Jason Hicks, Professor and Provost's Fellow
Office: 145 Hodges Hall
Office of Academic Affairs
Louisiana State University
Baton Rouge, LA 70803
Office Phone: (225) 578-7662
Email: jhicks@lsu.edu
Dr. Hicks is not accepting any new students at this time.
DR. HICKS is conducting research in the general area of human long-term memory. Current research involves the investigation of factors that influence recognition memory (did I experience that?), source memory (from which of the two or more sources did a memory originate?), and prospective memory (remembering to fulfill delayed intentions). Duties will vary depending on the particular project and the student's motivation, but will usually include developing stimuli, conducting experiments, scoring data, entering data into computers, etc. For further information, contact Dr. Hicks at jhicks@lsu.edu or by phone at 578-4109.
Research Interests and Representative Publications
1. Source Memory and Decision Processes
Source monitoring refers to the processes by which people remember the original source of a memory (e.g., which of 2 friends said something to you in the past; whether you remember a news story from reading a newspaper or watching the television). The source of a memory is inferred by both the type and amount of memorial details recovered from memory. Memories may include details concerning sensory information, spatiotemporal context information, semantic information, affective information, and internal records of elaboration, imagination, and organization.
Most of my work concerning source memory is aimed toward an understanding of the various memorial qualities people retrieve in making inferences about the source of a memory. I am also interested in the extent to which source memory and these decision processes are influenced by the test cuing environment.
Hicks, J. L., & Starns, J. J. (2016). Successful cuing of gender source memory does not improve location source memory. Memory & Cognition, 44, 650-659.
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.
Starns, J. J., & Hicks, J. L. (2013). Internal reinstatement hides cuing effects in source memory tasks. Memory & Cognition, 41, 953-966.
2. Recognition Memory and False Memory
Recognition memory involves the ability to recognize a stimulus as having occurred
in your personal past. For example, passing someone in the hallway may spark you to
recall that you had met the person a week or so prior at a party. How does the memory
system process that information? The nature of the test cue and environment, and decision-making
processes are vital to how recognition decisions are made. These factors are important
to study in my research program.
In a related vein, when we falsely claim that a stimulus was experienced, we have
produced a false memory. Thus, another aspect of my research in recognition memory
is how the memory system produces errors.
Franks, B. A., & Hicks, J. L. (in press). The reliability of criterion shifting in recognition memory is task dependent. Memory & Cognition.
Hicks, J. L., & Starns, J. J. (2014). Strength cues and blocking at test promote reliable within-list criterion shifts in recognition memory. Memory & Cognition, 42, 742-754.
3. Prospective Memory
Prospective memory is comprised of two components: (1) a retrospective component that stores one's commitments, activities, plans, etc., and (2) a prospective component that reviews the contents of the retrospective component in order to reprioritize, re-plan, and schedule task completion. Clearly, then, prospective remembering involves more than just memory, including the availability of attentional resources when an intention should be fulfilled. My work in PM addresses how attentional resources are allocated to remembering intentions as compared to performing regular ongoing daily activities.
Hicks, J. L., Franks, B. A., & Spitler, S. N. (in press). Prior task experience and comparable stimulus exposure nullify focal and nonfocal prospective memory retrieval differences. Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology.
DeWitt, M. R., Hicks, J. L., Ball, B. H., Knight, J. B., & Marsh, R. L. (2012). Encountering Items previously paired with prospective memory target events can serve to reactivate intentions. Journal of Cognitive Psychology, 24, 981-990.
Knight, J. B., Meeks, J. T., Marsh, R. L., Cook, G. I., Brewer, G. A., & Hicks, J. L. (2011). An observation on the spontaneous noticing of prospective memory event-based cues. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition, 37, 298-307.