David C Rubin, Juanita M. Kreps Professor of Psychology and Neuroscience

David C Rubin

Juanita M. Kreps Professor of Psychology and Neuroscience
PhD, Harvard University, 1974
mailing address: 221 Soc-Psych Durham, NC 27708
email:
phone: (919) 660-5732

research interests | publications | lab web site | curriculum vita

Research Summary:
 My main research interest has been in long-term memory, especially for complex (or "real-world") stimuli. This work includes the study of autobiographical memory and oral traditions, as well as prose. I have also studied memory as it is more commonly done in experimental psychology laboratories using lists. In addition to this purely behavioral research, which I plan to continue, I work on memory in clinical populations with the aid of a National Institute of Mental Health grant to study PTSD and on the underlying neural basis of memory the aid of a National Institute of Aging grant to study autobiographical memory using fMRI.

Representative Publications:   (More Publications)

  1. D.C. Rubin (1995). Memory in oral traditions: The cognitive psychology of epic, ballads, and counting-out rhymes.. New York; Oxford University Press.  (Awarded the American Association of Publishers' Best New Professional/Scholarly Book in Psychology for 1995 and William James Award from American Psychological Association. Paperback edition, 1997.)
  2. (1996). Remembering our past: Studies in autobiographical memory.. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.  (Paperback edition.)
  3. (2005). Cognitive Methods and their Application to Clinical Research.. Washington, D.C.: American Psychological Association Press.  (Amy Wenzel did her honors thesis with me. She is now a clinical psychologist and assistant professor.)
  4. Rubin, D.C. & Berntsen, D., & Bohni, M.K. (2008). A memory-based model of posttraumatic stress disorder: Evaluating basic assumptions underlying the PTSD diagnosis. Psychological Review, 115, 985-1011.
  5. D.C. Rubin, Boals, A., & Berntsen, D. (2008). Memory in Posttraumatic Stress Disorder: Properties of voluntary and involuntary, traumatic and non-traumatic autobiographical memories in people with and without PTSD symptoms. Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, 137, 591-614.
  6. Rubin, D. C. (2006). The Basic-Systems Model of Episodic Memory. Perspectives on Psychological Science, 1, 277-311.
  7. Daselaar, S.M., Rice, H.J., Greenberg, D.L., Cabeza, R., LaBar, K.S., & Rubin, D.C. (2008). The spatiotemporal dynamics of autobiographical memory: Neural correlates of recall, emotional intensity, and reliving. Cerebral Cortex, 18, 217-229.
  8. Berntsen, D., & Rubin, D.C. (2006). The centrality of event scale: A measure of integrating a trauma into one’s identity and its relation to post-traumatic stress disorder symptoms. Behaviour Research and Therapy, 44, 219-231.
  9. Talarico, J.M. & Rubin, D.C. (2003). Confidence, not Consistency, Characterizes Flashbulb Memories. Psychological Science, 14, 455-461.
  10. Rubin, D.C. & Greenberg, D.L. (1998). Visual memory deficit amnesia: A distinct amnesic presentation and etiology. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 95, 5413-5416.
  11. Skotko, B.G., Rubin, D.C., & Tupler, L.A. (2008). H.M.’s Personal Crossword Puzzles: Understanding Memory and Language. Memory, 16, 89-96.