Daniel Peterson

Assistant Professor of Psychology

Contact 309-341-7334 dpeterso@knox.edu

General Interests
"My primary research interests relate to human memory. Currently, I'm trying to understand what happens when we retrieve information through testing. Although tests are most often thought of as a means of measuring recall or learning, research suggests that testing can actually alter the memory trace it is intended to assess. Through a series of studies I'm trying to learn more about the (typically positive) consequences of testing, and why they come about.

Another topic that has recently captured my attention is memory for actions. Historically, research on human memory has focused on verbal materials (e.g. words or sentences) though what people typically remember in their day-to-day lives relates to things they have actually done. I'm interested in how people's memory for simple actions (e.g. breaking a toothpick or bouncing a ball) compares to more traditional verbal measures, and what differences between these two constructs mean."

Years at Knox: 2011 to present

Education
Ph.D., Cognitive Psychology, 2011, The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
M.A., Cognitive Psychology, 2009, The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
B.A., Psychology, 2006, The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Teaching Interests
Human memory and learning

Selected Professional Accomplishments

Honors/Grants
The Students' Undergraduate Teaching Award (UNC‐CH), April 2010.
Future Faculty Fellowship (UNC‐CH), May 2009.
Graduate Research Consultant (UNC‐CH), fall 2008.

Publications
"Enactment and Retrieval." Peterson, D. & Mulligan, N.W. Memory & Cognition 38 (2010): 233‐243.

"Remember‐Know and source memory instructions can qualitatively change old‐new recognition accuracy: The modality‐match effect in recognition memory." Mulligan, N.W. Besken, M. & Peterson, D. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory and Cognition 36 (558‐566): 2010.

"Assessing a Retrieval Account of the Generation and Perceptual‐Interference Effects." Mulligan, N.W., & Peterson, D. Memory & Cognition 36 (1371‐1382): 2008.

"Attention and Implicit Memory in the Category Verification and Lexical Decision Tasks." Mulligan, N.W. & Peterson, D. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory and Cognition 34 (662‐679): 2008.

Presentations
"How effortful is action memory processing? Evidence from item‐method directed forgetting." Paper presented with Mulligan, N.W. at the 51st annual Psychonomic Society Conference, St. Louis, Missouri, November 2010.

"Remember‐Know and source memory instructions can qualitatively change old‐new recognition accuracy: The modality‐match effect in recognition memory. Paper presented with Mulligan, N.W. and Besken, M. at the 50th annual Psychonomic Society Conference, Boston, Massachusetts, November, 2009.

"Enactment and Retrieval. Poster presented with Mulligan, N.W. at the 2008 North Carolina Cognition Group Conference, Durham, North Carolina, February, 2009.