Justin M. Ericson Selected to Receive 2013 William Harris Award –
Justin Ericson
Justin is a doctoral student working in the Beck Visual Cognition Laboratory at Louisiana State University. Justin’s research interests are based in the areas of visual perception and attention. Specifically, his research has focused on studying how individuals can accurately identify, store, and track moving stimuli. Justin’s research with the UTC investigates how drivers detect information while performing a cognitively demanding car counting/lane changing task similar to moderate to heavy traffic conditions and identifies how participants may – or may not – react to the sudden onset of critical targets within the driver’s path. His research project has found that reactions are impaired for detecting unexpected objects that enter the roadway when increasing the number of target vehicles to track. Justin has been published in several peer-reviewed journals over the course of his career, and has served as an outstanding contributor to the center. Justin has fulfilled all of his graduate course requirements, demonstrating academic success in the classroom and was selected to instruct an undergraduate course this year. He has represented the center by giving demonstrations to guests and faculty in the driving lab at LSU while also traveling to various conferences to present his research findings.
Justin was selected to represent the SWUTC at the annual UTC Outstanding Student of the Year awards ceremony during TRB’s Annual Meeting in January, 2014.
This award is presented annually by the SWUTC and comes with a $1,000 cash award.