Jeffrey Starns

People have an amazing ability to remember specific events. In response to a vague cue (e.g., "Did you travel last summer?"), we can retrieve detailed information in seconds even though it must be isolated from the multitude of other experiences that we could potentially remember. In my research, I test theories of how memory works. I work with theories that are expressed as computational models, which means that anyone can figure out what the theory predicts by solving a set of equations or running a computer program.

I am also interested in failures of memory, especially illusory memories. People sometimes retrieve a compelling memory of an event that did not actually occur; for example, they might swear that they fell off of a horse as a child when this actually happened to one of their siblings. Many of the models that I use assume that illusory memories are an unavoidable "side effect" of the systems and processes that support accurate memory.

Although most of my projects investigate memory, I also explore how people evaluate evidence when they are challenged to make quick decisions. This decision-making work focuses on models that can account for response times as well as accuracy.

Finally, I am currently developing methods for teaching people how to properly update their beliefs when they encounter new information, a process known as Bayesian Reasoning.

2016 / in press

Starns, J. J., & Ksander, J. C. (2016). Item strength influences source confidence and alters source memory zROC slopes. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition, 42, 351-365..

Hicks, J. L., & Starns, J. J. (2016). Successful cuing of gender source memory does not improve location source memory. Memory & Cognition, 44, 650-659.

2015

Starns, J. J., & Olchowski, J. E. (2015). Shifting the criterion is not the difficult part of trial-by-trial criterion shifts in recognition memory. Memory and Cognition, 43, 49-59.

Chen, T., Starns, J. J., and & Rotello, C. M. (2015). A violation of the conditional independence assumption in the two-high-threshold model of recognition memory. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition, 41, 1205-1225.

Hicks, J. L., & Starns, J. J. (2015). Using multidimensional encoding and retrieval contexts to enhance our understanding of stochastic dependence in source memory. In B. H. Ross (Ed.), The psychology of learning and motivation (Vol. 62, pp. 101-140). Academic Press: Elsevier Inc.

2014

Starns, J. J. (2014). Using response time modeling to distinguish memory and decision processes in recognition and source tasks. Memory and Cognition, 42, 1357-1372.

Starns, J. J., & Ratcliff, R. (2014). Validating the unequal-variance assumption in recognition memory using response time distributions instead of ROC functions: A diffusion model analysis. Journal of Memory and Language, 70, 36-52.

Starns, J. J., Rotello, C. M., & Hautus, M. J. (2014). Recognition memory zROC slopes for items with correct versus incorrect source decisions discriminate the dual process and unequal variance signal detection models. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition, 40, 1205-1225.

Hicks, J. L. & Starns, J. J. (2014). Strength cues and blocking at test promote reliable within-list criterion shifts in recognition memory. Memory and Cognition, 42, 742-754.

2013

Starns, J. J., Pazzaglia, A. M., Rotello, C. M., Hautus, M. J., & Macmillan, N. A. (2013). Unequal-strength source zROC slopes reflect criteria placement and not (necessarily) memory processes. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition, 39, 1377-1392.

Ratcliff, R., & Starns, J. J. (2013). Modeling confidence judgments, response times, and multiple choices in decision making: Recognition memory and motion discrimination. Psychological Review, 120, 697-719.

Starns, J. J., & Hicks, J. L. (2013). Internal reinstatement hides cuing effects in source memory tasks. Memory and Cognition, 41, 953-966.

2012

Starns, J. J., Ratliff, R., & White, C. N. (2012). Diffusion model drift rates can be influenced by decision processes: An analysis of the strength-based mirror effect. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition, 38, 1137-1151.

Starns, J. J., Ratcliff, R., & McKoon, G. (2012). Evaluating the unequal-variance and dual-process explanations of zROC slopes with response time data and the diffusion model. Cognitive Psychology, 64, 1-34.

Dube, C., Starns, J. J., Rotello, C. M., & Ratcliff, R. (2012). Beyond ROC curvature: Strength effects and response time data support continuous-evidence models of recognition memory. Journal of Memory and Language, 67, 389-406.

Starns, J. J., White, C. N., & Ratcliff, R. (2012). The strength-based mirror effect in subjective strength ratings: The evidence for differentiation can be produced without differentiation. Memory and Cognition, 40, 1189-1199.

Starns, J. J., & Ratcliff, R. (2012). Age-related differences in diffusion model boundary optimality with both trial-limited and time-limited tasks. Psychonomic Bulletin and Review, 19, 139-145.

Starns, J. J., Rotello, C. M., & Ratcliff, R. (2012). Mixing strong and weak targets provides no evidence against the unequal-variance explanation of zROC slope: A comment on Koen & Yonelinas (2010). Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition, 38, 793-801.

Starns, J. J., Ratcliff, R., & McKoon, G. (2012). Modeling single versus multiple systems in implicit and explicit memory. Trends in Cognitive Sciences, 16, 195-196.

2011

White, C. N., Ratcliff, R., & Starns, J. J. (2011). Diffusion models of the flanker task: Discrete versus gradual attention selection. Cognitive Psychology, 63, 210-238.

2010

Starns, J. J., White, C. N., & Ratcliff, R. (2010). A direct test of the differentiation mechanism: REM, BCDMEM, and the strength-based mirror effect in recognition memory. Journal of Memory and Language, 63, 18-34.

Starns, J. J., & Ratcliff, R. (2010). The effects of aging on the speed/accuracy compromise: Boundary optimality in the diffusion model. Psychology and Aging, 25, 377-390.

2009

Ratclif, R., & Starns, J. J. (2009). Modeling confidence and response time in recognition memory. Psychological Review, 116, 59-83.

2008

Starns, J. J., & Ratcliff, R. (2008). Two dimensions are not better than one: STREAK and the univariate signal detection model of RK performance. Journal of Memory and Language, 59, 169-182.

Starns, J. J., & Hicks, J. L. (2008). Context attributes in memory are bound to item information, but not to one another. Psychonomic Bulletin & Review, 15, 309-314.

Starns, J. J., Hicks, J. L., Brown, N. L., & Martin, B. A. (2008). Source memory for unrecognized items: Predictions from multivariate signal detection theory. Memory & Cognition, 36, 1-8.

Lane, S. M., Roussel, C. C., Starns, J. J., Villa, D., & Alonzo, J. D. (2008). Providing information about diagnostic features at retrieval reduced false recognition. Memory, 16, 836-851.

2007

Starns, J. J., Lane, S. M., Alonzo, J. D., & Roussel, C. (2007). Metamnemonic control over the discriminability of memory evidence: A signal-detection analysis of warning effects in the associative list paradigm. Journal of Memory and Language, 56, 592-607.

Starns, J. J. (2007). How cue-dependent is memory: Internal reinstatement and cuing effects in recongition and source memory. Dissertation Abstracts International: Section B: The Sciences and Engineering, Vol 67(8-B), 2007. pp. 4736.

2006

Hicks, J. L., & Starns, J. J. (2006). Remembering source evidence from associatively related items: Explanations from a global matching model. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition, 32, 1164-1173.

Starns, J. J., Hicks, J. L., & Marsh, R. L.  (2006).  Repetition Effects in Associative False Recognition: Theme-based Criterion Shifts Are the Exception, Not the Rule.  Memory, Special Issue: Memory Editing Mechanisms, 14, 742-761.

Starns, J. J., Cook, G. I., Hicks, J. L., & Marsh, R. L. (2006). On rejecting emotional lures created by phonological neighborhood activation. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition, 32, 847-853.

Hicks, J. L., & Starns, J. J.  (2006). The roles of associative strength and source memorability in the contextualization of false memory.  Journal of Memory and Language, 54, 39-53.

2005

Starns, J. J., & Hicks, J. L.  (2005).  Source dimensions are retrieved independently in multidimensional source-monitoring tasks.  Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition, 31, 1213-1220.

Hicks, J. L., & Starns, J. J. (2005).  False memories lack perceptual detail: Evidence from implicit word-stem completion and perceptual identification tests.  Journal of Memory and Language, 52, 309-321.

2004

Starns J. J., & Hicks, J. L. (2004).  Episodic generation can cause semantic forgetting: Retrieval-induced forgetting of false memories.  Memory and Cognition, 32, 602-609.

Hicks, J. L., & Starns, J. J. (2004).  Retrieval-induced forgetting occurs in tests of item recognition. Psychonomic Bulletin & Review, 11, 125-130.

In graduate school, I studied false memory and memory for contextual details under Jason Hicks at Louisiana State University. After obtaining my PhD, I completed a four-year postdoctoral position in mathematical modeling of memory and decision making with Roger Ratcliff at Ohio State University. I joined the faculty at UMass in 2010.