Dr. Alan Kingstone is the director of the Brain, Attention and Reality Lab at UBC. He has pioneered methods and approaches to the study of attention and cognitive ethology, such that his research strongly connects with people as they interact in the world around them. The lab’s multidisciplinary research program includes work with children, patients, and healthy adults using a variety of techniques (e.g. natural observation, eye tracking, brain imaging, body motion tracking), all aimed at answering questions ranging from basic aspects of visual attention to more complex aspects of social cognition. He is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada and the Association for Psychological Science.

Dr. Kingstone has served as Head of UBC’s Department of Psychology and VP Research Advisor for the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council.

At national and international levels Dr. Kingstone has sat on the Editorial Board for a number of top journals (e.g., Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience, JEP:HPP) and served as an Associate Editor for multiple journals, including JEP:HPP and the British Journal of Psychology; and on two occasions he served as co-Editor for special issues of the Canadian Journal of Experimental Psychology. In addition, Dr. Kingstone is the founder and co-editor of the high-impact review journal Annual Review of Cognitive Neuroscience (NY Academy of Sciences).

Research interests include cognitive ethology, social attention, extended reality, brain and human behaviour.

Dr. Kingstone’s secondary research areas are Behavioural Science, Clinical, Social/Personality, Developmental and Learning Enhancement.

Bischof, W.F., Anderson, N. A. & Kingstone, A. (In press). Temporal methods for eye movement analysis. In Eye movement research: An introduction to its scientific foundations and applications. Springer.

Dosso, J., Chua, R., Weeks, D.J., Turk, D.J. & Kingstone, A. (In press). Attention and awareness: Representation of visuomotor space in split-brain patients. Cortex.

Dosso, J. & Kingstone, A. (In press). Social modulation of object-directed but not image-directed actions. PLoS ONE.

Varao-Sousa, T. L., Smilek, D. & Kingstone, A. (In press). In the lab and in the wild: How distraction and mind wandering affect attention and memory. Cognitive Research: Principles and Implications

Sinnet, S., Maglinti, C. & Kingstone, A. (2018). Grunting’s competitive advantage: Considerations of force and distraction. PLoS ONE, 13(2): e0192939

Street, C.N.H., Bischof, W.F. & Kingstone, A. (2018). Perspective taking and theory of mind in hide and seek. Attention, Perception, & Psychophysics, 80, 21-26.

Wu, D.W.-L., DiGiacomo, A. Lenkic, P.J., Cech, P., . Zhao, J. & Kingstone, A. (2018). How does the design of waste disposal signage influence waste disposal behavior? Journal of Environmental Psychology, 58, 77-85.
2017

Palmer-Hague, J. L., Tsang, V., Skead, C., Wassersug, R. J., Nasiopoulos, E., & Kingstone, A. (2017). Androgen deprivation alters attention to sexually provocative visual stimuli in elderly men. Sexual Medicine, 5, e245 – e254.

Roberts, K.H., Truong, G., Kingstone, A. & Todd, R.M. (2017). The blur of pleasure: Appetitively appealing stimuli decrease subjective temporal perceptual acuity. Psychological Science, 28, 1563-1582.

DiGiacomo, A., D.W.-L., Lenkic, P.J, Fraser, B., Zhao, J. & Kingstone, A. (2017). Convenience improves composting and recycling rates in high-density residential buildings. Journal of Environmental Planning and Management. 10.1080/09640568.2017.1305332

Foulsham, T. & Kingstone, A. (2017). Are fixations in static natural scenes a useful predictor of attention in the real world? Canadian Journal of Experimental Psychology, 71, 172-181.

Laidlaw, K.E.W. & Kingstone, A. (2017). If not when, then where? Ignoring temporal information eliminates reflexive but not volitional spatial orienting. Vision, 1(2), 10.3390/vision1020012

Solman, G., Foulsham, T. & Kingstone, A. (2017). Eye and head movements are complementary in visual selection. Royal Society Open Science, 4 (1). 160569.

Steckler, C.M., Hamlin, J.K., Miller, M.B., King, D. & Kingstone, A. (2017). Moral judgment by the disconnected left and right cerebral hemispheres: A split-brain investigation. Royal Society Open Science. DOI: 10.1098/rsos.170172

Street, C.N.H. & Kingstone, A. (2017). Aligning Spinoza with Descartes: An informed Cartesian account of the truth bias. British Journal of Psychology, 108, 453-466. doi: 10.1111/bjop.12210

• Donald O. Hebb Distinguished Contribution Award (2020)
• Royal Society of Canada Fellow (2012)
• Association for Psychological Science Fellow (2007)
• Distinguished University Scholar, UBC (2004)
• Killam Faculty Research Fellowship (2004)
• Killam Faculty Research Prize (2002)
• Michael Smith Foundation for Health Research (2001)
• Peter Wall Institute for Advanced Studies – Early Career Scholar (1999)