James Brockmole

James Brockmole is a Professor and Department Chair at the University of Notre Dame’s College of Arts and Letters. His research bridges visual attention, memory, and spatial cognition, with a focus on how gaze control and embodied cognition influence perception. He has held leadership roles including Associate Dean for the Social Sciences and Editor-In-Chief of Psychonomic Bulletin & Review. Brockmole earned his Ph.D. from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and completed a postdoctoral fellowship at Michigan State University. His work employs eye-tracking methodologies to study real-time cognitive processes, particularly in dynamic environments.

Research interests include the interplay between attention and memory, the impact of aging on visual cognition, and the role of tool use in spatial perception. His lab’s interdisciplinary approach addresses questions like how attentional biases affect learning and decision-making, and how technological interventions (e.g., gaze-based systems) can mitigate mind wandering in educational settings.

Recent work explores the cognitive mechanisms underlying art perception, human-AI interaction, and the neural correlates of statistical learning. Articles highlight trends in mind wandering detection, math anxiety’s impact on attention, and the computational modeling of gaze behavior during scene viewing. His contributions to cognitive science have advanced methodologies in visual cognition and shaped educational technology design.