Lana Trick

Professor Emeritus
Area: 
Neuroscience & Applied Cognitive Science
Email: 
ltrick@uoguelph.ca
Phone: 
(519) -642-2611
Office Hours: 

TBA

Lab Website
Google Scholar
Accepting Graduate Students: 
No
Accepting New Experiential Learning Students: 
No

My research centres on the study of attention and working memory and how attention and memory operations change as individuals progress from childhood to old age. I do basic research on attention but I also do applied research on driving and collision risk using a driving simulator. My lab is multi-disciplinary, with students from Psychology, Neuroscience, Engineering, and Computer Science. 

DRIVE lab (University of Guelph Driving Simulator lab)
1311 Thornborough Building
(519) 824-4120 ext. 53474

Visual Attention Lab: Blackwood Hall  Room 210
(519) 824-4120 ext. 53474

For more information about the research that goes on in my two labs, please see the link to the lab website above!

 

Education

Post-Doc Fellowship: Killam Post-doctoral Fellowship

Academic Institution:  University of British Columbia

Year: 1990

 

PhD Psychology

Academic Institution: University of Western Ontario

Year: 1989

 

Masters Psychology

Academic Institution: University of Western Ontario

Year: 1983

 

Research

Driving Research: I have a driving simulator and I study how crash risk and driving performance varies as a function of individual differences and situational factors. The simulator involves an full car body surrounded by viewing screens that immerse drivers in a wrap-around virtual reality. This allows drivers to experience all the sights, sounds, and feelings of driving without experiencing the risk. (For more information see my lab website listed above.) I use the simulator to test drivers of a variety of ages and those at risk due to factors such as Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder. With the collaboration of researchers from Computer Science and Engineering, I use this simulator in order to investigate the following issues:

  • age and experience related changes in crash risk;
  • the impact of distraction on driving, including the effects of social distraction and the effect of new technologies (autonomous vehicles, smart phones, in-vehicle navigation systems, collision avoidance systems, etc.);
  • evaluation of road and highway design and signage as it affect driving performance (e.g. roundabouts);
  • simulator adaptation syndrome;
  • galvanic vestibular stimulation and galvanic cutaneous stimulation as it relates to sensory-motor integration in simulators;
  • the impact of emotions on hazard detection and driving performance

Basic Research: My basic research centers around visual attention and working memory. Specific topics include:

  • multiple-object tracking
  • temporal and spatial enumeration, including numerical capacity in the blind field in individuals with cortical blindness (blindsight) 
  • reading and counting disorders in children and adults;
  • visual and attentional factors that affect performance in day to day tasks;
  • factors in reasoning about uncertain situations (the Gambler's fallacy).

For more information see the lab website listed above.

Selected Publications

This is a selection of some of my publications in the last 5 years.  A more complete list can be found on my lab website (see above).

Note: The names of student  research collaborators have an asterisk* and are printed in bold.   

Selected Journal Articles

  • *Eng, R., *Swayze, J., & Trick, L.M. (submitted). Multiple-object tracking in displays of unique items: The impact of featural similarity among targets in tracking performance.
  • *Terry, M.E.,  *Amelio, V., & Trick, L.M. (under review). Action matters! Target report technique affects interference between visually-guided touch and multiple-object tracking (MOT). Visual Cognition.
  • *Terry, M.E., & Trick, L.M. (2022). Visually-guided computer-mouse clicking interferes with multiple-object tracking (MOT). Current Research in the Behavioural Sciences.
  • Terry, M.E., & Trick, L.M. (2021). Multiple-object tracking and visually guided touch. Attention, Perception, and Psychophysics., 83, 1907-1927. For pre-print see https://rdcu.be/chM5t
  • *Walker, H.E.K., *Eng, R.,A. & Trick, L.M. (2021). Dual-task decrements in driving performance: The impact of task type, working memory, and the frequency of task performance. Transportation Research Part F, 79, 185-204. For pre-print see https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S1369847821001029.
  • *Dodwell, A., & Trick, L.M. (2020). The effects of secondary tasks that involve listening and speaking on young adult drivers with traits associated with autism spectrum disorders: A pilot study with driving simulation. Transportation Research Part F: Traffic Psychology and Behaviour, 69, 120-134. htps://doi.org/10.1016/j.trf.2019.12.011.
  • Trick, L.M., & *Hardy, N.L.A. (2020). Does the standard search task predict performance in related tasks for Kanisza-style contours? Attention, Perception, and Psychophysics, 82 (2), 478-499. DOI: 10.3758/s13414-019-01890-6
  • *Beninger, J., Hamilton-Wright, A., *Walker, H.E.K., & Trick, L.M. (2020). Machine learning techniques to identify mind-wandering and predict hazard response time in fully immersive driving simulator. Soft Computing, https://doi.org/10.1007/s00500-020-05217-8.
  • *Infante, E., & Trick, L.M. (2019). Why doesn't emotional valence affect subitising and counting in simple enumeration? Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology, 73(3), 413-424. doi:10.1177/1747021819897246
  • *Hardy, N.L.A., *Terrry, M., & Trick, L.M. (2019). Visual search does not always predict performance in tasks that require finding targets among distractors: The case of line-ending illusory contours. Acta Psychologica, 198, 210-218. htps://doi.org/10.1016/j.actpsy.2019.102870.
  • *Walker, H.E.K, & Trick, L.M. (2019). How the emotional content of road-side images affects driving performance, Safety Science, 115, 121-130.
  • *Walker, H.E.K, & Trick, L.M. (2018). Mind-wandering while driving: The impact of fatigue, task length and sustained attention abilities. Transportation Research Part F, 59, 81-97.
  • *Nowosielski, R.J., & Trick, L.M. (2018). Good distractions: Testing the effects of listening to an audiobook on driving performance in simple and complex road environments. Accident Analysis and Prevention, 111, 202 - 209.

Selected Conferences and Refereed Conference Proceedings

  • Terry, M.E., & Trick, L.M. (2023). Multiple-object tracking and visually guided actions: Comparing change detection and localized touch in Targets vs. Distractors. Poster presentation at the annual meeting of the Vision Sciences Society, May 19-24, St. Pete's Beach, FL.
  • *Eng, R., & Trick, L.M. (2023). The effect of item uniqueness on multiple-object tracking. Poster presentation at the annual meeting of the Vision Sciences Society, May 19-24, St. Pete's Beach, FL.
  • *Terry, M.E., *Marmer, R., & Trick, L.M. (2022). Multiple-object tracking (MOT) and visually guided touch: distractor inhibition or target excitation? Poster presentation at the annual meeting of the Vision Sciences Society, May 13-18. St. Pete's Beach, FL.
  • *Eng, R., & Trick, L.M. (2022). The effect of target similarity on multiple-object tracking and multiple-identity tracking. Poster presentation at the annual meeting of the Vision Sciences Society, May 13-18. St. Pete's Beach, FL.
  • *Walker, H.E.K., *Walker, A., *Turpin, M., Muda, R., Trick, L.M., Fugelsang, J., & Bialek, M. (2021). Improving the public's perception of autonomous vehicles by communicating the consistency of autonomous vehicle algorithms. Paper to appear in the Proceedings from the 30th annual meeting of the Canadian Association of Road Safety Professionals, Aug 22-25. Virtual conference.
  • *Cortens, B., Nonnecke, B., & Trick, L.M. (2019). Effect of alert presentation mode and hazard direction on driver takeover from an autonomous vehicle. Proceedings from the 10th International Symposium on Human Factors in Driver Assessment, Training, and Vehicle Design, 133-139. June 24-27, Santa Fe, NM.
  • *Walker, H.E.K., & Trick, L.M. (2019). Mind-wandering and driving: Comparing thought report and individual difference measures. Proceedings of the 10th International Symposium on Human Factors in Driver Assessment, Training, and Vehicle Design, 8-14. June 24-27, Sante Fe, NM.
  • *Nowosielski, R., & Trick, L.M. (2017). How common in-car distractions affect driving performance in simple and complex driving environments. Proceedings of the 9th International Symposium on Human Factors in Driver Assessment, Training, and Vehicle Design, 249-255. June 26-29, Manchester Village, VT.
  • *Rodd, H., & Trick, L.M. (2017). Predictors of mind-wandering while driving. Proceedings of the 9th International Symposium on Human Factors in Driver Assessment, Training, and Vehicle Design, 326-332. June 26-29, Manchester Village, VT.

Selected Edited Books

  • Fisher, D.L., Caird, J.K,, Horrey, W.J., & Trick, L.M. (2016). Handbook of Teen and Novice Drivers: Research, Practice, Policy, and Directions. CRC Press,  Taylor Francis Group.

Selected Book Chapters

  • Tannock, R., & Trick, L.M. (2016). Attention Deficit Disorder (ADHD). In Handbook of Teen and Novice Drivers: Research, Practice, Policy, and Directions (pp. 211-228). CRC Press. Taylor Francis Group.

Selected Technical Reports

  • Trick, L.M., *Toxopeus, R., *Rodd, H., & *Nowosielski, R. (2016). Using technology for road safety: Distraction monitoring and real-time transition from driving assistance to automation function.  Report created for the Ontario Ministry of Transportation.

I am not teaching this term.  However, I have taught Statistics, Sensation and Perception, Human Cognition and Memory, Research Methods, and Applied Cognitive Science. In addition, I supervised students with some background in cognition or sensation and perception for honours thesis or full year reserch projects (PSYC *4870/4880 , NEUR *4401/4402), practicum (e.g. PSYC (*6471, *6472) and independent resarch  projects (e.g., PSYC *3240 or *4240).