My Research:

My research examines how attention and perceptual learning impact the way in which we “see” our surroundings. I’m particularly interested in how we can improve our ability to attend to certain aspects of a visual scene and how that changes the way those features are represented in the brain. I’m also investigating the extent to which “learning to attend” is transferrable across locations in space. I use both fMRI and traditional behavioral methods in order to investigate how attention and learning change our brains and our perceptions.

Publications:

Byers, A. & Serences, J.T. (2014). “Enhanced attentional gain as a mechanism for generalized perceptual learning in human visual cortex.” Journal of Neurophysiology, 112(5), 1217-1227. [pdf]

Byers, A. & Serences, J.T. (2012). “Exploring the Relationship between Perceptual Learning and Top-Down Attentional Control.” Vision Research, 34, 30-39. [pdf]

Scolari M., Byers A., & Serences J.T. (2012). “Optimal Deployment of Attentional Gain during Fine Discriminations.” The Journal of Neuroscience, 32(22), 7723-33. [pdf]

Conference Presentations:

Byers, A. & Serences, J.T. (May 2014). “Learning and Transfer of Feature-Based Attentional Modulation.”  poster presented at Vision Sciences Society annual meeting, St. Pete’s Beach, FL [pdf]

Byers, A. & Serences, J.T. (May 2012). “Learning to Attend Transfers Across Spatial Location.”  poster presented at Vision Sciences Society annual meeting, Naples, FL [pdf]

Byers, A., Scolari, M, & Serences, J.T. (November 2011). “Filtering Irrelevant Information During Perceptual Decision-Making.” poster presented at Society for Neuroscience annual meeting, Washington, DC

Byers, A. & Serences, J.T. (May 2011). “Learning to Attend: Ramping Up Responses in V1 to Relevant Stimuli.” poster presented at Vision Sciences Society annual meeting, Naples, FL

Fleszar, A., Byers, A., & Shomstein, S. (May 2010). “Attention is Directed by Prioritization in Cases of Certainty.” poster presented at Vision Sciences Society annual meeting, Naples, FL