Our Research, Our Stories

Every paper listed here is the result of curiosity, care, and community. These projects reflect the questions that drive us, the students and colleagues who shape them, and the growth we experience together in the process.

If you want to see the kind of work we love to do, this is a great place to start!

Want to learn even more or get involved? We’re always looking for students and collaborators who are excited to explore the science of human perception and learning. If something here sparks your interest, reach out! You can contact Dr. Alexander or check out how to join the lab here.

Featured Papers:

• Waite, S., Grigorian, A., Alexander, R. G., Macknik, S. L., Carrasco, M., Heeger, D. J., & Martinez-Conde, S. (2019). Analysis of perceptual expertise in radiology – current knowledge and a new perspective. Frontiers in Human Neuroscience, https://doi.org/10.3389/fnhum.2019.00213 [full-text/PDF]

This paper focuses on radiologists, but can give you some idea what kinds of things we can learn about experts and how people work. 

• Alexander, R. G., Waite, S., Bruno, M., Krupinski, E. A., Berlin, L., Macknik, S. L., & Martinez-Conde, S. (2022). Mandating limits on workload, duty, and speed in radiology. Radiology. https://doi.org/10.1148/radiol.212631 [full-text/PDF]

This paper talks more about the radiology work, with a particular focus on speed and accuracy. Where the 2019 paper gives basic details that are directly relevant to our work (in radiology and in other professions), this later paper can give you some more insight into why we care about these things: in this case, the paper discusses potential legal and professional policy implications.

• Alexander, R. G., & Martinez-Conde, S. (2019). Fixational Eye Movements. In C. Klein & U. Ettinger (Eds.), Eye Movement Research. Studies in Neuroscience, Psychology and Behavioral Economics. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-20085-5_3

This book chapter teaches the reader about microsaccades. Because most researchers don’t analyze microsaccades—even in eye tracking research—we can ask a lot of novel and important questions just by measuring microsaccades in different contexts.

Representative Publications:

For the full text of any items not available for download here, please email Dr. Alexander. 

For estimated citation indices and links to citing papers, please see Google Scholar. 

2024:

• Alexander, R.G., Venkatakrishnan, A., Chanovas, J., Ferguson, S., Macknik, S.L., & Martinez-Conde, S. (2024). “Why did Rubens add a parrot to Titian’s “Fall of Man”? A pictorial manipulation of joint attention.” Journal of Vision, 24(4), 1-13. [full-text/PDF]

2023:

• Dunn, M.J., Alexander, R.G., Amiebenomo, O.M., Arblaster, G., Atan, D., Erichsen, J.T., Ettinger, U., Giardini, M.E., Gilchrist, I.D., Hamilton, R., Hessels, R.S., Hodgins, S., Hooge, I.T.C., Jackson, B.S., Lee, H., Macknik, S.L., Martinez-Conde, S., Mcilreavy, L., Muratori, L.M., Niehorster, D.C., Nystrom, M., Otero-Millan., J., Schlüssel, M.M., Self, J.E., Singh, T., Smyrnis, N., and Sprenger, A. (2023). Minimal reporting guideline for research involving eye tracking (2023 edition). Behavior Research Methods. [full-text/PDF]

2022:

• Alexander, R. G., Waite, S., Bruno, M., Krupinski, E. A., Berlin, L., Macknik, S. L., & Martinez-Conde, S. (2022). Mandating limits on workload, duty, and speed in radiology. Radiology. https://doi.org/10.1148/radiol.212631 [full-text/PDF]

• Alexander, R. G., Macknik, S. L., & Martinez-Conde, S. (2022). “What the neuroscience and psychology of magic reveal about misinformation.” Publications, 10(4), 33. https://doi.org/10.3390/publications10040033 [full-text/PDF]

• Phelps, A.M., Alexander, R. G., & Schmidt, J. (2022). Negative cues minimize visual search specificity effects. Vision Research, 196. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.visres.2022.108030 [full-text/PDF]

2021:

• Alexander, R. G., Mintz, R. J., Custodio, P. J., Macknik, S. L., Vaziri, A., Venkatakrishnan, A., Gindina, S., & Martinez-Conde, S. (2021). Gaze mechanisms enabling the detection of faint stars in the night sky. European Journal of Neuroscience. https://doi.org/10.1111/ejn.15335 [full-text/PDF]

• Alexander, R. G., Yazdanie, F., Waite, S., Chaudhry, Z. A., Kolla, S., Macknik, S. L., & Martinez-Conde, S. (2021). Visual Illusions in Radiology: Untrue Perceptions in Medical Images and Their Implications for Diagnostic Accuracy. Frontiers in neuroscience, 15(554). https://doi.org/10.3389/fnins.2021.629469  [full-text/PDF]

• Alexander, R. G., Venkatakrishnan, A., Chanovas, J., Macknik, S.L., & Martinez-Conde, S. (2021) Microsaccades mediate perceptual alternations in Monet’s “Impression, sunrise”. Scientific Reports, 11, 3612. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-021-82222-3  [full-text/PDF]

• Alexander, K. E., & Alexander, R. G. (2021). Evidence of Weight Bias in the College Classroom: A Call for Inclusive Teaching Practices for Students of All Sizes. College Teaching. https://doi.org/10.1080/87567555.2021.1978378 

2020:

• Alexander, R. G., Alexander, K., Barchas-Lichtenstein, J., Finkelstein, S., Lee, S., Litchman, M. L., Nigg, C. R., Ross, K., Starr, L., Xu, X. (2020). Faulty evidence, specious logic, dangerous conclusions: Challenging gendered ideas of mentorship. OSF preprint: https://doi.org/10.31219/osf.io/zqtky [full-text/PDF]

• Alexander, R. G., Waite, S., Macknik, S. L., & Martinez-Conde, S. (2020). What do radiologists look for? Advances and limitations of perceptual learning in radiologic search. Journal of Vision 2020;20(10):17. https://doi.org/10.1167/jov.20.10.17 [full-text/PDF]

• Alexander, R. G., Macknik, S. L., & Martinez-Conde, S. (2020). Microsaccades in applied environments: Real-world applications of fixational eye movement measurements. Journal of Eye Movement Research, 12(6), 15. https://doi.org/10.16910/jemr.12.6.15 [full-text/PDF]

• Waite, S., Farooq, Z., Grigorian, A., Sistrom, C., Kolla, S., Mancuso, A., Martinez-Conde, S., Alexander, R. G., Kantor, A., & Macknik, S. L. (2020). A Review of Perceptual Expertise in Radiology-How it develops, how we can test it, and why humans still matter in the era of Artificial Intelligence. Academic Radiology, 27(1), 26-38. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.acra.2019.08.018 [full-text/PDF]