Deborah A. Boehm-Davis
Deborah A. Boehm-Davis
Emeritus Faculty
How human performance is helped or hindered by the design of tools that help us accomplish everyday tasks.
Dr. Deborah Boehm-Davis is now retired; she holds the position of Emeritus University Professor of Psychology. Her last position at Mason was as Dean of the College of Humanities and Social Sciences. She worked on applied cognitive research at General Electric, NASA Ames Research Center, and Bell Laboratories prior to joining George Mason University in 1984. She also served as a Senior Policy Advisor for Human Factors at the Food and Drug Administration and as a Research Manager at Meta (Reality Labs Research, formerly Facebook Reality Labs & Oculus Research).
She has served as president of the Applied Experimental and Engineering Psychology Division of the American Psychological Association, and of the Human Factors and Ergonomics Society. She has been an associate editor for Human Factors and the International Journal of Human-Computer Studies; she currently serves on the editorial board of Theoretical Issues in Ergonomics Science. She is a Fellow of the Human Factors and Ergonomics Society, the American Psychological Association, the Association for Psychological Science, the Psychonomics Society, and the International Ergonomics Association. She holds a B.A. in psychology from Douglass College, Rutgers University, and an M.A. and Ph.D. in cognitive psychology from the University of California, Berkeley.
Current Research
Dr. Boehm-Davis is now retired from George Mason University. When she was active there, her research generally focused on how human performance is helped or hindered by the design of tools that help us accomplish everyday tasks. Over the years, she has done research in a number of applied domains, including human-computer interaction (HCI), aviation, surface transportation (in-vehicle navigation devices), and medical devices. Her most recent work has focused on the negative impact of interruptions on the quality of performance.
Selected Publications
Books
Boehm-Davis, D. A., Durso, F. & Lee, J. D., (Eds.) (2015). Handbook of human-systems integration. Washington, DC: American Psychological Association Press.
Remington, R. W., Boehm-Davis, D. A. & Folk, C. L. (2012). An introduction to humans in engineered systems. Hoboken, NJ: Wiley.
Journal Articles/Book Sections
Werner, N. E., Cades, D. M. & Boehm-Davis, D. A. (2015). Multitasking and Interrupted Task Performance: From Theory to Application. In L. D. Rosen, N. Cheever, 7 L. M. Carrier (Eds). The Wiley Handbook of Psychology, Technology and Society. Wiley-Blackwell. ISBN: 978-1118772027, 436-452.
Boehm-Davis, D. A. & Cooke, N. J. (2015). Case studies. In D. A. Boehm-Davis, F. T. Durso & J. D. Lee, Eds., Handbook of human-systems integration. Washington, DC: American Psychological Association Press, 53-59.
Foroughi, C. K., Werner, N. E., Barragán, D., & Boehm-Davis, D. A. (2015, April 13). Interruptions Disrupt Reading Comprehension. Journal of Experimental Psychology: General. Advance online publication. http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/xge0000074.
Blumberg, E. J., Foroughi, C. K., Scheldrup, M. R., Peterson, M. S., Boehm-Davis, D. A., & Parasuraman, R. (2015). Reducing the disruptive effects of interruptions with noninvasive brain stimulation. Human Factors, 57, 1-12. DOI: 10.1177/0018720814565189
Boehm-Davis, D. A. (2014). Using task analysis and computational cognitive models to design and evaluate interfaces. In R. R. Hoffman, P. A. Hancock, M. Scerbo, R. Parasuraman, & J. L. Szalma (Eds.), The Cambridge Handbook of Applied Perception Research, New York: Cambridge University Press, 629-646.
Parsons, S. E., Carter, E. A., Waterhouse, L. J., Fritzeen, J., Kelleher, D. C., Baker, K. M., Nelson, E., Werner, N. E. Boehm-Davis, D. A., & Burd, R. S. (2014). Improving ATLS performance in simulated pediatric trauma resuscitation using a checklist. Annals of Surgery, 259, 807-813.
Refereed Conference Publications
Vieane, A., Funke, G., Greenlee, E., Mancuso, V., Borghetti, B., Miller, B., Menke, L., Brown, R., Foroughi, C. & Boehm-Davis, D. A. (2017, October). Task Interruptions undermine cyber defense. Proceedings of the Human Factors & Ergonomics Society Annual Meeting.
Rantanen, E., Boehm-Davis, D. A., Boyle, L. N., Hannon, D., & Lee, J. D. (2016). Education of future human factors professionals. In Proceedings of the 60th Human Factors and Ergonomics Society Annual Meeting.
Foroughi, C. K., Werner, N. E., & Boehm-Davis, D. A. (2016). Are Individuals Sensitive to Changes in Performance when Interrupted? In Proceedings of the 60th Human Factors and Ergonomics Society Annual Meeting.
Foroughi, C. K., Wren, W. C., Barragan, D., Mead, P., & Boehm-Davis, D. A. (2015). Assessing mental rotation ability in a virtual environment with an Oculus Rift. In Proceedings of the 59th Human Factors and Ergonomics Society Annual Meeting, 59, 1849-1852.
Miller, W., Boehm-Davis, D. A., & Stanard, T. (2014). What happens when you can’t press pause? The effect of interruptions on detecting threats in a simulated closed-circuit television surveillance feed. In Proceedings of the Human Factors and Ergonomics Society Annual Meeting. 58.
Expanded Publication List
Education
B.A., Rutgers - the State University (Douglass College)
M.A., University of California, Berkeley
Ph.D., University of California, Berkeley
Recent Presentations
Boehm-Davis, D. A. (2022, April). HFES Presidential Town Hall (Advocacy). Panel presentation. Virtual.
Boehm-Davis, D. A. (2022, March). Good, Better, Best: Improving Meetings. Panel presentation at Reality Labs Research Manager Summit. Virtual.
Boehm-Davis, D. A. (2022, February). Please stop interrupting me! Lecture presented at the Titans of HFES Symposium, Virtual.
Dissertations Supervised
Molly C. Martini, Mitigation Strategies for Design Fixation (2018)
William D. Miller, Jr, Examining the Role of Spatial Memory in Interruptions (2017)
Cyrus Foroughi, Do Interruptions Affect Writing and Reading? (2016)
Nicole Werner, Toward a Theoretical Framework for Predicting Overall Quality Effects of Interruptions on Content Production Tasks (2014)
Erik Thomas Nelson, Learning to More Effectively Manage Interruptions over Repeated Exposures: When, How, and Why? (2013)
David Michael Cades, Understanding the Effects of Interruptions on the Quality of Task Performance (2011)
Melanie LeGoullon, Resumption Errors Following an Interruption in a Hierarchically Structured Task With Novices and Experts (2008)
Carl Smith, The Effect of Functional Display Information on the Acquisition and Transfer of Novice Piloting Knowledge (2008)
Luis Prada, An Empirical Validation of Task Analysis Predictions Using Multiple Autoflight Interfaces (2008)
Christopher Monk, The Residual Disruption Effect in Interrupted Task Performance (2004)
Sheryl Miller, Interruption Processing in a Decision-Making Task: Successful Integration of Interruptions and Task Resumption (2004)
Rafael Marshall, The Effects of Multiple-Turn Preview on Route Following Performance (2001)
Deborah Bruce, A comparison of auditory and visual in-vehicle information displays (2000)
Marilyn Salzman, VR’s frames of reference: A visualization technique for mastering abstract information spaces (1999)
Monica Gribben, The effects of interactive audio conferencing on student interaction in a collaborative distance-learning environment: A case study (1999)
Brian Philips, Performance effects of including contextual information (such as landmarks) in route guidance displays (1999)
Christina James, Older drivers and intersections (1998)
Jean Fox, The effects of age and ATIS congestion information accuracy on user trust and compliance (1998)
Susanne Furman, Improving software comprehension by using human factors techniques (1997)
Karen Amendola, Rationalized justifications as determinants of permissive attitudes and unethical conduct: measurements and validation (1996)
Kathryn Wochinger, The effects of age, spatial ability, and type of navigation aid on route following (1995)
Robert Peters, Decision-making performance and decision aide usage under controllable and uncontrollable stress (1994)
Karen Mahach, The effects of mice and pull-down menus versus command driven interfaces on writing (1992)
Beverly Messick Huey, The effect of function allocation schemes on operator performance in supervisory control systems (1990)
Dana Kruser, Effects of computer-human dialogue style on the attitudes of computer users (1987)