M.A. and Ph.D., Psychology,
Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences at Duke University
Advisor David Rubin Committee Kevin LaBar, Roberto Cabeza, and Tim Strauman
B.A. Biopsychology
and Cognitive Science,
University of Michigan,
Advisor Bob
Belli
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Research
My primary research focus is on how we remember events that are experienced in everyday life. Within autobiographical memory, I examine the interactions among what occurred, what is recalled, and how we experience that memory.
How does emotion affect the content and phenomenology of our memories?
I have examined two questions concerning the content of our memories: how accurately do we recall flashbulb memories and how completely do we recall normative emotional experiences? For the former, we demonstrated that memories for hearing of the September 11th terrorist attacks were no more accurate than memories for other, more ordinary events from the preceding weekend, even though we are more confident in our 9/11 memories. For the latter, we've shown that memories of anger and fear are more likely to be tunnel memories, in other words, they include a higher proportion of central details than other emotional memories (e.g. sad, happy, in love). We have also found that everyday emotional experiences are well-described by a vector model of emotion and that emotional intensity is a better predictor of phenomenology than is emotional valence.
Publications
Talarico, J. M. & Rubin, D. C. (2003). Confidence, not consistency, characterizes flashbulb memories. Psychological Science, 14, 455-461. [pdf]
Talarico, J. M., LaBar, K. S., & Rubin, D. C. (2004). Emotional intensity predicts autobiographical memory experience. Memory & Cognition, 32, 1118-1132. [pdf]
Talarico, J. M. & Rubin, D. C. Flashbulb memories are special after all; in phenomenology, not accuracy. under review
Talarico, J. M., Berntsen, D., & Rubin, D. C. Positive emotions enhance recall of peripheral details. under review
Rubin, D. C. & Talarico, J. M. The vector model provides a better fit than the circumplex: Evidence from emotions in semantic and autobiographical memory. under review
Talarico, J. M. An historical review of emotional influences on autobiographical memory. in preparation
Presentations
Talarico, J. M., LaBar, K. S., & Rubin, D. C. (2002, February). Emotion and autobiographical memory. Poster presented at the annual meeting of the North Carolina Cognition Group, Chapel Hill, NC.
Talarico, J. M., LaBar, K. S., & Rubin, D. C. (2003, May). Emotional intensity determines phenomenological properties of autobiographical memories. Poster presented at the annual meeting of the American Psychological Society, Atlanta, GA.
Talarico, J. M. & Rubin, D. C. (2003, July). Confidence, not consistency, characterizes flashbulb memories. In L. R. Shapiro (Chair), Flashbulb memories: Examining recall for tragedy. Symposium conducted at the biannual meeting of the Society for Applied Research in Memory and Cognition, Aberdeen, Scotland.
Talarico, J. M., Berntsen, D., & Rubin, D. C. (2004, February). Autobiographical memory details of emotional events. Poster presented at the annual meeting of the North Carolina Cognition Group, Raleigh, NC.
Talarico, J. M., Berntsen, D., & Rubin, D. C. (2005, May). Tunnel memories for non-traumatic events: A role for valence and intensity. Poster presented at the annual meeting of the American Psychological Society, Los Angeles, CA.
How is what we remember influenced by how a memory is cued?
The long-term objectives of my research program are to better understand the organization of autobiographical memory by using experimental manipulations of cue properties and empirical comparisons of memory retrieval methods. Within survey design, we found that breaking a question about a large category of behaviors (e.g. dining out) into smaller categories (e.g. Italian restaurant, Chinese restaurants) can lead to less accurate responses if the behaviors occur so frequently that the respondent is likely estimating the number of behaviors. Within basic autobiographical memory research, we recently developed an alternative method of event-cueing that we believe to reduce the strategic recall component and enhance natural, associative cueing of memories. Lastly, we've started testing participants with depression to see if we can reduce the overgeneral memory effect with more concrete cues.
Publications
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. [pdf]
Presentations
Rubin, D. C., Greenberg, D. L., Gülgöz, S., Naka, M., Schrauf, R. W., Siegler, I. C., & Talarico, J. M. (2003, November). Predicting recollection and belief of autobiographical memories. In Autobiographical and event memory. Symposium conducted at the annual meeting of the Psychonomic Society, Vancouver, BC, Canada.
Rice, H. J., Talarico, J. M. & Rubin, D. C. (2005, February). Images of the past: An examination of visual perspective use during autobiographical memory retrieval. Poster presented at the annual meeting of the North Carolina Cognition Group, Winston-Salem, NC.
Talarico, J.M. & Rubin, D. C. (2005, February). How one thing leads to another: Organization of autobiographical memory in unbidden memory chains. Poster presented at the annual meeting of the North Carolina Cognition Group, Winston-Salem, NC.
Talarico, J. M. (2005, November). Event clustering and event chaining: Associations in autobiographical memory. Poster presented at the annual meeting of the Psychonomic Society, Toronto, ON, Canada.
How can the ecological validity of laboratory tasks and the experimental control of real-world stimuli be enhanced to improve our understanding of autobiographical memory?
An underlying theme through all of my work is maximizing the generalizability of experiments while maintaining sufficient control to be confident in the conclusions. I believe that the functions and flexibility of autobiographical memory can be studied under controlled conditions with creativity and strategic collaboration. Furthermore, I believe that examining complex phenomena is an effective and exciting way of understanding basic memory processes.