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Gavin Huntley-Fenner, Ph.D.

Vice President, Human Factors Practice

Forensic Services

Los Angeles / Irvine

Gavin Huntley-Fenner

Background

Dr. Gavin Huntley-Fenner is a nationally recognized expert in human factors and safety whose problem-solving skills and communication style have made him widely sought after as a consultant. Along with providing comprehensive risk analyses for a wide variety of product types, Dr. Huntley-Fenner often serves as an expert witness for matters relating to risk perception, hazard communications, safety and human development, human perception-response time, and decision-making.

With a background of over twenty-five years as a researcher, author, educator and business consultant, Dr. Huntley-Fenner applies the latest findings and research methods in cognitive psychology and related disciplines to real world, often life-and-death, situations. Dr. Huntley-Fenner’s recent consulting and forensic projects have involved diverse products such as consumer electronics, pharmaceuticals, professional products, and medical devices. He has conducted investigations into human behavior in homes, schools, workplace and public roadway settings. He regularly employs a range of tools including literature reviews and incident databases reviews as well as specific human behavioral research methods, such as surveys and human subjects testing.

Prior to focusing full-time as a human factors consultant (HFA 2009-present and Exponent 2004-2009), Dr. Huntley-Fenner was a business consultant at McKinsey & Company (2001-2003). He began his professional career as an Assistant Professor at the University of California, Irvine (1996-2001), where his National Science Foundation-supported research focused on problem solving, language processing and language development, cognitive development, and normal and abnormal brain development. Today, as principal consultant at Huntley-Fenner Advisers, Dr. Huntley-Fenner provides to all his clients cutting-edge scientific, psychological and real-world expertise.

Education and Certifications

  • Ph.D., Brain and Cognitive Sciences, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 1995
  • B.A., Cognitive Sciences, Vassar College (with honors), 1990
  • Phi Beta Kappa
  • National Science Foundation Post-Doctoral Scholar (1995–1996)

Publications

Peer-Reviewed Publications 

  • Kerger B. D., Bernal A, Paustenbach D. J., Huntley-Fenner G. (2016). Halo and spillover effect illustrations for selected beneficial medical devices and drugs. BMC Public Health, 16(1), 979.
  • Huntley-Fenner G. Human Factors. In Communicating Risks and Benefits: An Evidence-Based User’s Guide. B. Fischoff, N.T. Brewer and J.S. Downs (Eds). Washington DC: United States Food and Drug Administration, 2011.
  • Huntley-Fenner G, Harley E, Trachtman D, Young D. ANSI Z535.6 and conspicuity: A test of the new state of the art format for instructional manuals. Proc Human Factors Ergon Soc 2007; 51:1029−1033.
  • Huntley-Fenner G. Warnings and pedestrian behavior: A case study of unintended effects. Proc Human Factors Ergon Soc 2006; 50:2202−2206.
  • Huntley-Fenner G, Arndt S, Sanders K. Case study: Pedestrian behavior at grade crossings. Proceedings of the International Conference on Industrial Engineering and Practice, 2005; 10:69−73.
  • Young D, Huntley-Fenner G, Trachtman D, Krauss D. Human performance issues in auditory collision-avoidance systems. Proceedings of the International Conference on Industrial Engineering and Practice, 2005; 10:64−68.
  • Huntley-Fenner G, Carey S, Solimando A. Objects are individuals but stuff doesn’t count: Perceived rigidity and cohesiveness influence infants’ representations of small groups of discrete entities. Cognition 2002; 85(3):203−221.
  • Uller C, Carey S, Huntley-Fenner G, Klatt L. What representations might underlie infants’ numerical knowledge? Cognitive Develop 2001; 14:1−26.
  • Huntley-Fenner G. Children’s understanding of number is similar to adults’ and rats’: Numerical estimation by 5- to7-year-olds. Cognition 2001; 78(3):B27−40.
  • Huntley-Fenner G. Why count stuff?: Young preschoolers do not use number for measurement in continuous dimensions. Develop Sci 2001; 4(4):456−462.
  • Huntley-Fenner G, Cannon E. Preschoolers’ magnitude comparisons are mediated by a preverbal analog mechanism. Psychol Sci 2000; 11(2):147−152.
  • Huntley-Fenner G. The effect of the whole object bias on preschoolers’ understanding of collective nouns. Proc 27th Child Language Research Forum 1995; 27:145−155.

Peer-Reviewed Published Abstracts

  • Bernal A, Huntley-Fenner G, Kerger B and Paustenbach D. Risk Communication and Perceptions for Highly Beneficial Medical Devices and Pharmaceuticals with Limited Scientific Evidence for Adverse Consequences. 54th Annual Meeting of the Society of Toxicology, San Diego, CA. March 22-26, 2015.
  • Huntley-Fenner G, Munro M. Could we have seen it coming?: On the prospect of mining online consumer review data in order to forecast product safety issues. American Marketing Association Marketing and Public Policy Conference. Washington, DC May 28-30, 2009.
  • Huntley-Fenner G, Wood CT, Sala JB. Study of the impact of California’s Proposition 65 warnings on safety related awareness and behaviors. Society for Risk Analysis Proceedings Abstracts, San Antonio TX, December 9–12, 2007.
  • Babb K, Gage N, Perales O, Huntley-Fenner G, Hickok G. Tonal, verbal, and spatial memory span in Williams syndrome. Cognitive Neuroscience Society Abstracts 1998; 5:79.
  • Huntley-Fenner G, Duclos A, Iliescu A, Babb K, Gage N, Hickok G, Perales O. Knowledge of count/mass syntax in Williams syndrome. Cognitive Neuroscience Society Abstracts 1998; 5:80.
  • Gage N, Huntley-Fenner G, Hickok G. Grammatical competence in Williams syndrome. Cognitive Neuroscience Society Abstracts 1998; 5:81.
  • Huntley-Fenner G, Xu F. Further evidence for infants’ numerical competence. Infant Behavior and Development 1998; 21:216.
  • Huntley-Fenner G, Hanson D. Evidence for the anticipation of material kind in infants’ reaching for objects and portions of sand. Infant Behavior and Development 1998; 21:476.
  • Huntley-Fenner G. The quantification of portions of nonsolid substances. Infant Behavior and Development 1996; 19(1):522.

Selected Other Publications including Op Eds

  • Bond K., Huntley-Fenner G, Rägo L, Opinion: For medicine regulators, reliance is a global imperative, STAT, February 27, 2020. https://www.statnews.com/2020/02/27/medicine-regulators-reliance-global-imperative/
  • Huntley-Fenner G. Op Ed: Ebola lapses show lab safety protocols should factor in human error, Los Angeles Times, January 2, 2015. https://www.latimes.com/opinion/op-ed/la-oe-huntley-disease-lab-safety-20150102-story.html
  • Huntley-Fenner G. How will the Searchable Consumer Product Safety Incident Database Improve Product Safety? Analysis and Perspective, Product Safety and Liability Reporter (Bureau of National Affairs). November 9, 2009.
  • Huntley-Fenner G. A Human Factors perspective on summer safety. Industrial Heating – International Journal of Thermal Technology. July 2008. Vol. 75, Iss. 7; p. 22.
  • Huntley-Fenner G. Letter to the Editor: Autism and rainfall hypothesis. Wall Street Journal, March 9, 2007.
  • Huntley-Fenner G. We have obligations to speak up. Irvine World News Op-Ed, September 15, 2005.

Committees

  • American Psychological Association
  • American Railway Engineering and Maintenance-of-Way Association (Technical Committee 36, Highway-Rail Grade Crossing Warning Systems)
  • Association for Psychological Science
  • ASTM Committee Member: E34 Occupational Health and Safety and F15 Consumer Products
  • Human Factors and Ergonomics Society
  • International Consumer Product Health and Safety Organization

Contact Information

Phone

+1 949 682 9887

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