Thomas Crawford
My primary focus is in cognitive psychology, focusing on our mental processes and understanding how they work. In particular, I engage in research into knowledge: how we learn what something is or isn鈥檛 and what processes are involved when we encounter something new or difficult to identify.
While most can easily imagine this with an example in explicit knowledge, such as identifying an object as an 鈥淎鈥� or a 鈥淏鈥�, it can also be applied to implicit knowledge, such as a behavioral response to move to the left or right without really being able to explain why.
This line of research also has two overall considerations. First, identifying what helps or hinders the learning process. Second, exploring what conditions create confusion or difficulty for those who should know what they鈥檙e doing. By understanding these processes, we can make meaningful suggestions as to how we help people learn and how we can avoid problems and errors in the real world.
While my expertise is in this area and cognitive psychology more broadly, I remain open to the interests of students and others in broader psychology and enjoy the challenge of finding the right question to ask to find the real solution to a problem.