Matthew Bachman
BIO
Dr. Bachman's lab investigates how attention and value-based decision making interact with one another, studying how these dynamics unfold within the brain and shape behavior. Critically, we are interested in both ends of this relationship: how attention biases choices and choice processes, and how value-associated objects can capture and guide attention. Through this comprehensive approach, we hope to better understand how these two forms of cognition are woven together in everyday life; consequently, many of our experiments are inspired by real-life scenarios (e.g., trying to focus on driving while passing flashy billboards or making choices about what to eat while distracted or hungry). Our research uses several tools to measure these fast changes in cognitive processes, such as electroencephalography (EEG), eye-tracking, and computational modeling.
Selected Publications:
Sullivan, N. J., Breslav, A., Doré, S. S., Bachman, M. D., & Huettel, S. A. (2025). The golden halo of defaults in simple choices. Journal of Marketing Research, 62(2), 386-404. https://doi.org/10.1177/00222437241303738
Bachman, M. D., Hunter, M. N., Huettel, S. A., & Woldorff, M. G. (2021). Disruptions of Sustained Spatial Attention Can Be Resistant to the Distractor’s Prior Reward Associations. Frontiers in Human Neuroscience, 15, 666731. https://doi.org/10.3389/fnhum.2021.666731
Bachman, M. D., Wang, L., Gamble, M. L., & Woldorff, M. G. (2020). Physical salience and value-driven salience operate through different neural mechanisms to enhance attentional selection. Journal of Neuroscience, 40(28), 5455-5464. https://doi.org/10.1523/JNEUROSCI.1198-19.2020