The Outstanding Faculty Research Award for 2010 has been given to Charles L. Folk, Ph.D., a professor of psychology and the director of the Villanova University Cognitive Science Program. Dr. Folk will speak about his research in the Falvey Memorial Library first floor lounge on Wednesday, Mar. 9, at 3:00 p.m.

“When we decide to pay attention to something in the environment,” Dr. Folk explains, “we are allocating limited cognitive resources to the processing of that object or event. Certain kinds of events, however, seem to have the ability to ‘capture’ attention, such that we involuntarily allocate attention to them.”

Dr. Folk’s talk will summarize the research on attentional capture and the implications of this phenomenon for real-world circumstances such as driving. He has also co-edited a book on research in this area, Attraction, Distraction and Action: Multiple Perspectives on Attentional Capture.