Lisa Payne, Ph.D., is an Assistant Professor in the department of Psychology at Rutgers University in Camden, NJ. She received her Ph.D. in Neuroscience from Drexel University College of Medicine – Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Dr. Payne then completed a postdoctoral fellowship at Brandeis University in Waltham, Massachusetts. Her postdoctoral training was funded by a National Institutes of Health: Quantitative Neuroscience Training Grant and a National Science Foundation: Center of Excellence for Learning and Education in Science and Technology. Dr. Payne joined the faculty at Rutgers University-Camden in 2018.

Dr. Payne’s research has contributed to the understanding of inhibitory processes that can suppress internally and externally generated distraction. Many investigations into selective processing seek to characterize the prioritization of goal-relevant information. Dr. Payne’s work demonstrates that inhibitory control is an active and complementary component of cognitive selectivity.

Research Interests: 

Neural mechanisms (EEG) of the suppression of irrelevant distraction

The interaction of selective attention and short-term memory

Attentional biases for printed or spoken words

The role of expectancy in visual-spatial attention

Research Questions: 

How can we suppress distractions in order to pay better attention and improve memory?

Why do we have such a difficult time ignoring printed or spoken words?

Can we shut up our inner voice when it’s distracting?

Does it help to know where or when or what kind of irrelevant information will appear in our environment?