Profiles

Dan's research focuses on understanding how attention and perception operate in everyday situations. This is addressed by using two distinct and complementary approaches. The first approach involves using standard laboratory tasks to uncover the cognitive and neural mechanisms that underlie attention and perception. The second approach involves observing and describing how attention and perception operate as individuals engage in purposeful activities in their natural environments.

Email Dan: dsmilek@uwaterloo.ca

Bruno is interested in understanding how high-performing practitioners learn, apply, and adapt their practical skills in their practice, and how professional training programs can be improved to motivate high-performance. 

Email Bruno: b.korst@uwaterloo.ca

Adrian is interested in how stress and a lack of sleep can shift important dynamics in attention and mind-wandering behaviours. He is also interested in how people transition to and from flow states in classroom settings and while using electronic devices.

Email Adrian: absafati@uwaterloo.ca

Melissa is interested in studying meta-attention; i.e., what people believe about their attentional experiences. Specifically, she is interested in the factors that influence individuals’ predictions about their future attentional states. Additionally, she is interested in how attention and mind wandering influence students’ experiences in the classroom.

Email Melissa: m.vandijk@uwaterloo.ca

Jacob Oliveira is a researcher focused on human-AI dynamics, examining how people interact with, adapt to, and make decisions alongside artificial intelligence. He is also the founder of JOLIVE Labs Inc., which develops tools in two areas: research tools that support the study of human-AI interaction, and workplace technologies that help organizations shape employee behaviour and integrate AI responsibly into their workflow. His work has included collaborating with RBC and several investment institutions and law firms to support responsible AI adoption and implementation.

LinkedIn: Jacob Oliveira - JOLIVE Labs Inc. | LinkedIn

Website: Jolivelabs.com

Email Jacob: jacob.oliveira@uwaterloo.ca

Email Miranda: mhc2chan@uwaterloo.ca

Colin is interested in how people choose to engage in media multitasking. Specifically, he researches what people focus on when multiple forms of media are competing for their attention.

Email Colin: c2kwiatkowski@uwaterloo.ca

Maxime is interested in how task context interacts with sustained attention, and how context shifts may be harnessed in virtual and real-world environments to disrupt mind-wandering and restore sustained attention baselines.

Email Maxime: mledrew@uwaterloo.ca

Nate is interested in understanding the conditions under which mind-wandering is helpful versus harmful, and the features of thought that account for these different outcomes. In particular, his current research examines thought variability—the degree to which people's thoughts change from moment to moment—and seeks to distinguish it from spontaneity, or the degree to which thought unfolds without deliberate guidance.

Email Nate: nspeert@uwaterloo.ca