Deborah Boehm-Davis

Dr. Deborah Boehm-Davis is now retired from George Mason University; 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. She is now working as a Research Manager for Facebook Reality Labs (formerly 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.

Durso, F. T., Boehm-Davis, D. A. & Lee, J. D. (2015). A view of human systems integration from the academy. In D. A. Boehm-Davis, F. T. Durso & J. D. Lee, Eds., Handbook of human-systems integration. Washington, DC: American Psychological Association Press, 5-19.

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.

Foroughi, C. K., Werner, N. E., Nelson, E. T., & Boehm-Davis, D. A. (2014). Do interruptions affect quality of work? Human Factors, 56, 1262-1271.

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

Foroughi, C. K., Werner, N. E., Hatcher, M., Lopen, A, Zafar, T., & Boehm-Davis, D. A. (2014). Do Interruptions Affect Content Production? In Proceedings of the Human Factors and Ergonomics Society Annual Meeting. 58.

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.

Foroughi, C. K., Werner, N. E., Nelson, E. T., Boehm-Davis, D. A. (2013). Do Interruptions Affect Quality of Work? In Proceedings of the Human Factors and Ergonomics Society Annual Meeting. 57, 154-157.

Miller, W. D. & Boehm-Davis, D. A. (2013). Age-Related Differences in Positional Dispersion of Fixations in a Multitask Environment. Proceedings of the Human Factors and Ergonomics Society Annual Meeting, 57, 104-108.

Werner, N., Nelson, E. Miller, W., & Boehm-Davis, D. A. (2012). Interruptions in the real world: Examining the role of internal versus external interruptions in a hospital pharmacy. Proceedings of the Human Factors & Ergonomics Society Annual Meeting. Santa Monica, CA: The Human Factors & Ergonomics Society.