Dr. Jason Leboe-mcgowan

Biography

Education: Ph.D. 2002, McMaster University   The Inferential Basis of Perception and Selective Attention     M.A. 1999, Simon Fraser University   The Relationship Between Recollection and Feelings of Familiarity     B.A. Honour's 1997, Simon Fraser University   The Contribution of a Fluency Heuristic to Classification Judgments in an Implicit Learning Paradigm

Research Interest

People often assume near-perfect accuracy in the way they experience the world.  However, considerable evidence suggests that this assumption is often incorrect.  People's perception of the external world can be distorted.  Also, errors can occur in what people believe about their own personal history.  One of my research goals is to investigate the rules that govern errors people make in both perceptual and remembering tasks.  I expect that the same principles that lead people into error are also the principles that allow them to be highly accurate in their perception of the current environment and in their recollections of the past.  Thus, by determining the basis for such discrepancies between reality and subjective experience, I expect to gain a greater understanding of the principles that govern human cognition more generally.       Another goal of my research is to investigate how people's ability to perform a task in the present is influenced by prior learning.  In many cases, performing a similar task in the past leads to better performance on that task.  In other situations, however, prior learning can actually interfere with current performance on a task.  Knowledge of the principles that determine whether the outcome of a learning experience will be positive or negative could provide insight into the conditions that best promote the acquisition of skill.