Psychology

Profile

Background

Anne has a BS (magna cum laude) in Mathematics and in Psychology from Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University and an MA and PhD in Experimental Psychology from Johns Hopkins University. She held postdoctoral research positions at University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, and University of Wales, Bangor. She has been an assistant professor at the University of Texas at Arlington and at George Mason University. Between earning her BSc and earning her MA, Anne spent 6 years working at IBM Corporation, first as a programmer and then as a usability analyst.

Anne joined the department in 2005, is the timetabling liaison for the department, and is a member of the International Centre for Research in Forensic Psychology. She is a member of the American Psychological Association, the Psychonomic Society, the Experimental Psychology Society, the Vision Sciences Society, and the British Neuropsychology Society.

Teaching Responsibilities

Anne is unit coordinator of Psychology of Security (Level 6), teaches part of Cognitive Psychology (Level 5) and has given lectures in Exploring Data (Level 6). She supervises undergraduate theses on perception, attention, security and eye-movements, as well as others outside her normal areas of interest. She is currently on the supervisory team for two PhD students within the department and is the lead supervisor for a professional doctorate student from outside the department. She has supervised numerous masters and PhD projects in the past.

Research Interests

Anne's main research interests are in the area of attention and object recognition. She has studied visual search in simple and natural displays, face matching, object recognition, scene perception, attention to tactile stimulation and how attention becomes disordered after some brain insults, particularly a condition known as hemispatial neglect. A lot of Anne’s recent work has been about how to training search and recognition and about how people considered experts differ from the rest of us in how they search or perceive things.

Anne's applied research interests are in the area of human factors. Aside from the usability work she did when employed at IBM, she has conducted research on how people detect counterfeit currency, has been involved in research on detection of threat items in luggage, and the effect of colour in displays on people’s search through those displays.  She collaborates with Lorraine Hope and James Sauer in the Forensic group and with researchers at the University of Southampton and the University of Leicester.

Recent Publications

More recent publications

Publications before 2000

Hillstrom, A. P., & Logan, G. D. (1998). Decomposing visual search: Evidence of multiple item-specific skills. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception and Performance, 24, 1385-1398. 

Hillstrom, A. P., & Logan, G. D. (1997). Process dissociation, cognitive architecture, and response time: Comments on Lindsay and Jacoby (1994). Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception and Performance, 23, 1561-1578. 

Hillstrom, A. P. & Yantis, S. (1994). Visual motion and attentional capture. Perception & Psychophysics, 55, 399-411.   

Yantis, S., & Hillstrom, A. P. (1994). Stimulus driven attentional capture: Evidence from equiluminant visual objects. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception and Performance, 20, 95 107. 

Funding

Over her academic career, Anne’s work has been funded by a grant from The British Academy, a postdoctoral fellowship from the US National Institute of Mental Health, a visiting researcher fellowship from the Leverhulme Foundation, a grant from the US National Science Foundation, a grant from the Economic and Social Research Council, contracts from the Home Office Scientific Development Branch, and a contract from the US Department of the Treasury.  She has also supervised undergraduate research funded by a bursary from the Nuffield Foundation.

Recent and Upcoming Invited Talks

Hilllstrom, A. P. (December, 2008). How Transparency Affects Recognition of Overlapping Objects. Department of Psychology, Nottingham-Trent University.

Hillstrom, A. P. (August, 2007). Repetition Effects in Attention. Symposium at the annual meeting of the European Conference for Visual Perception, Arezzo, Italy.  

Hillstrom, A. P. (April, 2005). Attention to Objects that Change Identity. Department of Psychology, Hofstra University, Hempstead, NY.

Hillstrom, A. P. (June, 2003). Attention to Impossible Objects. Department of Psychology, University of Nottingham.

Hillstrom, A. P. (November, 2002). Search for Threats in Airports; Search for Objects in the Lab. Frontiers of Science talk at University of Texas at Arlingon.

Hillstrom, A. P. (September, 2002). The Representation of Attended Objects. Department of Psychology, Rice University, Houston, TX.

Hillstrom, A. P. (May, 2001). Research Ethics. To the 2001 McNair scholars at University of Texas at Arlington.

Hillstrom, A. P. (April, 2001). The Object of My Attention. Department of Psychology. University of Oklahoma, Norman, OK.

Hillstrom, A. P. (September, 1995). Process Dissociation of the Stroop Task: Taking Time out of Response Time. Department of Psychology. University of Notre Dame, South Bend, IN.

Hillstrom, A. P. (October, 1995). Careers for Women in Mathematics. At the centennial celebration for the mathematics department. Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, Blacksburg, VA.