Kathleen Hourihan
|
B.Sc. Dalhousie, Ph.D. Waterloo Assistant Professor |
| Office: SN3080 |
| Phone: (709) 864-8771 |
| Email: khourihan@mun.ca |
| Affiliations: Cognition |
Research Interests
I am interested in memory in the broad sense, but my specific research interests focus on how much control we have over what we remember, and what we know about how we remember. This has resulted in my extensive study of intentional forgetting as a means of measuring how well we can select which information is more important to remember than other information (and which information gets learned regardless of our intention to forget it). I have examined how item distinctiveness and encoding context interact to improve memory. I am also interested in conceptual implicit memory as a measure of how our memory functions when we are not trying to control it.
Recently, I have been examining metamemory, or what we know about our own memory processes. What affects our ability to accurately predict what we will remember, and what we will forget? I am interested in examining how metamemory is affected by situational variables (like mood, or changes in alertness associated with different times of day) and by more stable cognitive variables (like working memory capacity or need for cognition). I have also been studying how metamnemonic accuracy is affected by different classes of stimuli, such as faces and emotional stimuli.
Selected Representative Publications
(bold indicates supervised student author)
Hourihan, K.L., & Taylor, T.L. (2026). It檚 easier to forget what you want: Directed forgetting of chosen and unchosen words. Memory & Cognition.
MacMillan, M.B., Churchill, L.A., & Hourihan, K.L. (2026). Effects of valence and list composition on memory predictions, performance, and beliefs. Canadian Journal of Experimental Psychology.
Hourihan, K.L., & Fawcett, J.M. (2024). It檚 all about that case: Production and reading fluency. Experimental Psychology. [Editor檚 Pick]
Kavanagh, V.A.J., Hourihan, K.L., & Hockley, W. (2024). Does the Effect of Production Influence Memory for Background Context? Experimental Psychology.
Hourihan, K.L. (2022). Source reinstatement in item method directed forgetting influences recognition strategies. Canadian Journal of Experimental Psychology.
Hourihan, K.L. (2021). The influence of cue probability on item and source judgments in item method directed forgetting. Memory.
Hourihan, K.L. (2020). Misleading emotions: Judgments of learning overestimate recognition of negative and positive emotional images. Cognition and Emotion.
Hourihan, K.L., & Churchill, L.A. (2020). Production of picture names improves picture recognition. Canadian Journal of Experimental Psychology.
Hourihan, K.L., Fraundorf, S.H, & Benjamin, A.S. (2017). The influences of valence and arousal on recall and judgments of learning. Memory & Cognition.
Hourihan, K.L., & Bursey, E. (2017). A misleading feeling of happiness: Metamemory for positive and neutral emotional pictures. Memory.
Doyle, M.E., & Hourihan, K.L. (2016). Metacognitive monitoring during category learning: How success affects future behaviour. Memory.
Hourihan, K.L., & Smith, A.R.S. (2016). Production does not improve memory for face-name associations. Canadian Journal of Experimental Psychology.
Hourihan, K.L., Fraundorf, S.H., & Benjamin, A.S. (2013). Same faces, different labels: Generating the cross-race effect in face memory with social category information. Memory & Cognition.
Hourihan, K.L., Benjamin, A.S., & Liu, X. (2012). A cross-race effect in metamemory: Predictions of face recognition are more accurate for members of our own race. Journal of Applied Research in Memory and Cognition.
MacLeod, C.M., Gopie, N., Hourihan, K.L., Neary, K.R., & Ozubko, J.D. (2010). The production effect: Delineation of a phenomenon. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition.
Hourihan, K.L., Ozubko, J.D., & MacLeod, C.M. (2009). Directed forgetting of visual symbols: Evidence for nonverbal selective rehearsal. Memory & Cognition.
Hourihan, K.L., & MacLeod, C.M. (2008). Directed forgetting meets the production effect: Distinctive material is resistant to directed forgetting. Canadian Journal of Experimental Psychology.
Hourihan, K. L., & Taylor, T.L. (2006). Cease remembering: Control processes in directed forgetting. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception & Performance.