Alan Hughes

Dr. Alan Hughes is Professor of Psychology and serves as the Dean of the Charter School of Education. He earned a Ph.D. in experimental psychology from the University of Louisville and has expertise and scholarly interests in visual neuroscience and perception. Over the last 20 years, his scholarly activity included conducting and publishing research related to visual neuroscience, collaborating with students on numerous research projects, and doing research as it relates to the scholarship of teaching.  Dr. Hughes has a strong background in neuroscience including practical experience with gross electro-physiological measures like the electroretinogram (ERG) and electroencephalography (EEG).  Additionally, he is trained in both human and animal psychophysics.  Student who work with Dr. Hughes have the opportunity to learn how to use industry-standard methods to explore the neural and behavioral underpinnings of visual perception.

After starting at Berry, he initiated several projects relating to neurovisual disorders, which refers to a set of visual-related deficits that can stem from a variety of sources, such as eye diseases (e.g., Glaucoma) or developmental disorders (e.g., Autism).  Since then, has used projects like these as a way to involve Berry students in research, providing them valuable research skills and experience tailored to their own specific goals. A recent project was a collaboration with colleagues at the University of Louisville and used electroretinograms (ERG’s) (like an EKG of the eye) to study the properties of the human retina. One exciting result from this work is that these procedures yielded findings that suggest that the ERG may prove to be a valuable way to screen patients for the early stages of glaucoma.

In addition to his research interests in visual neuroscience, Dr. Hughes has actively pursued his interest in the scholarship of teaching. As a professional member of the Society for Teaching of Psychology (Division 2 of APA), he is committed to improving the teaching and learning process as it relates to psychology.  He has worked on several projects aimed at helping teaching psychologists improve the quality and richness of instruction. He has published chapters and articles devoted to improving the teaching/learning process at all educational levels.