Attention and Memory Laboratory
UNCG's Attention and Memory Laboratory investigates the relations among cognitive processes involved in attention control, working-memory capacity, and intelligence. The lab consists of several small, sound-attenuated rooms for individual participant testing (each equipped with computers, voice-key/response boxes, and experiment-authoring software), a large room suitable for testing small groups in paper-and pencil tasks, and a data entry/analysis room with networked computer workstations.
Popular Media Coverage
1) Associated Press story on our working memory and mind wandering research, 03/19/07 (by Malcom Ritter)
2) Michael Kane's radio interview on our mind wandering research, on NC public radio, "The State of Things", 03/28/07
Stimulus Materials for Downloading
1) Moral dilemma stimuli from Moore, Clark, & Kane (2008, Psychological Science)
2) Cognitive Failures Questionnaire - Memory and Attention Lapses (CFQ-MAL); items from McVay & Kane (in press; JEPLMC). This is a revised version of the Broadbent, Cooper, FitzGerald, & Parkes (1982) Cognitive Failures Questionnaire (CFQ), which retains only the original items assessing memory and attention lapses, and which includes additional attention/memory items drawn from similar questionnaires (Brown & Ryan, 2003; Reason & Mycielska, 1982; Sunderland, Harris, & Baddeley, 1983). In our UNCG sample (N=241), Cronbach's alpha = .93, and principal components analysis yielded a first component (eigenvalue = 11.5) accounting for 29% of the variance; a second component (eigenvalue = 2.1) accounted for only 5.3% of the variance.
Lab Personnel:
Available Vitae are in Adobe PDF. You may download the free reader here.
- Michael J. Kane
- Associate Professor of Psychology
- Ph.D., Duke University, 1995
- mjkane@uncg.edu
- Home Page
- Bradley J. Poole
- Graduate student
- M.A., University of North Carolina at Greensboro, 2005
- bjpoole@uncg.edu
- Brad's Vitae
- Current research projects
- Understanding the relation between working-memory capacity and control of visual attention: Under what circumstances do working-memory differences predict visual-attention differences?
- Extending prior research on the effects of working memory capacity and warnings on false memories: Do high and low working-memory individuals respond differently to feedback in correcting false memories once they are expressed?
Jennifer C. McVay
- Graduate student
- M.A., University of North Carolina at Greensboro, 2006
- jclittle@uncg.edu
- Jen's Vitae
- Current research projects
- Investigating the effects of mind-wandering and lapses of attention on different tasks: Do lapses of attention affect errors on a perceptual vigilance task to a greater extent than a semantic task?
- Furthering research on the content and causes of mind-wandering: What role does autobiographical memory play in mind-wandering?
Lab Alumni:
Tina M. Miyake
- Ph.D., UNCG, 2007
- Currently, postdoctoral researcher at University of Missouri - Columbia
- Email Tina
The Attention and Memory laboratory is also staffed by an enthusiastic and energetic group of 8 - 12 UNCG undergraduates each semester, who assist with data collection, scoring, and analyses. For information on positions in Dr. Kane's laboratory, please contact him at mjkane@uncg.edu.