CAREER: Familiarity-based recognition

Colorado State University, Fort Collins CO

Investigators

Abstract

You turn to look at the stranger and suddenly you're sure; you have seen her before and been here before. Nearly everyone has had the feeling of deja vu but from where does that feeling come? How can someone know that they know something without being able to recall how they know it? Dr. Anne Cleary's research is aimed at understanding what features of a situation produce this feeling of familiarity. Her research focuses on a newly discovered and controversial phenomenon called recognition without identification: This is the ability to recognize fragments of information as part of earlier experienced events, but which event is not reliably matched to the information. With a CAREER award from NSF, Dr. Cleary will implement a five-year study of familiarity-based recognition. She will address such questions as: What features of an experience give rise to later feelings of familiarity? And, what aspects of mind underlie the subjective sense of familiarity? Broader impacts of Dr. Cleary's career plan stem from its educational impacts. A major educational goal is to improve teaching of psychology through the use of NSF funded innovative classroom technology. This technology allows students to respond to questions on wireless remote keypads then view collective responses on a screen. The technology actively engages students in demonstrations of known findings, and in the methods used by experimental psychologists. Some qualified undergraduates will be invited to work in Dr. Cleary's lab. In particular, Dr. Cleary will provide mentorship and financial support for students from traditionally underrepresented groups in university-wide mentoring programs, such as the Iowa State Undergraduate Summer Internship Program for Women in Science and Engineering.Financial. This support and NSF support will allow students to travel to research conferences where they will present research findings