Walter R. Boot - Florida State University

Florida State University

Psychology @ FSU

Walter R. Boot, Ph.D.

Assistant Professor, Cognitive Psychology

I am an assistant professor in the Cognitive division of the Psychology department at Florida State University.

Research Interests

My research interests range from basic attention mechanisms, to how these mechanisms operate in applied contexts, to the extent to which training can shape these mechanisms and lead to improved performance.

Much of my research is centered on how humans go about the difficult task of finding what they are looking for in visual environments that are often cluttered and complex. This research has focused on how stimulus properties of the visual world interact with an observer's goals and intentions to guide attention. The guidance of attention during visual search is of extreme interest to me since search efficiency can have profound implications outside of the laboratory (e.g., when searching for a knife in an x-ray image of luggage or searching for a relevant blip on a sonar display).

My other line of research focuses on training and transfer of training. What are the best methods to train complex tasks? Does training on complex tasks (such as video games) improve the performance of novel tasks? My research focuses on the use of video games as a means to improve the perceptual and cognitive abilities of younger, and especially older adults.

Ongoing Projects

The effect of video games on perceptual and cognitive abilities

Memory and feature-based guidance of attention during visual search

Training and transer of training of visual search abilities in younger and older adults

Physical and mental exercise as a means to reduce age-related cognitive decline

Recent Publications

Boot, W.R., Kramer, A.F., Simons, D.J., Fabiani, M., & Gratton, G. (in press). The effects of video game playing on attention, memory, and executive control. Acta Psychologica.

Brockmole, J.R. & Boot, W.R. (in press). Should I stay or should I go?: Attentional disengagement from unique items at fixation. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception and Performance.

Basak, C., Boot, W.R., Voss, M., & Kramer, A.F. (in press). Can training in a real-time strategy videogame attenuate cognitive decline in older adults? Psychology and Aging.

Becic, E., Boot, W.R., & Kramer, A.F. (in press). Training older adults to search more effectively: Scanning strategy and visual search in dynamic displays. Psychology and Aging.

Boot, W.R., Becic, E., & Kramer, A.F. (2007). Temporal limitations in multiple target detection in a dynamic monitoring task. Human Factors, 49, 897-906.

Becic, E., Kramer, A.F., & Boot, W.R. (2007). Age-related differences in change detection performance in dynamic displays. Psychology and Aging, 22, 67-74.

Becic, E., Kramer, A.F., & Boot, W.R. (2007). Age-related differences in the use of background layout in visual search. Aging, Neuropsychology and Cognition, 14, 109-125.

Boot, W.R., Kramer, A.F., Becic, E., Wiegmann, D.A., & Kubose, T. (2006). Detecting transient changes in dynamic displays: The more you look, the less you see. Human Factors, 48, 759-773.

Boot, W.R., Kramer, A.F., & Becic, E. (2006). Capturing attention in the laboratory and the real world. In A. Kramer, D. Wiegmann, & A. Kirlik (Eds.) Applied Attention: From Theory to Practice, N.Y.: N.Y. Oxford University Press

Beck, M.R., Peterson, M.S., Boot, W.R., Vomela, M. & Kramer, A.F. (2006). Explicit memory for rejected distractors during visual search. Visual Cognition, 14, 150-174.

Kramer, A.F., Boot, W.R., McCarley, J.S., Peterson, M.S., Colcombe, A., & Scialfa, C.T. (2006). Aging, Memory and Visual Search. Acta Psychologica, 122, 288-304.

McCarley, J.S., Kramer, A.F., Boot, W.R., Peterson, M.S., Wang, F. R., & Irwin, D.E. (2006). Oculomotor behavior in visual search for multiple targets. Visual Cognition, 14, 685-703.

Boot, W.R., Brockmole, J.R., & Simons, D.J. (2005). Modulation of attention capture in a dual-task situation: Why capture cannot be stimulus-driven. Psychonomic Bulletin and Review, 12, 662-668.

Boot, W. R., Kramer, A.F., & Peterson, M.S. (2005). Oculomotor consequences of abrupt object onsets and offsets: Onsets dominate oculomotor capture. Perception and Psychophysics, 67, 910-928.

Kramer, A.F., Peterson, M.S., McCarley, J.S., & Boot, W.R. (2005). Role of memory in visual search: A brief review of developing literature. In D.K. McBride & D. Schmorrow (Eds.), Quantification of Human Information Processing. Rowman & Littlefield Publishers.

Simons, D.J., Nevarez, G., & Boot, W.R. (2005). Visual sensing is seeing: Why "mindsight", in hindsight, is blind. Psychological Science, 16, 520-524.

Boot, W.R., McCarley, J.S., Kramer, A.F., & Peterson, M.S. (2004). Automatic and intentional memory processes in visual search. Psychonomic Bulletin and Review, 5, 854-861.

McCarley, J.S., Kramer, A.F., Wickens, C.D., Vidoni, E.D., & Boot, W.R. (2004). Visual skills in airport security screening. Psychological Science, 15, 302-306.

Peterson, M.S., Boot, W.R., Kramer, A.F., & McCarley, J.S. (2004). Landmarks help guide attention during visual search. Spatial Vision, 17, 497-510.