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Anne Cleary

Professor

Programs: Cognitive Psychology

Office: Behavioral Sciences Building 243

Phone: 9704917701

Education:

  • Ph.D., Case Western Reserve University, 2001

Website: https://psychlabs.colostate.edu/human-memory

Curriculum Vitae: View Curriculum Vitae

About

Area of Specialization: Human memory, retrieval failure, residual memory during retrieval failure, subjective experiences of memory, deja vu, tip-of-the-tongue experiences

Teaching Courses: Cognitive Psychology (PSY 452), Science of Learning (PSY 152)

Current Research: I study human memory. Human memory is far from perfect. Very often, it seems to fail us. We attempt to retrieve something from memory and fail to do so. In short, retrieval from memory sometimes (maybe even often) fails. My primary research interest is in residual memory during retrieval failure. That is, in what ways can people still display evidence of having some memory despite exhibiting a retrieval failure? For example, coming across a street sign with the name “Marston” may give you a sense that it reminds you of something, even if you cannot retrieve what that something is. One branch of my research attempts to identify what features of an item or situation can lead to a sense of recognition during retrieval failure. For example, do geometric shapes contribute to the sense of recognition with pictures and objects? Do phonemes contribute to the sense of recognition with spoken words? Can rhythm contribute to the sense of recognition with songs? Another branch of my research focuses on subjective experiences that suggest or relate to residual memory during retrieval failure. Among the subjective experiences that I study are: tip-of-the-tongue experiences (when people feel that a word is in memory, but cannot access the word), déjà vu experiences (when people have a feeling of having been someplace or done something before, despite knowing that they have not), and the sense of familiarity.

Lab: Cleary Memory Lab

Lab Location: Behavioral Sciences Building

Lab Description: This laboratory engages in the scientific study of human memory. There are many ways to study human memory. In our laboratory, we conduct experiments aimed at investigating and teasing apart various human memory processes. We examine many aspects of memory, such as how people recognize that something was experienced recently, or what sorts of activities lead memory to be better or worse. In recent years we have focused a lot on residual memory during retrieval failure. A classic example of is when a person recognizes another person’s face as familiar, but cannot recollect the details of when or where the face was seen before. Much of our research attempts to address what features of an event or situation can give rise to a sense of memory during retrieval failure, and what types of mental processes underlie the sense that something is familiar or the sense that something is in memory during retrieval failure. We also investigate subjective states that relate to the sense that something is in memory when we fail to retrieve it, such as tip-of-the-tongue experiences. Along these same lines, we also investigate subjective states that relate to the sense of familiarity, such as deja vu. Recently, we have been investigating how these types of subjective states during retrieval failure affect decision-making.

Publications

  • “Familiarity from the configuration of objects in 3-dimensional space and its relation to deja vu: A virtual reality investigation” Cleary, A.M., Brown, A.S., Sawyer, B.D., Nomi, J.S., Ajoku, A.C., & Ryals, A.J. Consciousness and Cognition, 21 452-460., 2012
  • “Deja vu: An illusion of prediction.” Cleary, A.M. & Claxton, A.B. Psychological Science, 29 635-644, 2018
  • “Song recognition without identification: When people cannot "name that tune"" but can recognize it as familiar."” Kostic, B. & Cleary, A. M. Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, 138, 146-159., 2009
  • “The tip-of-the-tongue heuristic: How tip-of-the-tongue states confer perceptibility on inaccessible words.” Cleary, A.M. & Claxton, A.B. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory and Cognition, 41, 1533-1539, 2015