Chronicle - Communications - University of Canterbury

Psychologist winstop US awardA University of Canterbury academichas received international recognitionfrom the world’s largest organisation forpsychologists.Associate Professor William “Deak”Helton (Psychology) has been awarded theEarl Alluisi Award for Early CareerAchievement by the American PsychologicalAssociation (APA) in recognition of his workin the field of human factors psychology.The annual award is presented to anacademic in the first 10 years of his or herpost-PhD career who has made a significantcontribution to applied experimental andengineering psychology.Professor Helton, who will receive hisaward at the 2012 APA Convention, said hefelt “especially honoured as the award hasrarely been made to someone outside ofNorth America”.“Having senior colleagues in the fieldnote my contributions to the science ofhuman factors and applied psychology isdefinitely rewarding.”One of Professor Helton’s primaryresearch concerns is the study of vigilance,looking at why people cannot maintain aconstant level of attention or alertness overtime during monitoring or detection work,such as looking for weapons in luggage ormonitoring radars.Known as the vigilance decrement,Professor Helton said a popular theory inneuroscience circles is that the inability tomaintain vigilance is due to these tasksbeing repetitive, monotonous and boring.Another theory was that vigilancedecrement is tied to how objectively hardthe detection task is, not its monotonousnature, he said.“We are beginning to link thisperformance decline with objectivephysiological changes in the brain. I wasone of the first people to use real-timebrain monitoring to examine humanmental fatigue and vigilance in visualdetection tasks.”Associate Professor Deak Helton with Fin.Professor Helton said testing the twotheories “is extremely critical”.“It can mean the difference between anair-traffic controller detecting a vehicleparked on the runway or not, which in turnmeans the difference between you, as apassenger, living or not. I have also doneinnovative work looking at how emotionimpacts human performance, and emotionis often a neglected topic in the field.”Professor Helton is also one of the firstresearchers to study working dogs from anergonomic science perspective. His work inthis area resulted in the first scientific bookon working dogs, Canine Ergonomics: TheScience of Working Dogs (2009).“The idea that ergonomic science couldenhance working dogs’ abilities, which arealready exceptional in many regards, justlike ergonomic science can enhance humanabilities at work, was novel. This generateda great deal of interest in the working dogcommunity and agencies deployingworking dogs,” he said.“If my work helps people find andeliminate improvised explosive devices,landmines and unexploded ordinance,that is really all the reward I need.”UC student amongNZ InternationalStudents of theYearUniversity of Canterbury educationdoctoral student Bree Loverich has beennamed one of New Zealand’s InternationalStudents of the Year by Education NewZealand.The organisation ran an inauguralcompetition to find New Zealand’s topinternational students from all educationalsectors and Bree was named the winner ofthe university sector category. She wasnominated for the award by the Universityof Canterbury Students’ Association.Nominees were judged on theiracademic achievements, their participationin institutional and community activities,and how they had thrown themselves intoKiwi culture and experiences.Bree, from the United States, has beenin New Zealand for five years. She wasgranted direct entry to the PhD programmeat UC without having to complete amaster’s degree.A University of Canterbury DoctoralScholarship recipient, Bree is researchingcurriculum and assessment in NewZealand’s secondary education policies.She is also President of the PostgraduateStudents’ Association and is currently oneof 43 students on exchange to OxfordUniversity.The six winners from each sector willreceive a trip within New Zealand withFlying Kiwi Adventure Tours and a winner’scertificate.Bree LoverichCHRONICLE 46, May 201119