Aaron Mitchel

Aaron Mitchel

Associate Professor of Psychology
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Educational Background

  • B.A. with honors, Psychology, Macalester College, 2005
  • M.S., Psychology, Pennsylvania State University, 2008
  • Ph.D., Psychology, Pennsylvania State University, 2011

Research Interests

My research investigates mechanisms underlying early stages of speech perception and language development and how these mechanisms operate within a multisensory environment. I am especially interested in the process of multisensory integration, which is the combination of two or more senses (e.g. vision and audition) to arrive at a unified perception. Currently, my lab is focused on four main lines of research.

The first investigates the extent to which learners utilize facial cues to comprehend speech. Second, I am interested in our ability to learn the properties and regularities of the input (e.g. the tendency for A to come before B), and how this perceptual learning mechanism tracks input from multiple senses simultaneously. The third line of research examines individual differences in multisensory integration abilities and how these differences in the ability to combine senses are related to social/cognitive functioning, genetics, and linguistic background. Supported by grants from the Bucknell-Geisinger Research Initiative, I am working with clinicians and researchers at the nearby Geisinger Autism and Developmental Medicine Institute to investigate clinical determinants and consequences of multisensory integration functioning. Finally, in collaboration with faculty in engineering and pharmacists at Geisinger Health System, my lab utilizes eye tracking technology while viewing drug labels in an effort to reduce medication errors.

Working closely with undergraduates, I have pursued these questions using behavioral, eye-tracking, genetic, and neuroimaging techniques. If you would like to know more or are interested in becoming involved in my research, please visit my lab website or contact me via email.

Courses Taught

  • PSYC 100: Introduction to Psychology
  • PSYC 215: Psychological Statistics
  • PSYC 252: Sensation and Perception
  • PSYC 292: Applied Research Methods in Sensation & Perception
  • PSYC 352: Face Perception

Selected Publications

(*Student co-author)

Lusk, L.G.*, & Mitchel, A.D. (in Press). Seeing spaces: An exploratory study of eye gaze during visual speech segmentation. Frontiers in Psychology.

Mitchel, A.D., Christiansen, M.H. & Weiss, D.J.(2014). Multimodal integration in statistical learning: evidence from the McGurk illusion. Frontiers in Psychology,5:407, 1-6.

Mitchel, A.D. & Weiss, D.J. (2014). Visual speech segmentation: Using facial cues to locate word boundaries in continuous speech. Language, Cognition & Neuroscience, 29, 771-780.

Mitchel, A.D., & Weiss, D.J. (2011). Learning across senses: Cross-modal effects in multisensory statistical learning. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, & Cognition, 37, 1081-1091.

Mitchel, A.D., & Weiss, D.J. (2010). What's in a face? Visual contributions to speech segmentation. Language and Cognitive Processes, 25, 456-482.

Weiss, D.J., Gerfen, C., Mitchel, A.D. (2010). Colliding cues in word segmentation: The role of cue strength and general cognitive processes. Language and Cognitive Processes, 25, 402-422.

Weiss, D.J., Gerfen, C., & Mitchel, A.D. (2009). Speech segmentation in a simulated bilingual environment: A challenge for statistical learning? Language Learning and Development, 5, 30-49.

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