RESEARCH INTERESTS

Dream dimensions
- questionnaire studies of dreaming and personality
meditation and absorption
Tasters, Nontasters, & Supertasters
- genetics of human taste receptors and food selection
EEG biofeedback
- stress and biofeedback
- conscious experience as a mechanism for the
detection and control of EEG rhythms
- lucid dreams and REM alpha activity
Memory
- semantic, satiation, recall, and recognition memory
after-effects
Stress
- coping with occupational stress in nurses
- cross-cultural relaxation methods

My research area is in the psychophysiology of brain waves (EEG) and the effects of biofeedback on cortical and cognitive factors. Current research is focused on the central nervous system correlates of stress and EEG biofeedback in the management of stress and related disorders.

More generally, I have published and supervised theses in perception, attention, and memory. Biofeedback is being used as a tool to manipulate specific computer controlled patterns of EEG activity and map the regional effects on the power spectrum. While my primary interest is in the neurophysiology of stress, the types of stress investigated have relevance to applied applications such as occupational noise and infant crying evoking aggressive responding in parents. In addition, I am studying how nurses cope with occupational stress in Buddhist Thailand and Canada.

SELECTED PUBLICATIONS:

Tyson, P.D. (1997). Physiological arousal, reactive agression, and the induction of an incompatible relaxation response. Aggression and Violent Behavior. (In Press).

Pongruengphant, R., & Tyson, P.D. (1997). Coping strategies, stress, and job satisfaction in Thailand's hospital nurses. Siam Press. (In Press).

Tyson, P.D. (1996). Biodesensitization: Biofeedback controlled systematic desensitization of the stress response to infant crying. Biofeedback and Self-Regulation, 21, 273-290.

Tyson, P.D., & Pongruengphant, R. (1996). Avoidance as a coping strategy for nurses in Thailand. Psychological Reports, 79, 592-594.

Pongruengphant, R., & Tyson, P.D. (1995). The factor structure of the Nurse Stress Index, Coping Strategy Indicator, and Minnesota Satisfaction Questionnaire among nurses in Thailand. Journal of Burapha University, 1, 87-91.