Research Interests:

My general research interests are in the area of attentional selection. This includes how people attend to relevant sources of information in their environment, as well as how (or if) they ignore irrelevant sources of information. Most recently, my research has focused on visual selective attention. I am interested in how we attend to one of the many possible objects in our environment, and how attention modulates the way we process and perceive attended (and unattended) objects. Current research in my lab examines the mechansims underlying this attentional selection. Specifically, I am exploring the role of competitive mechanisms in attentional selection. A secondary research interest centers on attention and the processing of emotional or affect-laden stimuli.

McCarley, J. S., & Mounts, J. R. W. (in press). On the relationship between flanker interference and localized attentional interference. Acta Psychologica.

McCarley, J.S., Mounts, J.R.W., & Kramer, A.F. (2007). Attention-mediated capacity limits in visual form processing. Acta Psychologica, 126 , 98-119.

Mounts, J. R. W., McCarley, J. S., & Terech, A. M. (2007). Attentional templates regulate competitive interactions among attended visual objects. Perception & Psychophysics, 69, 209-217.

Kirsh, S. J., & Mounts, J. R. W. (2007). Violent video game play impacts facial emotion recognition. Aggressive Behavior, 33, 353-358.

McCarley, J. S., & Mounts, J. R. W. (2007). Localized attentional interference affects object individuation, not feature detection. Perception, 36, 17-32.

Kirsh, S.J., Mounts, J. R. W., & Olczak, P.V. (2006). Violent media consumption and the recognition of dynamic facial expressions. Journal of Interpersonal Violence, 21, 571-584.

Mounts, J. R. W. (2005). Attentional selection: A salience-based competition for representation. Perception & Psychophysics, 67, 1190-1198.

Mounts, J. R. W., & Tomaselli, R. G. (2005). Competition for representation is mediated by relative attentional salience. Acta Psychologica, 118, 261-275.

Kirsh, S. J., Olczak, P.V., & Mounts, J. R. W. (2005). Violent video games induce an affect processing bias. Media Psychology, 7, 239-250.

Mounts, J. R. W., & Gavett, B. E. (2004). The role of salience in localized attentional interference. Vision Research, 44, 1575-1588..

McCarley, J. S., Mounts, J. R. W., & Kramer, A. F. (2004). Age-related differences in localized attentional interference. Psychology & Aging, 19, 203-210.

Mounts, J. R. W. (2000). Attentional capture by abrupt onsets and feature singletons produce inhibitory surrounds. Perception & Psychophysics, 62, 1485-1493.

Mounts, J. R. W. (2000). Evidence for suppressive mechanisms in attentional selection: Feature singletons produce inhibitory surrounds. Perception & Psychophysics, 62, 969-983.

Mounts, J. R. W., & Melara, R. D. (1999). Attentional selection of objects or features: Evidence from a search-style task. Perception & Psychophysics, 61, 322-341.

Schweickert, R., & Mounts, J. R. W. (1998). Additive effects of factors on reaction time and evoked potentials in continuous flow models. In C. Dowling, F. Roberts, and P. Theunes (Eds.) Recent progress in mathematical psychology (pp. 311-327). Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.

Mounts, J. R. W., & Melara, R. D. (1995). Classification of color dimensions in multiple contexts. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception and Performance, 21, 257-274.

Melara, R. D., & Mounts, J. R. W. (1994). Contextual influences on interactive processing: Effects of discriminability, quantity, and uncertainty. Perception & Psychophysics, 56, 73-90.

Melara, R. D., & Mounts, J. R. W. (1993). Selective attention to Stroop dimensions: Effects of baseline discriminability, response mode, and practice. Memory and Cognition, 21, 627-645.