Jennifer M Talarico, Graduate Student    Edit

Research Summary:
My research interests center around autobiographical memory, but involve three distinct areas. I am interested in how emotion affects the content and phenomenology of autobiographical memories, how what we remember is influenced by how our memories are brought to mind, and how the ecological validity of laboratory tasks and the experimental control of real-world stimuli can be enhanced to improve our understanding of autobiographical memory. For example, I have investigated how memories are unconsciously cued by the surrounding environment and how internal cognitive processes can cue memory, what characteristics of real-life events predict greater free recall occurrence and accuracy, and how emotional valence and intensity affect the properties of normative autobiographical memories as well as how emotion affects confidence and accuracy of memories for unexpected, emotional events, so-called "flashbulb" memories. In the past, I have also been involved in studies of cue efficacy in survey methodology.

Representative Publications:   (More Publications)   (search)

1. Talarico, J. M., LaBar, K. S., & Rubin, D. C. (2004). Emotional intensity predicts autobiographical memory experience.. Memory & Cognition.
2. Talarico, J. M. & Rubin, D. C. (2003). Confidence, not consistency, characterizes flashbulb memories. Psychological Science, 14, 455-461.
3. Belli, R. F., Schwarz, N., Singer, E. & Talarico, J. (2000). Decomposition can harm the accuracy of behavioral frequency reports.. Applied Cognitive Psychology, 14, 295-308.

Typical Courses Taught::

• Psy 11, Introductory psychology

• Psy 101, Res meth psychol science