About

Dr. Daniel J. Simons is a professor of psychology at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, where he leads the Visual Cognition Laboratory. He holds a position in the Department of Psychology and is affiliated with the Center for Social and Behavioral Science, as well as holding a courtesy appointment in the Charles H. Sandage Department of Advertising. His research focuses on the limits of awareness and memory, investigating why people are often unaware of these limits and exploring the implications for both personal and professional contexts. Dr. Simons earned his BA from Carleton College and his Ph.D. in experimental psychology from Cornell University. Prior to joining the University of Illinois in 2002, he spent five years on the faculty at Harvard University. Dr. Simons is recognized as a Fellow and Charter Member of the Association for Psychological Science and a fellow of the Psychonomic Society. He is an Alfred P. Sloan Fellow and has received numerous awards for his research and teaching, including the 2003 Early Career Award from the American Psychological Association. Alongside his co-author Christopher Chabris, he received the 2004 Ig Nobel Award for research that combines humor with insight. He was the founding editor in chief of the APS journal Advances in Methods and Practices in Psychological Science. Dr. Simons is the co-author of the 2023 book Nobody's Fool: Why We Get Taken In and What We Can Do About It and the 2010 New York Times bestseller The Invisible Gorilla: How Our Intuitions Deceive Us. He has published over 100 scholarly papers and contributed articles to major outlets such as the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, and Smithsonian Magazine. His work has been featured in science museums worldwide. In addition to his academic talks, Dr. Simons regularly speaks to companies, organizations, and the general public. He has received awards for teaching and mentoring and currently teaches undergraduate statistics and graduate courses on research practices, communication for broad audiences, and topics related to attention and awareness, including a course on psychology and magic. Outside of academia, his hobbies include biking, juggling, disc golf, bridge, chess, and wearing gorilla suits in public.

Research topics

• Psychology
• Cognitive psychology
• Social psychology
• Mathematics
• Philosophy
• Combinatorics
• Statistics
• Cognitive science

Selected publications

• Author response of: Do individual differences in cognitive ability or personality predict noticing in inattentional blindness tasks?. Round#1

  Peer Community In Registered Reports · 2026-03-27

  articleOpen access1st authorCorresponding

  A recommendation of: Daniel J. Simons, Yifan Ding, Connor M. Hults, Brent W. Roberts Do individual differences in cognitive ability or personality predict noticing in inattentional blindness tasks? https://osf.io/z2fdu/files/yh4t2

  PublisherDOI

• Supplementary Material from Do individual differences in cognitive ability or personality predict noticing in inattentional blindness tasks?

  Figshare · 2026-04-28

  articleOpen access1st authorCorresponding

  RR_indivDiffs_Stage2R.docx

  PublisherDOI

• Supplementary Material from Do individual differences in cognitive ability or personality predict noticing in inattentional blindness tasks?

  Figshare · 2026-04-28

  articleOpen access1st authorCorresponding

  RR_indivDiffs_Supplement_Stage2R.docx

  PublisherDOI

• Supplementary Material from Do individual differences in cognitive ability or personality predict noticing in inattentional blindness tasks?

  Figshare · 2026-04-28

  articleOpen access1st authorCorresponding

  RR_indivDiffs_Supplement_Stage2R.pdf

  PublisherDOI

• Supplementary Material from Do individual differences in cognitive ability or personality predict noticing in inattentional blindness tasks?

  Figshare · 2026-04-28

  articleOpen access1st authorCorresponding

  RR_indivDiffs_Supplement_Stage2R.docx

  PublisherDOI

• Supplementary Material from Do individual differences in cognitive ability or personality predict noticing in inattentional blindness tasks?

  Figshare · 2026-04-28

  articleOpen access1st authorCorresponding

  RR_indivDiffs_Supplement_Stage2R.pdf

  PublisherDOI

• Supplementary Material from Do individual differences in cognitive ability or personality predict noticing in inattentional blindness tasks?

  Figshare · 2026-04-28

  articleOpen access1st authorCorresponding

  RR_indivDiffs_Stage2R.docx

  PublisherDOI

• Action mismatches across movie edits minimally impact perceived smoothness and change detection.

  Psychology of Aesthetics Creativity and the Arts · 2025-03-13

  article
  PublisherDOI

• Author response for "Overconfidence Persists Despite Years of Accurate, Precise, Public, and Continuous Feedback: Two Studies of Tournament Chess Players"

  2025-06-24

  peer-review
  PublisherDOI

• Effect of the Norfolk Southern Train Derailment on House Prices in East Palestine, OH

  Journal of Sustainable Real Estate · 2025-12-12

  articleOpen accessSenior author

  In February 2023, a Norfolk Southern (NS) train derailed in East Palestine Ohio. Several rail cars crashed off the tracks, releasing hazardous chemicals into two local creeks. Two days later, after calling for an evacuation of homes within one mile, the railroad performed a controlled burn-off of the chemicals, releasing a toxic plume spanning miles in multiple directions. We evaluate the effect of these events on house prices. For this case we conducted both a hedonic regression analysis and contingent valuation (CV) analysis. The regression analysis included over 3,000 house sales from 2018 to 2024, of which 98 sales took place in the Value Assurance Program (VAP) area soon after the chemical burn-off. Our CV looked at five different fact patterns with over 1,000 online survey responses. Overall, we found that residential sales prices in the VAP were down approximately 14% after the release event, compared with control properties. Additionally, results showed that impacted properties remained approximately 25% longer on the market than the control homes; this paper is among the first to show that days on market are impacted by a contamination event.

  PublisherDOI

Recent grants

• NIH Grant R01MH061372

  NIH · $1.5M · 2005

• NIH Grant R01NS041428

  NIH · $1.3M · 2008

• NIH Grant R01NS058758

  NIH · $1.4M · 2012

• NIH Grant R01NS019950

  NIH · $6.4M · 2014

• NIH Grant R01MH063773

  NIH · $650k · 2006

Frequent coauthors

• Walter R. Boot

  Cornell University

  32 shared

• Christopher F. Chabris

  24 shared

• George E. Carvell

  University of Pittsburgh

  19 shared

• Arthur F. Kramer

  18 shared

• Alex O. Holcombe

  University of Sydney

  16 shared

• Daniel T. Levin

  Vanderbilt University

  15 shared

• Katherine Wood

  Bentley University

  15 shared

• Cary Stothart

  U.S. Army Research Institute for the Behavioral and Social Sciences

  14 shared

Education

• Ph.D., Psychology

  Cornell University

  1997

• graduate student, Psychology

  Harvard University

  1992

• B.A., Psychology

  Carleton College

  1991