Devin Burns

Senior Lecturer in Psychology

Dr. Burns is passionate about research design, issues of replication, and open science. His research interests focus on the modeling of perceptual processing and rational thinking, but he enjoys contributing to a wide variety of experiments. He grew up in Albuquerque, NM and loves all things outdoors, especially rock climbing, kayaking, and playing soccer. He has previously taught at Missouri University of Science and Technology and Framingham State University.

Research Interests:

Replication: Dr. Burns is a part of the Collaborative Replications and Education Project (CREP), which leverages student projects to perform crucial function of replicating scientific findings. Such work is under-incentivized, and educates undergraduates about replication and meta-analysis.

Rationality: To what degree is rational decision making separable from intelligence as measured on an IQ test? How can we translate findings from the Hueristics and Biases literature to help people make better decisions in their daily lives? What are useful interventions for improving rationality?

Balance and Proprioception: Are there easy ways to augment balance perception in order to reduce fall risk? Can robots be trained to communicate intentions through small forces in the ways that humans naturally do? How can our awareness of how bodies move through space be improved to reduce injuries and improve physical performance?

Representative Publications

Burns, D., Hohnemann, C.* (2022). Measurement effects in decision making. Journal of Behavioral Decision Making, e2311.

Regmi, S.*, Burns, D., & Song, Y. S. (2022). Humans Modulate Arm Stiffness to Facilitate Motor Communication during Overground Physi- cal Human-Robot Interaction. Nature: Scientific Reports, 12, 18767.

Baker, D. A., Burns, D., & Kueny, C. R. (2020). Just Sit Back and Watch: Large Disparities between Video and Face-to-face Interview Ob- servers in Applicant Ratings. International Journal of Human-Computer Interaction, 36(20), 1968-1979.

Burns, D. (2019). The balance between vision and touch. Journal of Mathematical Psychology, 92.

Burns, D., Fox, E. L.*, Greenstein, M., Olbricht, G. R., & Montgomery, D. M. (2019). An old task in new clothes: A preregistered direct repli- cation attempt of enclothed cognition effects on Stroop performance. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 83, 150-156.

Burns, D. (2016). Garner interference is not solely driven by stimulus uncertainty. Psychonomic Bulletin and Review, 23, 1846-1853.