PROJECTS

Variation in WMC and Memory Control

A number of large scale correlation based studies are planned and/or underway to examine individual differences in WMC and aspects of memory control including resistance to interference, source monitoring, strategic search, and organization at encoding. These studies combine experimental and differential psychology in order to determine how particular experimental manipulations will affect the correlations between multiple ability constructs like WMC and fluid intelligence.

Sub-group Variation in Memory and Attention Processes

A number of studies are underway that will examine the notion that a number of component processes are important for performance on memory and attention tasks and individual deficits can arise from one component or from multiple components. Therefore, these studies focus on the possibility that sub-groups within a large sample of participants exists, and performance by these sub-groups differs due differences in the relative contribution of one component over another. This hypothesis is being tested by having a large number of participants perform a number of well known memory and attention tasks and then looking for distinct performance patterns.

Search and Retrieval Processes in Free Recall

In these studies we are examining the dynamics of recall in a number of free recall paradigms in an attempt to better understand strategic search processes. These studies rely on a joint examination of recall accuracy, recall errors, and recall latency to gain an understanding on the components of retrieval that are required when one is engaged in a strategic search of memory. Many of these studies rely on variations of the random search model.

"If we knew what we were doing, it wouldn't be called research."

Albert Einstein