May 20, 2002 New Faculty Travis Seymour Assistant Professor, Psychology Travis Seymour Travis Seymour is a cognitive psychologist who specializes in memory, using computational modeling in his research on recognition memory. Seymour has developed a new type of "guilty knowledge" test that measures the time it takes a subject to respond to external stimuli to assess the subject's familiarity with information. Like the polygraph test, Seymour's test has potential criminal-justice applications. Unlike lie detectors, which measure indirect emotional effects of lying, Seymour's test measures more direct brain processing associated with knowledge and yields "very clean results" with no false positives. Seymour's other research interests include the psychology of expertise and the role of cognition and personality in skill development. Seymour earned his undergraduate degree in psychology from Northwestern University and his doctorate in psychology from the University of Michigan. Return to Front Page