Comics and graphic novels have made a greater impact on popular culture in recent years and can be used for enhancing the learning experience of psychology students. One of the best known and respected comic book writers of the last 30 years is Alan Moore, who has included a number of detailed references to psychological studies and experiments in…

Signal detection theory forms the core of many current models of cognition, including memory, choice, and categorization. However, the classic signal detection model presumes the a priori existence of fixed stimulus representations--usually Gaussian distributions--even when the observer has no experience with the task. Furthermore, the classic…

An experienced cello soloist recorded her practice as she learned and memorized the Prelude from J.S. Bach's Suite No. 6 for solo cello and gave 10 public performances over a period of more than three years. She described the musical structure, decisions about basic technique (e.g., bowing), interpretation (e.g., dynamics), and five kinds of…

Christian N. L. Olivers, winner of the Award for Distinguished Scientific Early Career Contributions to Psychology, is cited for outstanding research on visual attention and working memory. Olivers uses classic experimental designs in an innovative and sophisticated way to determine underlying mechanisms. He has formulated important theoretical…

Discusses laws and general characteristics of normal memory, specifying how exceptional memory feats deviate from and contradict them. Also discusses research in support of the assertion that normal memory structure is sufficient to explain exceptional memory feats, if differences in practice and prior experiences are taken into account.…

S. Ghetti (2008) and M. L. Howe (2008) presented probative ideas for future research that will deepen scientific understanding of developmental reversals on false memory and establish boundary conditions for these counterintuitive patterns. Ghetti extended the purview of current theoretical principles by formulating hypotheses about how…

Provides comments on research studies related to memory systems, considering those exploring the nature of memory traces. One researcher suggests that memory trace circuits are extremely localized (as opposed to being diffuse), such that a lesion in a rabbit's brain can completely destroy the trace for a particular learned response. (JN)

The production of complex sequences like music or speech requires the rapid and temporally precise production of events (e.g., notes and chords), often at fast rates. Memory retrieval in these circumstances may rely on the simultaneous activation of both the current event and the surrounding context (Lashley, 1951). We describe an extension to a…

When students ask for a study advice, many professors would say something like this: "Read carefully. Write down unfamiliar terms and look up their meanings. Make an outline. Reread each chapter." That's not terrible advice. Some scientists would say that professors left out the most important step: "Put the book aside and hide the notes. Then…

This paper examines the cognitive processes associated with higher-order thinking strategies--i.e., cognitive processes directly associated with the employment of knowledge in the service of problem solving and creativity--in order to more clearly define a prescribed instructional method to improve problem-solving skills. The first section of the…

Discusses current research (including that involving amnesiacs and snails) into the nature of the memory process, differentiating between and providing examples of "fact" memory and "skill" memory. Suggests that three brain parts (thalamus, fornix, mammilary body) are involved in the memory process. (JN)

In the remember-know paradigm for studying recognition memory, participants distinguish items whose presentations are episodically remembered from those that are merely familiar. A one-dimensional model postulates that remember responses are just high-confidence old judgments, but a meta-analysis of 373 experiments shows that the receiver…

Our research on learning enhancement has been focusing on the consequences for learning and forgetting of some of the more obvious and concrete choices that arise in instruction, including: How does spacing of practice affect retention of information over significant retention intervals (up to two years)? Do spacing effects generalize beyond…

E. Hirshman, J. Fisher, T. Henthom, J. Amdt, and A. Passanname (2002) found that Midazolam disrupts the mirror-patterned word-frequency effect for recognition memory by reversing the typical hit-rate advantage for low-frequency words. They noted that this result is consistent with dual-process accounts (e.g., R. C. Atkinson & J. F. Juola, 1974; G.…

Translates Oskar Pfister's 1930 article proposing that persons faced with extreme danger exclude reality from their perceptions and lapse into pleasurable fantasies that constitute a form of psychic protection against the threat of death. Notes that depersonalization takes place and prevents the conscious experience of fear. (Author/RC)