About Me

I am a cognitive psychologist working in the transportation domain. I have extensive experience investigating cognitive processes relevant to driving behavior, including visual perception, attention, and cognitive control. I have examined these issues in young and older adults as well as individuals with ADHD. My goal is to translate basic understandings about human cognition into practical solutions for improving driving safety.

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Interests
  • Attention
  • Cognitive Control
  • Distraction
  • Driver Behavior
Education

  • Ph.D. in Education and Psychology

    University of Michigan

  • B.S. in Psychology

    Beijing Normal University

Recent Updates
  • Aug 2026: Student mentee Nithya Rajan’s poster Can Machine Learning Predict L3 Driving Takeover Performance from Gaze and Cognitive Traits? won the 1st place in the UMTRI Poster Competition. šŸŽ‰
  • Aug 2026: Student mentee Bianca Done’s poster Who Can Re-Enter the Loop? A Scoping Review won the 2nd place in the UMTRI Poster Competition. šŸŽ‰
  • Aug 2026: Student mentee Stefanie Schneider presented her poster Who Can Reengage Better During Level-3 Automated Driving? at the SURE symposium. šŸŽ‰
  • Aug 2026: Paper Does Global Slowing Explain Age Effects in Inhibitory Control? accepted by Psychological Science! šŸŽ‰ Shared first authorship with Jacob Sellers.
  • Jul 2026: Helped organize a session named SAE Level 3 Features: Coming Soon to a Vehicle Owned by You at ATS 2026.
  • May 2026: Gave an invited talk at Mcity’s annual research review: Measurement of Drivers’ Re-Engagement Readiness. Watch it here!
  • Apr 2026: Gave an invited talk at Lawrence Tech University: What can we learn from eye movements?
  • Apr 2026: First-author paper Iā€™m trying to read here! How does irrelevant speech affect how you read? accepted by Cognitive Processing!
Featured Work
PupEyes: An interactive Python library for eye movement data processing
Han Zhang , John Jonides
January 2026 Behavior Research Methods

PupEyes: An interactive Python library for eye movement data processing

We present PupEyes, an open-source Python package for preprocessing and visualizing pupil size and fixation data. PupEyes supports data collected from EyeLink and Tobii eye-trackers as well as any generic dataset that conforms to minimal formatting standards. Developed with current best practices, PupEyes provides a comprehensive pupil preprocessing pipeline and interactive tools for data exploration and diagnosis. In addition to pupil size data, PupEyes provides interactive tools for visualizing fixation data, ā€¦

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Attentional capture by abrupt onsets: Foundations and emerging issues
Han Zhang , A. Kane York , John Jonides
April 2025 Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception and Performance

Attentional capture by abrupt onsets: Foundations and emerging issues

The study of attentional allocation due to external stimulation has a long history in psychology. Early research by Yantis and Jonides suggested that abrupt onsets constitute a unique class of stimuli that captures attention in a stimulus-driven fashion unless attention is proactively directed elsewhere. Since then, the study of visual attention has evolved significantly. This article revisits the core conclusions by Yantis and Jonides in light of subsequent findings and highlights emerging issues for future ā€¦

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The temporal dynamics of visual attention
Han Zhang , Jacob Sellers , Taraz G. Lee , John Jonides
April 2025 Journal of Experimental Psychology: General

The temporal dynamics of visual attention

Researchers have long debated how humans select relevant objects amid physically salient distractions. An increasingly popular view holds that the key to avoiding distractions lies in suppressing the attentional priority of a salient distractor. However, the precise mechanisms of distractor suppression remain elusive. Because the computation of attentional priority is a time-dependent process, distractor suppression must be understood within these temporal dynamics. In four experiments, we tracked the temporal ā€¦

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Lingering on distraction: Examining distractor rejection in adults with ADHD
Han Zhang , Tessa R. Abagis , Clara J. Steeby , John Jonides
January 2024 Visual Cognition

Lingering on distraction: Examining distractor rejection in adults with ADHD

Effective visual search relies on reactively disengaging from distractors when the features of the distractors are unpredictable. Does this ability differ between adults with and without Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD)?. Participants (36 with ADHD, 46 non-ADHD) completed the additional-singleton task, in which they searched for a unique shape while a uniquely coloured distractor unpredictably appeared on half of the trials. The distractor delayed manual response times in both groups, with no ā€¦

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A d factor? Understanding trait distractibility and its relationships with ADHD symptomatology and hyperfocus
Han Zhang , Akira Miyake , Jahla Osborne , Priti Shah , John Jonides
October 2023 PLOS ONE

A d factor? Understanding trait distractibility and its relationships with ADHD symptomatology and hyperfocus

People differ substantially in their vulnerability to distraction. Yet, many types of distractions exist, from external stimulation to internal thoughts. How should we characterize individual differences in their distractibility? Two samples of adult participants (total N = 1220) completed a large battery of questionnaires assessing different facets of real-world distractibility. Latent modeling revealed that these measures could be explained by three correlated-yet-distinct factors: external distraction, unwanted ā€¦

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