Mark A. McDaniel

Last updated
Mark A. McDaniel
BornDecember 4, 1952 (1952-12-04) (age 71)
West Lafayette, IN
Known forStudies of human memory, Educational Psychology
Scientific career
Fields Psychology, Cognitive
Institutions Washington University in St. Louis

Mark A. McDaniel (born December 4, 1952) is an American psychology researcher in the area of human learning and memory. He is one of the most influential researchers in prospective memory, but also well known for other basic research in memory and learning, cognitive aging, as well as applying cognitive psychology to education. McDaniel has published over 100 peer-reviewed articles, book chapters, and edited books. His research in memory and cognition has received over two million dollars in grant support from NIH and NASA. [1]

Contents

Biography

Born in West Lafayette, IN and raised in Lexington, KY, McDaniel attained his undergraduate degree from Oberlin College, graduating with a Bachelor of Arts in Mathematics and Psychology in 1974. He completed his graduate study at University of Colorado, Boulder, receiving his MA in 1978 with a dissertation titled “Memory for the Meaning and Surface Structure of Sentences as a Function of Processing Difficulty” and his PhD in 1980 with a dissertation titled "Bottom-up and top-down acquisition of expertise on river crossing problems: A study of knowledge acquisition". After working at Bell Laboratory as a technical staff (1980-1981), he joined the faculty at University of Notre Dame (1981–1987), then Purdue University (1987–1994) and University of New Mexico (1994-2004; Chair of the Department of Psychology, 2002–2004). He has been a professor of psychology at Washington University in St. Louis since 2004. He has also been a visiting scholar at University of Basel (1990), University of Padova (1990), and University of Arizona (1993–1994). [2] He has received numerous academic awards, published widely, and served as consulting and associated editor for ten scholarly journals. He is co-founder and co-director of The Center for Integrative Research on Cognition, Learning, and Education (CIRCLE). [3]

Elections, honors, and awards

McDaniel has been elected as a Fellow of multiple national and international organizations, and he has also received a number of honors and awards. Selected honors are listed below:

YearAward
1996 – 1997President of the Rocky Mountain Psychological Association
2003Fellow of the American Psychological Association, Division 3
2007Fellow of the Association for Psychological Science
2008Fellow of the Society of Experimental Psychologists
2012 – 2013President of the American Psychological Association, Division 3

Prospective memory

Prospective memory is memory for performing intended actions in the future. For decades, researchers studied prospective memory outside of the laboratory by having participants phone an experimenter on a certain date or remember to mail a postcard to the experimenter. [4] McDaniel, along with his colleague Gil Einstein, are credited with developing one of the earliest, and since then the most frequently used, laboratory measure of prospective memory. [5] In addition to developing the standard laboratory measure of prospective memory, McDaniel has made several contributions to the understanding of the processes underlying successful prospective memory retrieval. His Multiprocess Framework contends that individuals can consciously maintain prospective memory intentions and monitor for retrieval cues, or they may rely on cue-driven spontaneous retrieval processes. [6] The efficacy of monitoring and spontaneous retrieval processes is assumed to depend on the quality of encoding, the quality of the retrieval cue, and the overlap between encoding and retrieval conditions (termed cue focality). [7] McDaniel has further distinguished the neural bases of these retrieval processes by using functional magnetic resonance imaging to illustrate that monitoring is supported by sustained anterior prefrontal cortex activation, whereas spontaneous retrieval is not. [8] An important prediction of McDaniel's Multiprocess Framework is that aging impacts prefrontal-cortex-dependent monitoring processes, but not spontaneous retrieval processes that are assumed to be more automatic. [9] The nature of age-related changes in prospective memory continues to be debated by the field, but research findings are consistent in showing that monitoring declines with aging [10] and spontaneous retrieval appears to remain relatively intact in older adults. [11] (see also Prospective memory)

Cognition and education

McDaniel has also been an influential proponent of applying principles of cognitive psychology to enhance educational practices. [12] Specifically, his work has focused on the benefits of testing, [13] question generation, [14] and rereading. [15] Furthermore, he has published papers on the importance of differentiating between rule and exemplar learners for function and category learning. [16] McDaniel has also attempted to bridge the gap between laboratory studies and the classroom by examining these cognitive phenomena in authentic classrooms ranging from middle school [17] to college contexts. [18] Additionally, McDaniel co-authored the book, Make it Stick, with Peter C. Brown and Henry L. Roediger III which synthesizes cognitive principles discussed above to help learners of all ages to improve their learning. [19]

Related Research Articles

Recall in memory refers to the mental process of retrieval of information from the past. Along with encoding and storage, it is one of the three core processes of memory. There are three main types of recall: free recall, cued recall and serial recall. Psychologists test these forms of recall as a way to study the memory processes of humans and animals. Two main theories of the process of recall are the two-stage theory and the theory of encoding specificity.

The interference theory is a theory regarding human memory. Interference occurs in learning. The notion is that memories encoded in long-term memory (LTM) are forgotten and cannot be retrieved into short-term memory (STM) because either memory could interfere with the other. There is an immense number of encoded memories within the storage of LTM. The challenge for memory retrieval is recalling the specific memory and working in the temporary workspace provided in STM. Retaining information regarding the relevant time of encoding memories into LTM influences interference strength. There are two types of interference effects: proactive and retroactive interference.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Picture superiority effect</span> Psychological phenomenon

The picture superiority effect refers to the phenomenon in which pictures and images are more likely to be remembered than are words. This effect has been demonstrated in numerous experiments using different methods. It is based on the notion that "human memory is extremely sensitive to the symbolic modality of presentation of event information". Explanations for the picture superiority effect are not concrete and are still being debated, however an evolutionary explanation is that sight has a long history stretching back millions of years and was crucial to survival in the past, whereas reading is a relatively recent invention, and requires specific cognitive processes, such as decoding symbols and linking them to meaning.

The spacing effect demonstrates that learning is more effective when study sessions are spaced out. This effect shows that more information is encoded into long-term memory by spaced study sessions, also known as spaced repetition or spaced presentation, than by massed presentation ("cramming").

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Testing effect</span> Memory effect in educational psychology

The testing effect suggests long-term memory is increased when part of the learning period is devoted to retrieving information from memory. It is different from the more general practice effect, defined in the APA Dictionary of Psychology as "any change or improvement that results from practice or repetition of task items or activities."

Prospective memory is a form of memory that involves remembering to perform a planned action or recall a planned intention at some future point in time. Prospective memory tasks are common in daily life and range from the relatively simple to extreme life-or-death situations. Examples of simple tasks include remembering to put the toothpaste cap back on, remembering to reply to an email, or remembering to return a rented movie. Examples of highly important situations include a patient remembering to take medication or a pilot remembering to perform specific safety procedures during a flight.

Memory has the ability to encode, store and recall information. Memories give an organism the capability to learn and adapt from previous experiences as well as build relationships. Encoding allows a perceived item of use or interest to be converted into a construct that can be stored within the brain and recalled later from long-term memory. Working memory stores information for immediate use or manipulation, which is aided through hooking onto previously archived items already present in the long-term memory of an individual.

In psychology, memory inhibition is the ability not to remember irrelevant information. The scientific concept of memory inhibition should not be confused with everyday uses of the word "inhibition". Scientifically speaking, memory inhibition is a type of cognitive inhibition, which is the stopping or overriding of a mental process, in whole or in part, with or without intention.

The generation effect is a phenomenon whereby information is better remembered if it is generated from one's own mind rather than simply read. Researchers have struggled to account for why the generated information is better recalled than read information, but no single explanation has been sufficient to explain everything.

Géry van Outryve d'Ydewalle is a Belgian scientist. He was professor in psychology with memory and cognition as main topics. He was head of the Laboratory of experimental psychology at the Katholieke Universiteit Leuven (Leuven) until 2012. He worked for some time with Professor William Kaye Estes at Rockefeller University (N.Y.) and lectured at the London School of Economics. In 1992, he was awarded the Francqui Prize on Human Sciences and was elected member of the Royal Flemish Academy of Belgium for Science and the Arts. From 1980 till 2004 he was successively member, Deputy Secretary-General (1984), Secretary-General (1992) and President (1996) of the International Union of Psychological Science. He has been elected as permanent secretary of the Royal Flemish Academy in succession to professor Niceas Schamp, as of 1 September 2010. Géry van Outryve d'Ydewalle has been active as a musician (traverso) in several chamber orchestras. He is the fifth of six children of Baron Pierre van Outryve d'Ydewalle, governor of West-Flanders from 1944 to 1979.

A source-monitoring error is a type of memory error where the source of a memory is incorrectly attributed to some specific recollected experience. For example, individuals may learn about a current event from a friend, but later report having learned about it on the local news, thus reflecting an incorrect source attribution. This error occurs when normal perceptual and reflective processes are disrupted, either by limited encoding of source information or by disruption to the judgment processes used in source-monitoring. Depression, high stress levels and damage to relevant brain areas are examples of factors that can cause such disruption and hence source-monitoring errors.

Richard Shiffrin is an American psychologist, professor of cognitive science in the Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences at Indiana University, Bloomington. Shiffrin has contributed a number of theories of attention and memory to the field of psychology. He co-authored the Atkinson–Shiffrin model of memory in 1968 with Richard Atkinson, who was his academic adviser at the time. In 1977, he published a theory of attention with Walter Schneider. With Jeroen G.W. Raaijmakers in 1980, Shiffrin published the Search of Associative Memory (SAM) model, which has served as the standard model of recall for cognitive psychologists well into the 2000s. He extended the SAM model with the Retrieving Effectively From Memory (REM) model in 1997 with Mark Steyvers.

Henry L. "Roddy" Roediger III is an American psychology researcher in the area of human learning and memory. He rose to prominence for his work on the psychological aspects of false memories.

Metamemory or Socratic awareness, a type of metacognition, is both the introspective knowledge of one's own memory capabilities and the processes involved in memory self-monitoring. This self-awareness of memory has important implications for how people learn and use memories. When studying, for example, students make judgments of whether they have successfully learned the assigned material and use these decisions, known as "judgments of learning", to allocate study time.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Childhood memory</span> Early life experiences often memorable for life

Childhood memory refers to memories formed during childhood. Among its other roles, memory functions to guide present behaviour and to predict future outcomes. Memory in childhood is qualitatively and quantitatively different from the memories formed and retrieved in late adolescence and the adult years. Childhood memory research is relatively recent in relation to the study of other types of cognitive processes underpinning behaviour. Understanding the mechanisms by which memories in childhood are encoded and later retrieved has important implications in many areas. Research into childhood memory includes topics such as childhood memory formation and retrieval mechanisms in relation to those in adults, controversies surrounding infantile amnesia and the fact that adults have relatively poor memories of early childhood, the ways in which school environment and family environment influence memory, and the ways in which memory can be improved in childhood to improve overall cognition, performance in school, and well-being, both in childhood and in adulthood.

The Deese–Roediger–McDermott (DRM) paradigm is a procedure in cognitive psychology used to study false memory in humans. The procedure was pioneered by James Deese in 1959, but it was not until Henry L. Roediger III and Kathleen McDermott extended the line of research in 1995 that the paradigm became popular. The procedure typically involves the oral presentation of a list of related words and then requires the subject to remember as many words from the list as possible. Typical results show that subjects recall a related but absent word, known as a 'lure', with the same frequency as other presented words. When asked about their experience after the test, about half of all participants report that they are sure that they remember hearing the lure, indicating a false memory – a memory for an event that never occurred.

In psychology, confabulation is a memory error consisting of the production of fabricated, distorted, or misinterpreted memories about oneself or the world. It is generally associated with certain types of brain damage or a specific subset of dementias. While still an area of ongoing research, the basal forebrain is implicated in the phenomenon of confabulation. People who confabulate present with incorrect memories ranging from subtle inaccuracies to surreal fabrications, and may include confusion or distortion in the temporal framing of memories. In general, they are very confident about their recollections, even when challenged with contradictory evidence.

Retrieval-induced forgetting (RIF) is a memory phenomenon where remembering causes forgetting of other information in memory. The phenomenon was first demonstrated in 1994, although the concept of RIF has been previously discussed in the context of retrieval inhibition.

Time-based prospective memory is a type of prospective memory in which remembrance is triggered by a time-related cue that indicates that a given action needs to be performed. An example is remembering to watch a television program at 3 p.m. In contrast to time-based prospective memory, event-based prospective memory is triggered by an environmental cue that indicates that an action needs to be performed. An example is remembering to send a letter after seeing a mailbox. While event-based memory is dependent on the environment, time-based prospective memory is self-initiated; one must specifically monitor the passage of time.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Larry L. Jacoby</span> American cognitive psychologist

Larry L. Jacoby was an American cognitive psychologist specializing in research on human memory. He was particularly known for his work on the interplay of consciously controlled versus more automatic influences of memory.

References

  1. ↑ "McDaniel, Mark". 6 January 2022.
  2. ↑ "Archived copy" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 2014-10-06. Retrieved 2014-10-02.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
  3. ↑ "Home | CIRCLE | Washington University in St. Louis". Archived from the original on 2014-11-29. Retrieved 2014-11-22.
  4. ↑ Loftus, E. F. (1971). Memory for intentions: The effect of presence of a cue and interpolated activity. Psychonomic Science, 23(4), 315-316.
  5. ↑ Einstein, G. O., & McDaniel, M. A. (1990). Normal aging and prospective memory. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition, 16(4), 717-726.
  6. ↑ McDaniel, M. A., & Einstein, G. O. (2000). Strategic and automatic processes in prospective memory retrieval: A multiprocess framework. Applied cognitive psychology, 14(7), S127-S144.
  7. ↑ Scullin, M. K., McDaniel, M. A., & Einstein, G. O. (2010). Control of cost in prospective memory: Evidence for spontaneous retrieval processes. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition, 36(1), 190-203.
  8. ↑ McDaniel, M. A., LaMontagne, P., Beck, S. M., Scullin, M. K., & Braver, T. S. (2013). Dissociable neural routes to successful prospective memory. Psychological science, 24(9), 1791-1800.
  9. ↑ McDaniel, M. A., & Einstein, G. O. (2007). Prospective memory: An overview and synthesis of an emerging field. Sage Publications.
  10. ↑ Kliegel, M., Jäger, T., & Phillips, L. H. (2008). Adult age differences in event-based prospective memory: A meta-analysis on the role of focal versus nonfocal cues. Psychology and aging, 23(1), 203-208.
  11. ↑ Mullet, H. G., Scullin, M. K., Hess, T. J., Scullin, R. B., Arnold, K. M., & Einstein, G. O. (2013). Prospective memory and aging: Evidence for preserved spontaneous retrieval with exact but not related cues. Psychology and aging, 28(4), 910-922.
  12. ↑ McDaniel, M. A., Roediger, H. L., & McDermott, K. B. (2007). Generalizing test-enhanced learning from the laboratory to the classroom. Psychonomic Bulletin & Review, 14(2), 200-206.
  13. ↑ McDaniel, M. A., Howard, D. C., & Einstein, G. O. (2009). The Read-Recite-Review Study Strategy Effective and Portable. Psychological Science, 20(4), 516-522.
  14. ↑ Bugg, J. M., & McDaniel, M. A. (2012). Selective benefits of question self-generation and answering for remembering expository text. Journal of educational psychology, 104(4), 922.
  15. ↑ Callender, A. A., & McDaniel, M. A. (2009). The limited benefits of rereading educational texts. Contemporary Educational Psychology, 34(1), 30-41.
  16. ↑ McDaniel, M. A., Cahill, M. J., Robbins, M., & Wiener, C. (2014). Individual differences in learning and transfer: Stable tendencies for learning exemplars versus abstracting rules. Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, 143(2), 668.
  17. ↑ McDaniel, M. A., Thomas, R. C., Agarwal, P. K., McDermott, K. B., & Roediger, H. L. (2013). Quizzing in Middle‐School Science: Successful Transfer Performance on Classroom Exams. Applied Cognitive Psychology, 27(3), 360-372.
  18. ↑ McDaniel, M. A., Wildman, K. M., & Anderson, J. L. (2012). Using quizzes to enhance summative-assessment performance in a web-based class: An experimental study. Journal of Applied Research in Memory and Cognition, 1(1), 18-26.
  19. ↑ http://makeitstick.net/
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