Areas of expertise/research interests

• cognitive development, skill acquisition
• attention, memory and executive processes
• eye-movement methodology and applications

Current research and projects

Research on the interaction between obligatory and deliberate attention control: Top-down and bottom-up processes often compete in organizing attention and future behavior. We examine covert attention processes and overt behavior, for example, as indexed by eye movements.

Processes that underlie the real-time organization of skilled action: Much of our behavior seems effortless and easily determined, but this ease disguises an underlying complexity in the processes used to select between action alternatives. Research examines the processes involved in action selection, such as working memory, inhibition and expertise.

Collaborative research with Dr. Cathy Reed on the embodied attention and perception, and how the body and intended action organizes the allocation of attention and skilled behavior in context.

Professional biography

My interests are in cognitive and perceptual development, skill acquisition and cognitive neuroscience. My work examines the processes that underlie the real-time organization of everyday behavior. Much of our behavior seems effortless and easily determined, but this ease disguises an underlying complexity in the processes used to select between action alternatives. Occasional everyday action errors, such as driving the habitual route instead of the correct one, can make us aware, sometimes painfully, of alternatives we didn't know we were considering.

Roberts' research examines a set of processes we view as central to action selection, such as working memory, inhibition and attention. Studies focus on how the real-time unfolding of processes related to initiating different actions interact and compete when determining what to do next. Small differences in timing can have important consequences, and understanding the contributions of working memory and attentional systems is critical in this regard.
I also study the relevant brain structures and processes involved in action planning, attention and selection. My laboratory employs eye-movement recording and analysis, as well as a variety of cognitive and attentional research paradigms.

Graduate course offerings include Developmental Proseminar, Cognitive Development and Attention & Performance.

Education

• PhD, University of Virginia, 1984
• MA, University of Virginia, 1981
• BA, University of Denver, 1976

Selected Publications

• Garza, J., Strom, M., Wright, C., Roberts, R. J., Jr., & Reed, C. L. (2013). Top-down influences mediate hand bias in spatial attention. Attention, Perception, and Psychophysics, 75, 819-823.
• Gervais W. M., Reed, C. L.,      Beall, P. M., Roberts, R. J., Jr. (2010). Implied body action      directs spatial attention. Attention, Perception, and Psychophysics      ,72 (6), 1437-1443
• Grubb, J.D., Bate, S, Garza, J, Roberts, R.J., Jr., & Reed, C.L. (2008). Walking reveals trunk-orientation bias for visual attention. Perception and Psychophysics, 70, 688-696.
• Pennington, B.F., Snyder, K.A., Roberts, R.J., Jr. (2007). Developmental cognitive neuroscience: Origins, issues, & prospects. Developmental Review, 27, 428-441.
• Reed, C.L., Garza, J.P., & Roberts, R.J., Jr. (2007). The influence of the body and its actions on spatial attention. In L. Paletta & E. Rome (Eds.), Attention in Cognitive Systems. Springer LNAI
• Fennell, K., Sherry, L., Roberts, R. J., Jr., & Feary, M. (2006). Difficult access: The impact of recall steps on Flight Management System errors, Journal of Aviation Psychology. Vol. 16, No. 2, Pages 175-196.
• Aman, C. J., Roberts, R. J., Jr., & Pennington, B. F. (1998). A neuropsychological examination of the underlying deficit in ADHD: The frontal lobe versus right parietal lobe theories, Developmental Psychology, 34, 956-969.
• Roberts, R. J., Jr., & Pennington, B. F. (1996). An interactive framework for examining prefrontal cognitive processes. Developmental Neuropsychology, 12, 105-126
• Roberts, R. J., Jr., Hager, L., & Heron, C. (1994). Prefrontal cognitive processes: Working memory and inhibition in the antisaccade task, Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, 123, 374-393.