Fresno State psychology professor Dr. Matthew Sharps and his colleagues and students are testing the way the brain interprets and remembers. The research has implications for understanding eyewitness memory, shoot and no-shoot decisions in law enforcement, and training for the detection of explosive devices.

In partnership with colleagues Dr. Megan Herrera, Dr. Schuyler “Wei” Liao and Dr. Jana Price-Sharps (all part-time Department of Psychology instructors), with forensic clinical psychologist Dr. Devin Kowalczyk and with a team of undergraduate and graduate student researchers, Sharps is examining underlying cognitive processes — vision, visual integration, memory, attention and interpretation.

“People often see what they expect to see, whether it’s really there or not,” Sharps said. “They often fail to see things that are, in fact, right in front of their eyes.”

See more on Page 12 of Elements Magazine.