 Left to Right: Dr. Clark-Foos, Christopher Draheim, Shaylyn Kiely, Kacie Mennie, Katherine Pfannes, Jamilah Alhashidi, Chad Blair, Teddy Bratton, Fatima Khan, and Sean Nguyen. Research on automaticity and modality effects in Emotional Memory Ehancement. Research on Interpersonal Reality Monitoring (IRM) and suspected deception. Research on differences in memories for real and imagined events. HULC RAs fielding questions from interested attendees. Research on prospective memory and task interference. Kacie Mennie's research on video games affecting creativity. Research on Interpersonal Reality Monitoring (IRM) and suspected deception.  Hanadi Abdallah, Fahtme Abdallah, and Ece Kilic presented data on the 'One-Shot' Hypothesis of context storage. Research on automaticity of encoding context. Research on the semantic and emotional isolation effects on context memory. Both Ece Kilic and Hanadi Abdallah received awards for academic excellence from the Department of Behavioral Sciences. Research on source monitoring in natural and artificial word categories. HuLC Lab learns neuroanatomy from Dr. Hibbert Fatima Khan and Sean Nguyen present research. Samantha Hochstadt explains data to Christopher Draheim An attendee reads our Perceptions of Aging research. Sean Nguyen presents research on emotional isolation effects. Jacob Collison and Jamilah Alhashidi Ece, Arlo, and Chad present research on tradeoffs in source memory that occur with PM intentions. Honors thesis on changes in self-esteem.  Eric, Jon, Arlo, and Curt enjoy a beer at Miller's Pub after a day of presenting research at MPA. It's always easy to get students involved in research if the conference takes place during Mardi Gras!
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• Information and application for undergraduate research assistants
• Information for students requesting a letter of recommendation
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The Incredible Human Learning & Creativity (HULC) Laboratory is actively immersed in both basic and applied research on issues related to human memory. Our particular areas of expertise include emotion and memory, source monitoring, prospective memory, cryptomnesia, and general kick-assery.
Laboratory Personnel:
Director and Principal Investigator
Arlo Clark-Foos, Ph.D.
Dr. Clark-Foos completed a BA in psychology with a minor in philosophy from North Carolina State University (NCSU...Go Pack!). He then completed MS and PhD degrees in Cognitive psychology at the University of Georgia (UGA...Go Dawgs!). At UGA, he worked with Richard L. Marsh studying emotion & memory, prospective memory, and source monitoring. Most recently , he joined the Department of Behavioral Sciences at the University of Michigan Dearborn (UMD...Go Wolverines!), where he directs the Human Learning & Creativity Laboratory (HuLC Lab). Dr. Clark-Foos currently conducts research on memory for affective material, prospective memory, and biases in source monitoring. He is currently accepting new research assistants and honors students; interested individuals should contact him at umdmemory@gmail.com.
Curriculum Vitae (PDF)
Research Team
Research Assistants
Graduate Student Thesis Advising
Current
• Sarah Letang: The effects of an eight week mindfulness-based meditation training on nonfocal event-based prospective memory.
• Mairy Yousif: Attentional biases in sub-clinical binge eaters.
Past
• Leslie Jordan: The effects of an acute bout of aerobic exercise on updating working memory and attentional biases in the processing of emotional stimuli. [Defended 5.7.2015]
* Supported, in part, by a $500 campus research grant.
Psychology Honors Student Thesis Advising
Current
2015-2016
• Brandon Wolff: Need for Cognition and Impulsivity as predictors of Multimedia multitasking
ability
Past
2014-2015
• Jessica Belasco: Do mnemonic devices improve recall accuracy and recall time for emergency medical terminology and procedures?
• Paula Goodrich: Motivation and cognition/memory.
• Katherine Pfannes: Divided attention effects in emotional appraisal.
* Supported, in part, by a $500 campus research grant.
• Jonathon Whitlock: Mood effects on the intention superiority effect in prospective memory.
2013-2014
• Fahtme Abdallah: Memory for advertisements is affected by inclusion of sexualized models.
• Thana Ali: Effects of mono- and bilingualism on frequency and quality of retrieved info during TOTs.
• Chad Blair: Cognitive differences in self-esteem stability.
• Chelsea Everson: Perception of tattoos.
• Kacie Mennie: Video games and creativity.
* Supported, in part, by a $500 campus research grant.
• Shantel Spears: Atachment styles and memory.
2012-2013
• Lorina Karreci: Stress and long-term memory.
* Supported, in part, by a $500 campus research grant.
• Evan Belknap: Personality factors and interaction style associated with group leadership
• Danielle Balaghi: Mental illness and gender labels.
2011-2012
• Jon Schick: Context memory for English and German words among English speakers.
2010-2011
• Sara Hurt: Video games and task interference in prospective memory.
Representative Projects (Past and Ongoing):
The Human Learning & Creativity Lab is engaged in research that studies a large range of issues pertaining to human long-term memory. These research projects can be classified generally as studying memory for emotional events, unconscious plagiarism, source monitoring, and prospective memory. Although we study more issues than those listed, these are our primary research areas.
Emotional Memory Enhancement (EME): We all tend to remember emotional stimuli better than neutral. For negative stimuli this seems to come with a narrowing of attention towards the most emotional aspects, resulting in a range of trade-offs and weapon enhancement effects. Positive stimuli, by contrast, are associated with a broadening of attention. Furthermore, memory for negative stimuli might be enhanced by increased visual processing while positive stimuli appear to receive their boost from increased conceptual processing. We are interested in how and when these processes interact with arousal and attention to produce EME.
VALDA: Two experiments examined the effect of both valence and arousal on recognition memory performance. Each experiment used two classes of negative items that differed in arousal, as well as a neutral and non-arousing set of items. In Experiment 1 a difficult divided attention task was crossed with the learning and test phases of the experiment. In Experiment 2 encoding time was manipulated and rememberknow judgements were collected. The emotional enhancement effect often found with verbal materials survived the depletion of cognitive resources, as did the extra benefit accruing from high arousal. Although we found that arousal led to more recollection, the general conclusion that we draw is that the effect of emotion on recognition memory can be attributed to relatively automatic influences.
This line of research is currently PUBLISHED.
Son of VALDA: In this research we examined recognition memory for positive, negative and neutral stimuli. Although researchers have examined EME in both verbal and nonverbal stimuli, the current study represents one of the first direct comparisons of EME between pictures and words. The automaticity of these EME effects were further examined through inclusion of divided attention tasks during encoding. In nearly every situation, better recognition memory was found when stimuli elicited arousal. This was not the case, however, for negative words where increases in arousal were associated with decreased recognition memory under full attention. The results strongly argue for the inclusion of presentation modality in any future examinations of emotion and memory.
This line of research is currently UNDER REVIEW.
Source Monitoring (SM): SM is the study of a person's memory for the source or context of a memory. For example, being able to recall that you learned about source monitoring from this website (as opposed to your Cognitive Psychology professor) demonstrates successful source monitoring.
SMPM: One direction that we have been pursuing is attempting to determine how much effort is involved in remembering the source of knowledge. Specifically we would like to know if retrieving source details for studied words will interfere with noticing and responding to environmental cues (prospective memory).
This line of research is currently ACTIVE.
Prospective Memory (PM): PM studies how we maintain and complete future intentions. Within PM are three primary types of intentions: Event-Based, Time-Based, and Activity-Based. Many forthcoming (and past) research projects in our lab have looked at the relationship between short-term timing processes (i.e., less than 10 seconds) and TBPM intentions that are a bit longer (i.e., several minutes) to determine if similar cognitive processes subserve all timing tasks.
PMSM: Related to our SMPM source monitoring project, this study asks how monitoring for and responding to event-based PM cues interferes with learning the origin (source) of stimuli. In particular, we vary the specificty of the EBPM intention and observe task and cue interference effects on source memory for the stimuli (both cues and OGT trials).
This line of research is currently ACTIVE.
Video Games & Prospective Memory: Psychology Honors student and HULC RA, Sara Hurt (2010-2011) was interested in the relationship between playing video games and nonfocal event-based prospective memory performance. The goal of this study was to determine if the benefits of playing video games extend to ancillary forms of memory (i.e., prospective memory). It has been suggested that playing video games increases not only eye-hand coordination but also improves both attentional focus and retrospective memory (RM). Although basic retrospective memory is a critically vital skill in everyday life, it remains to be seen how prospective memory (i.e., memory for future intentions) is affected by a task thought to improve attention and RM.
This line of research is currently INACTIVE.
Video Games & Creativity: Despite their amazing popularity, relatively little is known about how playing video games affects cognitive behaviors. This project was initiated (2012-2013) by Kacie Mennie, a HULC lab manager and Psychology Honors student, to investigate the role of video games in affecting creativity. Anecdotally parents will report that video games appear to "rot" their child's brain but there is currently no evidence to substantiate that claim. In this study we compared creativity before and after for invididuals who played a violent video game (House of the Dead), a 'creative' video game (Little Big Planet 2), or a paper-and-pencil maze control. Although different games did appear to have differing affects on creativity, the most interesting finding was the female participants were ALWAYS (before, after, regardless of activity) higher in creativity. "Woman. Without her, man is nothing"
This line of research is currently INACTIVE
Cryptomnesia: Also known as unconscious plagiarism, the study of cryptomnesia aims to discover the conditions that encourage or discourage one from plagiarizing even when one is not aware that one is plagiarizing. One project was attempting to determine what type of material (i.e., category of knowledge) is plagiarized most (and least) often. Another project was using a Minimal Groups Paradigm (MGP) to study the rates of plagiarism both within and between members of groups. Finally, another series of studies was examining the effects of contextual attributes and generation requirements on rates of plagiarism.
This line of research is currently ACTIVE
Stress & LTM: This study was (2011-2012) being conducted by Lorina Karreci (Honors Student). Chronic stress is one of the most significant health problems in present-day societies and can also negatively impact certain psychosocial elements in an individual, such as long-term memory. Research has shown that stress can impair performance on memory tasks in healthy young men (Schoofs & Wolf, 2009). Furthermore, numerous studies conducted on the effects of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) have demonstrated that combat war veterans diagnosed with PTSD can manifest impairments in word fluency, visual attention, and tracking ability (Uddo, Vasterling, Brailey, & Sutker, 1993), thus suggesting a cognitive impairment in post-traumatic patients (Gil, Calev, Greenberg, & Kugelmass 1989). While there is an abundance of information on how PTSD affects memory and attention in war veterans, as well as in healthy young males, literature on how stress affects Long-Term Memory (LTM) in both male and female members of the non-veteran population is lacking.
This line of research is currently INACTIVE.
Selected Conference Presentations by HuLC Lab Student Researchers:
Note: For a comprehensive listing of all presentations by HULC Lab student researchers, click here.
| 2013 |
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Everson, C., Clark-Foos, A., & Hymes, R. (May, 2013). Perception of Tattoos. Poster to be presented at the 25th Annual Meeting of the Association for Psychological Science, Washington, DC.
* Honors Thesis
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Out, J., & Tout, W. (May, 2013). Monitoring for prospective memory cues affects response time and subsequent memory for the context of those cues. Poster to be presented at the 21st Annual Meeting of the Minds, Flint, MI. |
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Pfannes, K. (May, 2013). Suspected deception changes how we evaluate others' real and imagined memories. Poster to be presented at the 21st Annual Meeting of the Minds, Flint, MI. |
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Tout, W. (May, 2013). The automaticity of emotional enhancement on memory depends on valence. Poster to be presented at the 21st Annual Meeting of the Minds, Flint, MI. |
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Tout, W., Bratton, T., Pfannes, K., & Blair, C. R. (May, 2013). Are there differences in memories for real and imagined events? Poster to be presented at the 21st Annual Meeting of the Minds, Flint, MI. |
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Mennie, K., Draheim, C., & Clark-Foos, A.. (May, 2013). You are what you play: Video games and creativity. Poster to be presented at the 85th Annual Meeting of the Midwestern Psychological Association, Chicago, IL. |
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Alhashidi, J., & Isom, W. (March, 2013). Source monitoring when things don't make sense. Paper presented at the 3rd Annual UM Dearborn CASL Undergraduate Research Showcase. Dearborn, MI. |
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Bratton, T., & Mennie, K. (March, 2013). Suspected Deception Impairs Interpersonal Reality Monitoring. Paper presented at the 3rd Annual UM Dearborn CASL Undergraduate Research Showcase. Dearborn, MI. |
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Draheim, C. (March, 2013). Memory for Emotional Material Under Divided Attention. Paper presented at the 3rd Annual UM Dearborn CASL Undergraduate Research Showcase. Dearborn, MI. |
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Everson, C. (March, 2013). Perception of Tattoos. Poster presented at the 3rd Annual UM Dearborn CASL Undergraduate Research Showcase. Dearborn, MI.
* Honors Thesis |
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Mennie, K., & Draheim, C. (March, 2013). Video games and creativity. Paper presented at the 3rd Annual UM Dearborn CASL Undergraduate Research Showcase. Dearborn, MI.
* Honors Thesis |
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Morris, R., Mikhael, Z., & Khan, F., Blair, C. R., & Draheim, C. (March, 2013). Can completing intentions ever be done automatically? Poster presented at the 3rd Annual UM Dearborn CASL Undergraduate Research Showcase. Dearborn, MI. |
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Nguyen, S., Out, J., & Draheim, C. (March, 2013). How effective are divided attention tasks at dividing attention? Poster presented at the 3rd Annual UM Dearborn CASL Undergraduate Research Showcase. Dearborn, MI. |
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Pfannes, K., Mennie, K., & Draheim, C. (March, 2013). Differences in Interpersonal Memories for Real and Imagined Events. Poster presented at the 3rd Annual UM Dearborn CASL Undergraduate Research Showcase. Dearborn, MI. |
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Tout, W., & Sareini, H. (March, 2013). Reverse Task Interference in Prospective Memory. Poster presented at the 3rd Annual UM Dearborn CASL Undergraduate Research Showcase. Dearborn, MI. |
| 2012 |
| Abdallah, F. (May, 2012). I’ll Take ‘One Shot’ with a Twist of Font Memory. Poster presented at the 20th Annual Meeting of the Minds, Dearborn, MI. |
| Abdallah, H. (May, 2012). Source Monitoring of German and English Nouns. Poster presented at the 20th Annual Meeting of the Minds, Dearborn, MI. |
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Adkins, J., & Hendricks, K. (May, 2012). Ethnicity Differences in Bias Towards and Knowledge of Aging. Poster presented at the 20th Annual Meeting of the Minds, Dearborn, MI. |
| Algahmi, A., & Draheim, C. (May, 2012). Source Monitoring Trade-Offs from Prospective Memory Intentions. Poster presented at the 20th Annual Meeting of the Minds, Dearborn, MI. |
| Collison, J., & Alhashidi, J. (May, 2012). Ethnicity Differences in Perceived Locus of Control. Poster presented at the 20th Annual Meeting of the Minds, Dearborn, MI. |
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Draheim, C. (May, 2012). Modeling of Source and Item Recognition Memory using Signal Detection Theory. Poster presented at the 20th Annual Meeting of the Minds, Dearborn, MI. |
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Hendricks, K., & Adkins, J. (May, 2012). How You Query Memory Affects What is Retrieved. Poster presented at the 20th Annual Meeting of the Minds, Dearborn, MI. |
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Hochstadt, S., & Mennie, K. (May, 2012). Source Monitoring Following Natural-Artificial Category Judgments. Poster presented at the 20th Annual Meeting of the Minds, Dearborn, MI. |
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Khan, F. (May, 2012). Differences in Internal and External Context in Source and Recognition Memory. Poster presented at the 20th Annual Meeting of the Minds, Dearborn, MI. |
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Kilic, E., & McConchie, K. (May, 2012). Gender Biases and Divided Attention in Source Monitoring. Poster presented at the 20th Annual Meeting of the Minds, Dearborn, MI. |
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Nguyen, S. (May, 2012). Emotional Isolation Effects in Source Monitoring. Poster presented at the 20th Annual Meeting of the Minds, Dearborn, MI. |
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Shah, S. (May, 2012). Zeigarnik-like Effects in Prospective and Source Memory. Poster presented at the 20th Annual Meeting of the Minds, Dearborn, MI. |
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Karreci, L., Clark-Foos, A., & Chatkoff, D. (May, 2012). The Effects of Stress on Long-Term Memory. Poster presented at the 84th Annual Meetings of the Midwestern Psychological Association, Chicago, IL.
* Honors Thesis |
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Adkins, J. & Hendricks, K. (March, 2012). Ahh, I’m Getting Older: Knowledge of and Bias Towards Aging Based on Ethnic Differences. Poster presented at 2nd Annual UM Dearborn CASL Undergraduate Research Showcase, Dearborn, MI. |
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Algahmi, A. (March, 2012). Source Monitoring Trade-Offs from Prospective Memory Intentions. Poster presented at 2nd Annual UM Dearborn CASL Undergraduate Research Showcase, Dearborn, MI. |
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Blair, C. R., Abdallah, H., & McConchie, K. (March, 2012). Gender Biases and Divided Attention in Source Monitoring. Poster presented at 2nd Annual UM Dearborn CASL Undergraduate Research Showcase, Dearborn, MI. |
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Collison, J., & Alhashidi, J. (March, 2012). Intention Superiority and Future Intentions. Poster presented at 2nd Annual UM Dearborn CASL Undergraduate Research Showcase, Dearborn, MI. |
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Draheim, C., & Abdallah, F. (March, 2012). Memory using Signal Detection Theory. Poster presented at 2nd Annual UM Dearborn CASL Undergraduate Research Showcase, Dearborn, MI. |
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Khan, F., & Nguyen, S. (March, 2012). Differences in Internal and External Context in Source and Recognition Memory. Poster presented at 2nd Annual UM Dearborn CASL Undergraduate Research Showcase, Dearborn, MI. |
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Hochstadt, S., & Draheim, C. (March, 2012). What I Know Depends on How You Ask. Poster presented at 2nd Annual UM Dearborn CASL Undergraduate Research Showcase, Dearborn, MI. |
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Mennie, K., & Abdallah, H. (March, 2012). I’ll Take ‘One Shot’ with a Twist of Font Memory. Poster presented at 2nd Annual UM Dearborn CASL Undergraduate Research Showcase, Dearborn, MI. |
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Shah, S. & Adkins, J. (March, 2012). Is this Destiny My Own?: Ethnicity Differences in Perceived Locus of Control. Poster presented at 2nd Annual UM Dearborn CASL Undergraduate Research Showcase, Dearborn, MI. |
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| 2011 |
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Blair, C., Dobbs, C. D., & Clark-Foos, A. (May, 2011). False Memories for the Source of Natural and Artificial Words. Poster presented at the 19th Annual Meeting of the Minds, Rochester, MI. |
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Dobbs, C. D., Blair, C., Schick, J., & Clark-Foos, A. (May, 2011). Digging Deeper: Incremental Advances in Divided Attention and Recognition Memory. Poster presented at the 19th Annual Meeting of the Minds, Rochester, MI. |
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Evans, M., Beddow, M., Wu, E., Dobbs, C. D., Algahmi, A., Abdallah, H., & Clark-Foos, A. (May, 2011). How to Read Minds: Improving Interpersonal Reality Monitoring. Poster presented at the 19th Annual Meeting of the Minds, Rochester, MI. |
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Abdallah, H., & Clark-Foos, A. (March, 2011). The Impact of Gender on the Perception of Anorexia Nervosa. Poster presented at the 1st Annual Undergraduate Research Showcase, University of Michigan Dearborn, Dearborn, MI.
* Honors Thesis |
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Algahmi, A., & Clark-Foos, A. (March, 2011). SI 'til We Die: Impact of the Supplemental Instruction Program on Science SI leaders. Poster presented at the 1st Annual Undergraduate Research Showcase, University of Michigan Dearborn, Dearborn, MI. |
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Blair, C., & Clark-Foos, A., (March, 2011). Self-esteem Change Based on Feelings-as-information Account: Induced Emotional States Effects on Self-esteem. Poster presented at the 1st Annual Undergraduate Research Showcase, University of Michigan Dearborn, Dearborn, MI.
* Honors Thesis |
| 2010 |
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Dobbs, C., Schick, J., Evans, M., Beddow, M., & Clark-Foos, A. (May, 2010). Grand Theft Plagiarism: Stealing More When You Are Interested. Poster presented at the 18th Annual Meeting of the Minds, Flint, MI. |
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