Academic Credentials
  • Ph.D., Psychology, University of Nevada, Las Vegas, 2020
  • M.A., Psychology, University of Nevada, Las Vegas, 2016
  • B.A., Psychology, University of Maryland, Baltimore County, 2012
  • B.A., Music Theory/Composition, McDaniel College, 2006
Licenses & Certifications
  • Certified English XL Tribometrist (CXLT)
Academic Appointments
  • Graduate Instructor of Record, Introduction to Psychology, University of Nevada, Las Vegas, 2015-2017
Professional Affiliations
  • Human Factors and Ergonomics Society
  • Acoustical Society of America
  • The Psychonomic Society
  • Society for Music Perception

Dr. Nave-Blodgett is a cognitive psychologist with expertise in human sensation and perception, attention, cognition, information processing, and memory. She applies her knowledge and expertise to analyses of accidents and injuries, safety and warnings compliance, consumer decision-making, and driver behavior.

Dr. Nave-Blodgett has specific expertise in how individuals perceive, attend, and understand events in their auditory environment, including questions of sound audibility, how individuals separate multiple sound sources in a confusing or sound-rich environment, and individuals' ability (or inability) to identify changes in complex and information-rich auditory environments. Her knowledge and experience have been applied to investigations of human performance issues with respect to pedestrian, cyclist, and transportation accidents and injuries, consumer product use, including perception of messages and information processing, communication of risk, and individuals' compliance with warnings. Dr. Nave-Blodgett additionally performs quantitative injury and risk-analyses using large-scale incident and injury data from various sources, including the Consumer Product Safety Commission's (CPSC) National Electronic Injury Surveillance System (NEISS), and the National Highway Transportation and Safety Administration's (NHTSA) Non-Traffic Surveillance (NTS) database. 

Dr. Nave-Blodgett has extensive experience with conducting driving research in closed-course track and handling pad environments and in naturalistic open-road driving settings, along with research into driver gaze, attention, and interaction with automated and non-automated driving systems on highways and urban streets. Her research and expertise have also been applied to investigate questions related to perception of auditory and visual alerts in vehicle human-machine interfaces (HMIs) and warnings, and auditory information both inside and outside the vehicle during the driving task. Dr. Nave-Blodgett has also conducted research on driver reactions and handling behavior in response to unexpected in-vehicle and out-of-vehicle events, and research into driver gear-shifting behaviors in situations where drivers are engaged in secondary tasks.

Dr. Nave-Blodgett develops and conducts human-subjects testing investigating and assessing consumer product use, health and safety, trust and mental models of complex in-vehicle software systems, and consumer decision making. She has incorporated eye tracking, qualitative interviews, psychophysics, and observational techniques to answer questions about driver behavior, user experience, and consumer understanding of disclosures. Her expertise in research and experimental design is complemented by her ability to effectively communicate complex scientific concepts and knowledge to a wide variety of professional and community audiences.

Prior to joining Exponent, Dr. Nave-Blodgett completed her Ph.D. at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, where she studied auditory perception, the development of auditory processing, attention, cognition, and human development. She also collaborated on studies of auditory perception that examined individual differences in the ability to perceptually separate multiple sound sources in a confusing environment, and individuals' ability (or inability) to identify changes in complex auditory environments.