L. James Smart

Education

• Ph.D. Psychology (Human Factors), University of Cincinnati, 2000

Teaching Interests

My teaching interests include, perception and motor control, human factors, research methods, analysis, and writing. I believe that teaching is composed of four functions: providing information, knowledge, and guidance about the topic being taught, honing students’ ability to evaluate this knowledge and seek further knowledge, illuminating the relevance of the course material for everyday life, and encouraging students to seek opportunities for further work in the field through research and mentoring. With these functions in mind, my approach to the classroom setting has been to set the course content in the context of questions to be answered or problems to be solved by the class with my help. My goal is to empower students by not just giving them the “answer” but helping to develop the skills that would allow them to find or generate “answers” on their own.

• 271 | Survery of Perception, Action, and Cognition
• 293 | Introduction to Psychological Statistics
• 294 | Writing and Research Methods in Psychology
• 473/573 | Human Factors and Ergonomics

Research Interests

The concept of perception-action coupling is at the heart of much of the research inspired by James Gibson’s Ecological approach to Psychology. Inherent in this idea is that the information obtained by the perceptual systems can be used to guide subsequent actions, particularly in a manner that allows for the completion or reaching of some future state or goal. What happens when the perceptual information obtained does not support action or actions that the organism is familiar with? My research involves examining the consequences of disrupting the perception-action cycle on participants’ ability to successfully regulate their behavior. In particular, I am interested in how functional relationships between perception and action are regained (adaptation) and the cost of not being able to do so (motion sickness). My research bridges interests in motor control, perception, and Human Factors.

Professional Recognition

• 2023 Center for Student Diversity & Inclusion (CSDI) Impact Partner
• 2022 Miami Plan Fellow (Office of Liberal Education)
• 2022 Howe Award for Excellence in Disciplinary Writing Instruction
• 2021 Miami University Provost’s Excellence in Academic Advising Award

Selected Publications

• Smart, L. J., Drew, A., Hadidon, T., Teaford, M., & Bachmann, E. (2023). Using Nonlinear Kinematic Parameters as a Means of Predicting Motion Sickness in Real-Time in Virtual Environments. Human Factors, 65(8), 1830-1840.
• Teaford, M. A., Berg, W. P., Billock, V., McMurray, M. S., Thomas, R. D., & Smart, L. J. (2023). Muscle activity prior to experiencing the Rubber Hand Illusion is associated with how vividly one experiences the illusion. Psychological Research, 82(2), 519-536.
• Hall, C. E., Quinn, J. J., & Smart, L. J. (2022). Fostering developmentally-informed collaborative writing: Bringing the team (and the instructor) across the threshold. In A. Glotfelter, C. Martin, M. Olejnik, A. Updike, & E. Wardle (eds.), Changing Conceptions, Changing Practices: Systemic Approaches to Innovating Learning across Disciplines. Louisville. CO: University Press of Colorado.
• Smart, L. J., Hassebrock, J. A., & Teaford, M. A. (2020). Acting is Perceiving: Experiments on perception of motion in the world and movements of the self, an update. Invited chapter; J. Wagman & J. Blau (eds.) Perception as Information Detection: Reflections on Gibson’s Ecological Approach to Visual Perception. NY: Taylor & Francis.
• Teaford, M. A., Cook, H. E., Hassebrock, J. A., Thomas, R. D., & Smart, L. J. (2020). Perceptual validation of nonlinear postural predictors of visually induced motion sickness. Frontiers in Psychology, 11, 1533.