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Faculty Member - Experimental Psychology

Patricia DeLucia, Ph.D.

Positions:

Professor, Department of Psychology; Coordinator of the Human Factors Psychology Program (see Link below for HF Program); Adjunct Professor, School of Nursing.

Education:

Ph.D., 1989, Columbia University; National Research Council postdoctoral associateship, Wright Patterson Air Force Base, 1989-1991

Contact:

Phone: (806) 742-3711, ext. 259

Fax: (806) 742-0818

Email: pat.delucia@ttu.edu

Web site: Web site

Program site: Human Factors Psychology Program

Professional Service:

Member, Policy and Planning Committee, Human Factors and Ergonomics Society, 2012-present; Chairperson, Accreditation Committee, Human Factors and Ergonomics Society, 2010-present; President, APA Division 21, 2011; Associate Editor, Human Factors; Editorial Board, JEP: Applied; Program Chairperson, APA Division 21, 2009; Chairperson, Education & Training Committee, Human Factors and Ergonomics Society, 2004-2009

Awards and Honors:
  • Fellow, American Psychological Association
  • Fellow, Human Factors and Ergonomics Society
  • Standing Review Panel for the NASA Johnson Space Center Human Research Program, Space Human Factors and Habitability Element
  • Special Emphasis Panel on Patient Safety through Simulation Research, Agency for Health Research Quality
  • Policy Study Committee on Safety Belt Technology for the Transportation Research Board, National Research Council of the National Academy of Science
  • Texas Tech University Barnie E. Rushing, Jr. Faculty Distinguished Research Award

Research Support:

(1) Eye movement behavior during confusion. Honeywell International, Inc.

(2) Assessing the effect of a handheld decision-support device for reducing medication errors, United States Army Medical Research Materiel Command (TATRC)

(3) Perceptual Judgments about Collision and Implications for Transportation Safety; Advanced Research Program of the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board

(4) Information Integration in Judgments of Temporal Range; NASA-Ames Research Center

(5) Visual Memory for Moving Scenes and Implications for Transportation Safety; Advanced Research Program of the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board

Research Interests:

My research program focuses on theoretical and applied issues in visual perception, and human factors. My primary interests include (a) the perception of collision, motion, and depth with applications to transportation (e.g., driving and aviation), health care (minimally-invasive surgery), military (e.g., night vision goggles), and sport (e.g., umpiring), (b) human factors in health care (e.g., patient safety), (c) performance in nursing (e.g., medication administration), and (d) tele-mental health.

Selected Research:
  • DeLucia, P. R. (in press) Effects of size on collision perception and implications for perceptual theory and transportation safety. Current Directions in Psychological Science.
  • Klein, M. I., DeLucia, P. R., & Olmstead, R. (in press) The impact of visual scanning in the laparoscopic environment after engaging in strain coping. Human Factors.
  • DeLucia, P. R. (in press). Three-dimensional Mueller-Lyer Illusion: Theoretical and Practical Implications. In A. Shapiro and D. Todorovic (eds.) The Oxford Compendium of Visual Illusions (Oxford University Press).
  • DeLucia, P. R. (in press). Perception of Collision. In Hoffman, R. et al (Eds), Hoffman, R.R., Hancock, P., Scerbo, M., and Parasuraman, R. (Eds.) (forthcoming). Cambridge Handbook of Applied Perception Research.Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
  • Brendel, E., DeLucia, P. R., Hecht, H., Stacy, R.L, & Larsen, J. T. (2012). Threatening pictures induce shortened time-to-contact estimates. Attention, Perception & Psychophysics, 74, 979-987.
  • DeLucia, P. R. (Ed.) (2011). Reviews of Human Factors and Ergonomics, Volume 7. Santa Monica, CA: Human Factors and Ergonomics Society.
  • DeLucia, P. R., & Griswold, J. A. (2011) Effects of camera arrangement on perceptual-motor performance in minimally-invasive surgery. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Applied, 17, 210-232.
  • DeLucia, P. R., & Ott, T. E. (2011) Action and attentional load can influence aperture effects on motion perception. Experimental Brain Research, 209, 215-224.
  • DeLucia, P. R., & Tharanathan, A. (2009). Responses to deceleration during car following: Roles of optic flow, warnings, expectations and interruptions. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Applied, 15, 334-350.
  • DeLucia, P. R., Ott, T. E., & Palmieri, P. A. (2009). Performance in nursing. In F. T. Durso (Ed.), Reviews of human factors and ergonomics, Vol. 5. Santa Monica, CA: Human Factors and Ergonomics Society.
  • Jones, K. S., DeLucia, P. R., Hall, A. R., & Johnson, B. R. (2009). Can metric feedback training hinder actions involving distance? Human Factors, 51, 419-432.
  • DeLucia, P. R. (2008). Critical roles for distance, task, and motion in space perception: Initial conceptual framework and practical implications. Human Factors, 50, 811-820.
  • Palmieri, P. A., DeLucia, P. R., Peterson, L. T., Ott, T. E., & Green, A. (2008). The anatomy and physiology of error in adverse healthcare events. In G. T. Savage & E. Ford, Advances in Health Care Management, Volume 7, Patient Safety and Health Care Management (pp. 33-68).
  • DeLucia, P. R. & Betts, E. T. (2008). Separated versus integrated displays in minimally-invasive surgery. Proceedings of the Human Factors and Ergonomics Society 52nd Annual Meeting, Santa Monica, CA: Human Factors and Ergonomics Society.
  • Mather, R. D., & DeLucia, P. R. (2007). Testing for effects of racial attitudes and visual contrast on the speed of a driver’s response to a pedestrian. Transportation Research: Part F, 10, 437-446.
  • DeLucia, P. R. (2007). How Big Is an Optical Invariant? Limits of Tau in Time-to-Contact Judgments. In M. A. Peterson, B. Gillam, & H. A. Sedgwick (Eds.), In the Mind's Eye: Julian Hochberg on the Perception of Pictures, Film, and the World (pp.473-482). NY: Oxford University Press.
  • DeLucia, P. R., & Mather, R. D. (2006). Motion extrapolation of car-following scenes in younger and older drivers. Human Factors, 48, 666-674.
  • DeLucia, P. R., & Maldia, M. (2006). Visual Memory for Moving Scenes. Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology, 59, 340-360.
  • DeLucia, P. R., Mather, R. D., Griswold, J. A., & Mitra, S. (2006). Toward the Improvement of Image-Guided Interventions for Minimally-Invasive Surgery: Three Factors that Affect Performance. Human Factors, 48, 23-38.
  • DeLucia, P. R. (2005). Does binocular disparity or familiar size override effects of relative size on judgments of time to contact? Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology, 58A, 865–886.
  • DeLucia, P. R. (2004). Time-to-contact judgments of an approaching object that is partially concealed by an occluder. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception and Performance, 30, 287-304.
  • DeLucia, P. R. (2004). Multiple sources of information influence time-to-contact judgments: Do heuristics accommodate limits in sensory and cognitive processes? In H. Hecht & G. J. P. Savelsburgh (Eds.), Advances in psychology: Vol. 135. Time-to-Contact (pp. 243-286). Amsterdam: Elsevier-North-Holland.
  • DeLucia, P. R., Hoskins, M. L., & Griswold, J. A. (2004). Laparoscopic Surgery: Are Multiple Viewing Perspectives Better than One? Proceedings of the Human Factors and Ergonomics Society 48th Annual Meeting, Santa Monica, CA: Human Factors and Ergonomics Society.
  • DeLucia, P. R., Kaiser, M. K., Bush, J. M., Meyer, L. E., Sweet, B. T. (2003). Information integration in judgments about time to contact. Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Experimental Psychology, 56A, 1165-1189.
  • DeLucia, P. R., Bleckley, M. K., Meyer, L. E., & Bush, J. M. (2003). Judgments about collision in younger and older drivers. Transportation Research, Part F: Traffic Psychology and Behaviour, 6, 63-80.
  • DeLucia, P. R., Tresilian, J. R., & Meyer, L. E. (2000). Geometrical illusions can affect time-to-contact estimation and mimed prehension. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception and Performance, 26, 552-567.
  • DeLucia, P. R. (1999). Critique of "Distance estimation with night vision goggles: A little feedback goes a long way." Human Factors, 41, 507-510.
  • DeLucia, P. R., & Meyer, L. E. (1999). Judgments about the time-to-contact between two objects during simulated self motion. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception and Performance, 25, 1813-1833.
  • DeLucia, P. R., & Liddell, G. W. (1998). Cognitive motion extrapolation and cognitive clocking in prediction-motion tasks: Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception and Performance, 24, 901-914.
  • DeLucia, P. R., & Novak, J. B. (1997). Judgments of relative time to contact of more than two approaching objects: Toward a method. Perception & Psychophysics, 59, 913-928.
  • DeLucia, P. R. (1995). Effects of pictorial relative size and ground-intercept information on judgments about potential collisions in perspective displays. Human Factors, 37, 528-583.
  • DeLucia, P. R., & Task, H. L. (1995). Depth and collision judgment using night vision goggles. International Journal of Aviation Psychology, 5, 371-386.
  • DeLucia, P. R., & Warren, R. (1994). Pictorial and motion-based depth information during active control of self motion: Size-arrival effects on collision avoidance. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception and Performance, 20, 783-798.
  • DeLucia, P. R. (1991). Pictorial and motion-based information for depth perception. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception and Performance, 17, 738-748.

Teaching Interests and Activities:

Graduate Courses:

  • Human Factors Psychology
  • Seminar in Perception: Theory and Applications

Undergraduate Courses:

  • Research Methods
  • Perception: Theory and Applications

I especially enjoy mentoring graduate students in research and coauthoring journal articles with them.

Applied Interests and Activities:

Rear-end collisions, pedestrian crossings, work-zone accidents, rail-car collisions, interruptions during medication administration, dosing errors, training issues in laparoscopic surgery, design of the operating room, effects of night vision goggles on space perception, tele-mental health.

Student Research Projects:

Graduates placed in Human Factors positions: (1) Jennifer Blume, Ph.D., 1997, Jacobs Technology/NASA, Huntsville, AL; (2) Gregory W. Liddell, Ph. D., 1997, Human Interfaces, Austin, TX; (3) Les E. Meyer, Ph.D., 2001, State Farm, Bloomington, IL; (4) Anand Tharanathan, Ph.D., 2008, Honeywell ACS Labs, Minneapolis, MN.