Richard A. Hullinger

Senior Lecturer and Director of Undergraduate Instruction
Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences
Indiana University, 1101 E. 10th St., Bloomington, IN 47405
Office: (812) 856-6854
E-mail: rahullin @ indiana.edu
http://rhullinger.psych.indiana.edu
Updated August, 2023
Printable (.pdf) version
Education
  • Ph.D. in Psychological and Brain Sciences and Cognitive Science, 2011
  • Indiana University, Bloomington, Indiana
  • Advisor: John K. Kruschke
  • Thesis Title: An Evolutionary Analysis of Selective Attention

  • B.S. in Physics, 1996
  • B.S. in Computer Science, 1996
  • Magna Cum Laude
  • Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Troy, NY
Teaching Experience
Director of Undergraduate Instruction, Indiana University
  • C104 Opinions, Beliefs, and Truth: The Challenges of Psychology and Neuroscience, Fall 2020, 2022, 2023
  • P357 Thinking Like Machines, Fall 2020 – Fall 2023
  • K300 Statistical Techniques, Fall 2020 – Fall 2023
Director of Pedagogy, Indiana University
  • P211 Methods of Experimental Psychology, Spring 2015 – Spring 2020
  • P335 Cognitive Psychology, Spring 2015, Summer 2018
  • P101 Introductory Psychology, Fall 2015
  • K300 Statistical Techniques, Fall 2015, Fall 2016 – Spring 2020
  • P660 Teaching of Psychology, Spring 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018
Lecturer, Indiana University
  • K300 Statistical Techniques, Fall 2013 – Fall 2014
  • P335 Cognitive Psychology, Fall 2013 – Spring 2014
  • C105 Brains & Minds, Robots & Computers, Fall 2013 & 2014
  • P199 Planning Your Psychology Career, Spring 2014
  • P101 Introductory Psychology, Fall 2014
Visiting Assistant Professor, Indiana University
  • K300 Statistical Techniques, Spring 2012 – Spring 2013
  • Q301 Brain and Cognition, Spring 2013
  • P335 Cognitive Psychology, Fall 2011 & 2012
  • C105 Brains & Minds, Robots & Computers, Fall 2011 & 2012
  • P199 Planning Your Psychology Career, Spring 2012 & 2013
  • P102 Introductory Psychology, Fall 2011
Honors and Fellowships
  • Senior Career Connections Fellow, Career Fellows Program, College of Arts and Sciences, Indiana University, 2023
  • Founding Fellow of the Career Fellows Program in the College of Arts and Sciences, Indiana University, 2022
  • Founding Fellow of the Digital Gardener Faculty Fellows Program, Indiana University, 2021
  • Course Material Transformation Fellow - Indiana University, 2021
  • Scholarship of Teaching and Learning Grant - Indiana University, 2017
  • Disability Services for Students Access Award - Indiana University, 2016
  • College of Arts and Sciences Trustees Teaching Award - Indiana University, 2014
Research Interests

As an instructor, I am deeply interested in studying pedagogical issues in post-secondary education. Specifically, I am drawn towards the interface between technology and the classroom - electronic textbooks, student response systems, internet access during class time, interactive applets, etc. - and the effects that technology can have on learning.

I am also interested in a range of cognitive science topics with a primary focus on evolutionary simulations of attention and learning. I use simulated evolution as a means to investigate the types of environmental information structures that lead to the emergence of attention as an adaptive mechanism. I employ genetic algorithms to evolve simple connectionist networks in a range of environments. These environments may vary in terms of the underlying structure of the cues and responses, the temporal structure, or the amount of noise that is present in the environment. I then analyze the evolved agents to determine if they show signs of attentional behavior. The primary goal of this work is to explain attentional behaviors as adaptive evolved responses that can only be fully understood in the context of the environments that gave rise to them.

Publications
Hullinger, R. A., Kruschke, J. K. and Todd, P. M. (2015), An Evolutionary Analysis of Learned Attention. Cognitive Science, 39: 1172-1215. doi: 10.1111/cogs.12196
Kruschke, J.K., & Hullinger, R.H. (2010). Evolution of attention in learning. In: N. Schmajuk (Ed.), Computational Models of Classical Conditioning, pp. 10 - 52. Cambridge University Press.
Presentations
Hullinger, R.H., Kruschke, J.K., & Todd, P.M. (2010) Evolution of Attention in Learning. Talk presented at I.U. Cognitive Lunch Series, Bloomington, IN.
Kruschke, J. K. & Hullinger, R. H. (2009). Evolution of Attention in Learning. Invited presentation at the Workshop on Computational Models of Conditioning, Duke University, May 16, 2009.
Hullinger, R.H., & Kruschke, J.K. (2006). Attention To Individuating Cues Obviates Dual Process Theories. Talk presented at I.U. Cognitive Lunch Series, Bloomington, IN.
Service
College of Arts and Sciences
  • COAS Promotion Committee, Fall 2020
  • COAS Undergraduate Computing Task Force, Spring 2019 – Fall 2019
  • College Undergraduate Education Committee, Fall 2017 – Spring 2020
  • Academic Fairness Committee, Fall 2016 – Present
  • Faculty Task Force for the College's Office of Student and Career Success, Spring 2016
  • 21st Century Task Force, Minors and Certificates sub-committee, Spring 2015
Psychological and Brain Sciences
  • Undergraduate Program Committee, Spring 2015 – Present
  • PoStCom, Spring 2020
  • Graduate Program Committee, Fall 2018 – Spring 2019
  • Undergraduate Professional Development Committee, Fall 2016 – Spring 2017
  • Teaching Evaluation Committee, Fall 2016 – Spring 2017
Professional Experience
Software Developer/Team Lead, Interactive Intelligence, Indianapolis, IN. 1999 – 2004.
Responsible for the support, maintenance and new development of several client-side applications.
Software Developer, Multiplicity Inc., Indianapolis, IN. 1998 – 1999.
Designed and developed the user interface for windows software to present historical and real-time data about server performance.
Software Developer, Westinghouse Corp., Pittsburgh, PA. 1996 – 1998.
Primary developer of the Prospector news analysis system for the automated capture and analysis of local news broadcasts.
Pattents
"System for Analyzing Television Programs," U.S. Patent Number 6,295,092, issued Sept. 25, 2001. Inventors: R. Hullinger et. al.