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CV (English)
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Contact Card
Dr. McManus is a cognitive psychologist with expertise in attention, perception, and action affordance. He has experience using both quantitative and qualitative methods to analyze how people perceive and interact with their surroundings. These methods include eye tracking, behavioral measurements, memory assessments, and surveys, as well as numerous statistical procedures. He is currently a member of the Phoenix User Research Center, where he is applying this expertise to assess user experience with different products.
Dr. McManus received his Ph.D. from North Dakota State University, where he investigated embodied cognition. He studied how interacting with tools, ranging from simple hand-held tools to complex remotely operated drones, alters gaze behavior and target detection. He has also used eye tracking methods to measure and identify mind wandering in educational settings.
CREDENTIALS & PROFESSIONAL HONORS
- Ph.D., Psychology, North Dakota State University, 2020
- B.A., Cognitive Neuroscience, University of Notre Dame, 2016
LANGUAGES
- Spanish
Publications
McManus, R. R., & Thomas, L. E. (2020). Vision is biased near handheld, but not remotely operated, tools. Attention, Perception, & Psychophysics, 82, 1-20.
McManus, R., & Thomas, L. E. (2018). Immobilization does not disrupt near-hand attentional biases. Consciousness and cognition, 64, 50-60.
Krasich, K., McManus, R., Hutt, S., Faber, M., D'Mello, S. K., & Brockmole, J. R. (2018). Gaze-based signatures of mind wandering during real-world scene processing. Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, 147(8), 1111.
Presentations
Robert McManus, Laura E. Thomas. Visual biases near hand-held and remotely controlled tools. Poster presentation, Vision Sciences Society Eighteenth Annual Meeting, St. Pete Beach, FL, 2018
Robert McManus, Laura E. Thomas. Grasp affordances enhance target detection near the hands. Poster presentation, Psychonomic Society Fifty-eighth Annual Meeting, Vancouver, Canada, 2017
Robert McManus, Laura E. Thomas. Grasp affordances are necessary for enhanced target detection near the hand. Poster presentation, Vision Sciences Society Seventeenth Annual Meeting, St. Pete Beach, FL, 2017
Prior Experience
Graduate Research Assistant, North Dakota State University, 2016-2019
Intern, Shields Health Care Group, 2014
Academic Appointments
Graduate Student Instructor of Record, Attention and Thinking, North Dakota State University, 2019
Additional Information
Research Grants
UROP University Grant, 2015
CREDENTIALS & PROFESSIONAL HONORS
- Ph.D., Psychology, North Dakota State University, 2020
- B.A., Cognitive Neuroscience, University of Notre Dame, 2016
LANGUAGES
- Spanish