Record current issueAssembly Series

Gargoyle

  -  Faculty Experts


  -  News by Topic

  -  News by School


Search News & Info


WUSTL in the News
  - Powered by Google


WUSTL Home

Public Affairs Home

News
Releases

University News

Medical News

Sports News

Radio Service

Tip Sheets

Business, Law & Econ

Culture & Living

Science & Technology
Media Resources
Contact Information

TV/Radio Studio

Visiting Our Campuses

Campus Images

Sports photography
Commercial Filming
   and Photography


Commercial Use of
   Names and Symbols

Domain Name policy
WUSTL Information
Record (newspaper)

Campus Calendars

WUSTL News Summary

Publications Online

Facts, Guides & Maps


Washington University in St. Louis News & Information > Faculty Experts at Washington University in St. Louis >

John A. Stern

Professor Emeritus of Psychology in Arts & Sciences

Expertise: psychophysiology, biometrics, lie detection, stress monitoring, eye blinks, fatigue, drowsy drivers

Bio:
Stern
Stern
Stern, a professor emeritus of psychology, is a pioneer in the integrative and emergent science of psychophysiology. His main field of interest is human psychophysiology applied to human factors problems and major concern is with using the eye and eyelids as indicants of aspects of information processing and fatigue processes. His work has explored the use of physiological measures to make inferences about cognitive activity, including the analysis of eye blink rates to assess an individual's stress levels. Past work has examined the use of physiological measures as a means of detecting that an individual may be engaging in lies, deceptions or other stressful and misleading behaviors, including participation in peer reviews of polygraph technologies. His current focus is on the use of electroencephalographic and gaze control measures (blinks, saccades, pupil diameter, and head movements) to identify periods of lowered attention to performance of cognitively demanding tasks, including the development of systems to alert drivers when they are becoming to drowsy to effectively operate a motor vehicle.

WUSTL Contact Information:
Work:(314) 935-6535
E-mail:jastern@artsci.wustl.edu
Address:Campus Box 1125
One Brookings Dr.
St. Louis, MO 63130

Education:
  • Ph.D. in Psychology at University of Illinois


News Stories & Tip Sheets:

Showing 1 Stories.
Candidates' eyes could be revealing

Center for Security Technologies researcher studies alertness variables

Oct. 11, 2004 --
John Stern
Stern
The eyes may well be the window to the soul, but they also are indicators of the mind's condition. People who have watched the presidential and vice-presidential debates earlier this month and preparing for the final debate on Oct. 13 could gather clues to the candidates' state of mind by watching the candidates' eyes. According to John Stern, Ph.D., professor emeritus of psychology at Washington University in St. Louis, and pioneer of blinking research, there is solid evidence that people blink frequently at points in time when they momentarily stop taking in and processing information.



Showing 1 Stories.

Additional Background:

Honors and affiliations have included:

  • Awarded Fellow, American Association for the Advancement of Science
  • Awarded Fellow, American Psychological Association
  • President, Pavlovian Society
  • President, Society for Psychophysiological Research
  • Past President of Psychophysiologists Interested in Ergonomics - a working group of the International Ergonomic Association.

Sample Publications:

  • What's behind blinking? The mind's way of punctuating thought. (Sciences, 1988)
  • Blink rate: a possible measure of fatigue. (Human Factors,1994, 36, 285 - 297 in collaboration with D. Boyer, and D. Schroeder.)

Related Information
Media Assistance:

Gerry Everding
Dir. of News and Electronic Communications
gerry_everding@wustl.edu

(314) 935-5230
Related Links:
Stern research suggests warning system for fatigued drivers nearing reality with new eye data
Stern comments on blink rates of politicians -- liar, liar?
Research: 'The pupil of the eye: What can it tell us about "mental processes"?
Stern's peer review of automated polygraph scoring technology

Related Groups:

Departments:
Psychology

- View All Groups

Related Topics:
Alertness / Deceit / Intent Detection
Homeland and International Security
Psychology

- View All Topics

Revised:

Tuesday, Aug. 10, 2004


  Email this page

  Print ready page


News & Information  |   Medical News  |   Office of Public Affairs  |   WUSTL Home

Please contact us and let us know how we can assist you.
Technical problems with this Web site? Email questions or comments.
Please review the WUSTL News & Information copyright/privacy policy.