معرفی
Nestor Matthews is a Professor in the Department of Psychology at Denison University, where he has served since 2001, progressing from Assistant Professor to Associate Professor and finally to Professor in 2016. He maintains affiliations with both the Neuroscience Program and Data Analytics Program at Denison University. His research focuses on visual perception, temporal processing, and perceptual learning, with particular expertise in motion perception, simultaneity judgments, and visual attention mechanisms.
Dr. Matthews received his Ph.D. in Experimental Psychology from Brown University in 1997, following an M.Sc. in 1995 and a B.A. in Psychology (Summa Cum Laude With Honors) from Fairleigh Dickinson University in 1993. Prior to joining Denison, he completed a Postdoctoral Research Fellowship at Columbia University's Center for Neurobiology & Behavior from 1997-2001.
Matthews' research program investigates fundamental aspects of visual perception and temporal processing. His work has established important findings regarding visual field asymmetries in temporal processing, demonstrating left visual field advantages in simultaneity judgments and right hemifield deficits. He has made significant contributions to understanding the relationship between motion perception and temporal processing through studies of expert populations like drum corps performers. His research on perceptual learning has revealed how practice can hasten visual attention and improve sensitivity to orientation, speed, and temporal order. Matthews employs rigorous psychophysical methods to explore how the visual system processes information across space and time, with implications for understanding both basic visual mechanisms and potential applications in visual rehabilitation.
His publication record shows a consistent trajectory of high-impact research in visual perception, with recent work expanding into areas such as sentence length perception and cross-modal interactions. A notable pattern in his work is the application of rigorous psychophysical methods to investigate fundamental questions about visual processing, often using expert populations to reveal specialized perceptual abilities. His research bridges cognitive psychology, neuroscience, and perceptual learning, contributing to our understanding of how experience shapes visual processing capabilities.
- Denison University 2014 Charles A. Brickman Teaching Excellence Award
- NIH National Research Service Award (F32 EY06969-01A1)
- NIH Research Training Program grant (MH15174-22)
- H-Index of 13 with 454 citations across 108 journals
- Multiple Denison University Research Foundation grants
Dr. Matthews has mentored numerous undergraduate researchers through Denison's summer research program and directed studies. His supervision spans topics including timing sensitivity in vision and audition, visual temporal order judgments in athletes, right visual field deficits on RSVP tasks, and the effects of practice on visual attention. He has served as faculty advisor for the Denison University Chapter of Nu Rho Psi (The Neuroscience Honor Society) and N.E.R.D (Neuroscience Education & Research at Denison). His commitment to undergraduate research is further evidenced by his service as Secretary and Councilor for the Psychology Division of the Council on Undergraduate Research (CUR).
At Denison, Matthews has held leadership positions including Chair of the Department of Psychology (2018-2021), Chair of the Neuroscience Program (multiple terms), and Chair of the Denison University Faculty (2014-2015). He has been actively involved in curriculum development, particularly in statistics education and the integration of research methods throughout the psychology curriculum. His teaching portfolio includes courses in Sensation & Perception, Advanced Statistics, Research Methods, Psychology of Music, and Neuroscience capstone seminars. He has also contributed to the development of the Data Analytics program at Denison, teaching Introduction to Data Analytics.
