Robert J. Youmans earned his Ph. D. in Cognitive Psychology at the University of Illinois at Chicago in 2007 for his work on how physical prototyping and group work leads to more functional and creative engineering designs. Dr. Youmans also received an M.A. in Experimental Psychology from Wake Forest University in 2003 for his work on human decision making, and earned a doctoral minor in industrial design. Dr. Youmans conducts research about how attention and other cognitive traits affect creativity in the design process, how humans use technology, and how cognition and social behavior informs the safe, efficient, and fun design of technology and systems. Dr. Youmans also has interests in how psychology can be applied to enhance higher education, and has publications in print, press, and review examining how students evaluate instructors, how students respond to quizzing, how students manage their time, how diversity on college campuses affects student behaviors, and how and why students plagiarize. Dr. Youmans teaches undergraduate and graduate courses in Experimental Psychology, Cognitive Psychology, and Human Factors, for both the Human Factors and General Experimental MA programs at CSUN, and was recently named the 2009-2010 CSUN College of Social and Behavioral Sciences Teaching Fellow.
