damon, BA

Stacey worked as an undergraduate research assistant in the Youmans lab from 2009-2010, where she completed a study on the effects of researcher dress on participants’ abilities to follow complex directions, and where she completed a usability analysis and redesign of the 6th edition of the American Psychological Association’s publication manual. Stacey recently published her work on student dress in the Undergraduate Research Journal of the Human Sciences, and has a second manuscript on her assessment of the APA publication manual in preparation. Stacey will apply to research-based clinical psychology graduate programs in the fall of 2010.

Link to Publications: http://www.kon.org/urc/v9/damon.html

Chia-Hsuan Chang

Hsuan worked as an undergraduate research assistant in the Youmans lab from 2008-2010, where he completed studies on the usability of consumer products. Hsuan received an honorable mention award for his research at the 2008 Psi Chi research competition, but has been a team player on many of the laboratory projects. Hsuan accepted a graduate position at George Mason University in the fall of 2010, where he will work to earn a graduate degree in Human Factors Psychology.

Anosha Shockpour, MA

Anosha earned an MA in Human Factors psychology in 2010 for her research on the effects of dual task, multimodal distractions on a focused attention task. She also worked as a usability intern for Universal Electronics Inc., a major manufacturer of universal remote controls. Anosha is currently employed as a usability testing researcher at Ebay Inc.

Stephen Nettelhorst, MA

Stephen earned his MA in General Experimental Psychology from CSUN in 2009 for his work on advertisement variations, and their effects on consumer decision making. He is currently pursuing a Ph.D. as a member of Laura Brannon’s Laboratory at Kansas State University.

Link: http://www.k-state.edu/psych/research/brannon_laura.htm#

Arnold Bae, BA

Arnold earned his BA in psychology from CSUN in 2000 as a presidential scholar. He completed an honors thesis on the effects of diversity in higher education. He is currently pursuing a Ph.D. at Colorado State University.

Devin Borna, BA

Devin worked as a research assistant in the Youmans Lab from 2008-2009, where he helped collect data on several decision-making studies, and was a recipient of a CSUN University Scholarship. Devin has also won multiple research awards for his work on automatic processing of language. Although Devin has been active as a researcher, he is currently applying to medical school, and hopes to pursue a career practicing medicine.

Former Laboratory Students

Youmans Laboratory Photos

Visit Dr. Youmans’s Flickr Page