University of California, San Diego
The Department of Psychology is Honored
to Present a Talk by
William Banks
Pomona College
"Recognition memory as a perceptual event: a multidimensional analysis"
Presented on December 11, 2003
Location: The Crick Conference Room
Mandler Hall, room 3545
- Abstract:
- Memory strength has traditionally been treated as a unidmensional quantity.
I will report some results from a research project that treats memory as a
multidimensional quantity. This work shows that excellent predictions can
be made under multidimensional assumptions, and many paradigms, such as
false fame and exclusion testing, can be given intuitive and powerful
representations. Furthermore, the relationship betwen source and item
memory (old vs. new discrimination) has a simple and elegant representation
that allows precise predictions. The presentation will show how to generate
and use a multidimensional memory representation. The method is applied to a
number of topics, including source memory, face recognition, false fame, and
effects of learning under subliminal or attention-diverted conditions. It
would appear that recognition memory can be analyzed with the same tools,
such as General Recognition Theory, used for other domains of perception,
and with a precision and power not normally assumed possible in the field of
memory.
- About the Speaker:
- My primary research involves several areas of cognitive psychology. One topic is how unconscious processes operate in such everyday acts of cognition as remembering and orienting one's attention. In my research I try to find ways of measuring the conscious and unconscious components of these acts, and I try to measure some of the consequences of acquiring information unconsciously. Another area of interest is cultural variables in cognition. I have a grant from the Fetzer Foundation to study differences between members of Western and of Confucian-influenced societies in such matters as determining the blame for actions and defining the boundary of one's self. I have an abiding interest, but more teaching than research activity, in the question of why people can do evil to others. I have mainly been concerned with such events as the Nazi holocaust, the massacres in Rwanda, and ethnic cleansings from the American West to Yugoslavia.
For More Information About This Speaker:
- http://psych.pomona.edu/DrBanksWebPage/index.html
Dr. Banks' webpage.
