My research employs a variety of measurement approaches and tools, including biometric measures such as eye tracking and psychophysiology, continuous response measurement, and more.

EYE TRACKING permits a moment-to-moment assessment of visual attention to media messages or our environment.  My research has used eye tracking in many contexts:

• Female objectification in sports news;

• Sexual advertising appeals; 

• Messaging about GMOs and antibiotic use in agriculture;

• Environmental messages, and more.  

In addition, I have written short chapters on eye tracking and helped establish best practices in eye tracking research.

PSYCHOPHYSIOLOGY or BIOMETRICS involves the use of biological markers to capture cognitive and emotional processing of messages and includes cardiac activity, skin conductance, facial EMG (or muscle activation).  My research has largely focused on the use of psychophysiology to:

• Capture emotional processing of messages;

• Test how instant replay in sports sustains excitement;

• Advance our theoretical understanding of message processing.

CONTINUOUS RESPONSE MEASUREMENT or "dial testing," captures viewer evaluation of messages on a second-by-second basis.  The benefit of using this technique is that it helps identify specific message content elements that move audiences to have strong positive or negative responses or evaluations of what they are seeing.  I have used dial testing or continuous response to test both in-person presentations and many types of recorded messages:

• Reality television;

• Climate change messaging, 

• Sports broadcasts;

• Agricultural messaging;

• Science podcasts, and more.

My undergradaute training and professional/industry experience in video production, both in sports and later in television news, shapes my research questions and designs.

• How do editorial and production decisions made by media professionals guide and craft how audiences respond to what we see and hear? 

• How can theories of communication illuminate the practice of producing media content?  

This is evident in my research examining sports media, where my research has used theory to explore many parts of the sports viewing experience:

• Unique camera angles;

• Onscreen graphics;

• Crowd noise;

• Instant replay;

• Theories used to explore sport communication, and more.

I have been fortunate enough to contribute to research teams receiving more than $1M in funding from multiple sponsors including the NSF, USDA, and the state of Texas.  Contributions reflect both leadership and supporting roles in research design and data analysis.

• "The consumer experience: Using innovative research tools to develop and test messages about food and agricultural sciences" was a USDA-funded grant where I served as a Co-PI.  As a capacity-building grant, the project involves developing resources and training materials regarding the use of novel measurement approaches in agricultural education and communication.  The project generated multiple publications and conference presentations and also provided funding to support multiple graduate students.
  
  

• "STEM Training in Ethics of Publication Practices" was an NSF-funded project where I served as Co-PI.  The project was a research and training program designed to prepare STEM scholars, and other stakeholders, to navigate the academic publishing terrain.
  
  

• "Developing Communication Strategies to Support Recruitment & Retention of Child and Adolescent Mental Health Professionals in West Texas” is a project sponsored by the Texas Child Mental Health Care Consortium designed to identify, create, and test communication strategies that can be used to recruit and retain potential and current child and adolescent mental health professionals in the region.
  
  

In addition, I have pursued federal and private funding through multiple proposals/applications totaling more than $10 million.