Current Lab Members
Randy Jamieson

​I am a Professor in the Department of Psychology, Associate Dean for the Faculty of Graduate Studies, and Editor of the Canadian Journal of Experimental Psychology. I use experimental and computational methods to investigate how people and other animals learn, remember, think, and know. I am particularly interested in the problems of intuition, associative learning, memory, and knowledge representation in both animals and machines. I teach courses on topics including cognitive psychology, cognitive computing, and applied statistics.​
Nick Reid

Nick is a postdoc in the lab who completed his Ph.D. at the University of Western Ontario with Dr. Albert Katz in the field of language and memory.  His work is focused at the intersection of those two topics with an eye to understanding how people comprehend the meaning of nonliteral language and conceptual metaphors.  He is now applying computational theories of semantic memory to understand the representation and comprehension of simple and complex language expressions in humans and machines.
  • Reid, J. N., & Jamieson, R. K. (2022). A computational model of item-based directed forgetting. Canadian Journal of Experimental Psychology.
  • Reid, J. N., & Katz, A. N. (2021). The RK processor: A program for analysing metaphor and word feature listing data. Behavior Research Methods.
  • Yang, H., Reid, J. N., Katz, A. N., & Li, D. (2021). The embodiment of power as forward/backward movement in Chinese and English speakers. Metaphor and Symbol, 36, 181-193.
  • Kawasaki, Y., Reid, J. N., Ikeda, K., Liu, M., & Karlsson, B. (2021). Color judgments of #The Dress and #The Jacket in a sample of different cultures. Perception, 50, 216-230. 
  • Katz, A. N., & Reid, J. N. (2020). Tests of Conceptual Metaphor Theory with episodic memory tests. Cognitive Semantics, 6, 56-82. 
  • Reid, J. N., Al-Azary, H., & Katz, A. N. (2020). Metaphors: Where the neighborhood in which one resides interacts with (interpretive) diversity. In S. Denison., M. Mack, Y. Xu, & B.C. Armstrong (Eds.), Proceedings of the 42nd Annual Conference of the Cognitive Science Society (pp. 551-556). Cognitive Science Society. 
  • Reid, J. N., & Katz, A. N. (2018). Vector space applications in metaphor comprehension. Metaphor and Symbol, 33, 280-294. 
  • Reid, J. N., & Katz, A. N. (2018). Something false about conceptual metaphors. Metaphor and Symbol, 33, 36-47. 
Dominic Guitard

Dominic is visiting to develop a computational model of recall.  He completed his Ph.D. at the Université de Moncton with Dr. Jean Saint-Aubin. He is presently a PostDoc in Dr. Nelson Cowan's laboratory the University of Missouri.  You can read his papers on his Google Webpage.
Matt Cook 

*** See Matt's 3MT video

​Matt is a PhD student interested in natural language processing and cognitive computing. He is also a Data Scientist working for the Government of Manitoba. His Honours work focused on a computational analysis of Type 1 and Type 2 error rates associated with statistical procedures and assumption violations. His Masters work focused on natural language processing and diagnosis of depression. His PhD work applies large-scale semantic modelling to big data problems in both clinical and social psychology. He has earned a number of awards for his research including the John Castellan Student Paper Award from the Society for Computers in Psychology, the Peter Graf Award from the Brain and Cognitive Section of the Canadian Psychological Association, the Kenneth Dion Award from the Social and Personality Section of the Canadian Psychological Association, and a CPA Certificate of Academic Excellence for his Masters thesis. His work has been funded by NSERC along the way.
Brad Smith 

​Brad is a PhD student who completed his undergraduate work in Dr. John Vokey's Micro-Cognition Laboratory at the University of Lethbridge. His Honours work focused on the perception of differences from a statistical point of view. His Masters work focused on developing an instance-based account of associative learning. His PhD work is focused on understanding the mechanisms and structures that give rise to behaviours associated with the study of mental organization in learning and memory. His Masters thesis was recognized with a CPA Certificate of Academic Excellence. His work has been funded by NSERC along the way.
  • Smith, B. (2019). A computational account of contingency learning (Masters dissertation). University of Manitoba, Winnipeg, Manitoba. 
Jackie Spear 

​Jackie is a PhD student interested in the structure and function of human memory and knowledge representation  Her MA thesis used computational and experimental methods to examine recognition memory and distinctiveness. Her Honours work focused on the production effect in recognition memory.  She has also worked as a research assistant in Dr. Murray Singer's Psycholinguistics Laboratory.
  • Spear, J. (2020). A computational and experimental analysis of semantic distinctiveness in human memory (Masters dissertation). University of Manitoba, Winnipeg, Manitoba.
  • Singer, M., & Spear, J. (2020). Validation of strongly presupposed text concepts in reading comprehensions: Cleft constructions. Canadian Journal of Experimental Psychology, 74, 1-11.
  • Singer, M., Solar, K. G., & Spear, J. (2017). Validating presupposed versus focused text information. Memory & Cognition, 45, 456-479.
  • Curtis, E. T., Chubala, C. M., Spear, J., Jamieson, R. K., Hockley, W. E., & Crump, M. J. C. (2016). False recognition of instruction-set lures. Memory, 24, 32-43.
  • Singer, M., Solar, K. G., & Spear, J. (2015). Validating given versus new discourse information. Canadian Journal of Experimental Psychology, 69, 350.
  • Singer, M., & Spear, J. (2015). Phantom recollection of bridging and elaborative inferences. Discourse Processes, 52, 356-375.
  • ​Jamieson, R. K., & Spear, J. (2014). The offline production effect. Canadian Journal of Experimental Psychology, 68, 20-28. 
  • ​Spear, J. (2011). A reversed production effect in source memory (Honours dissertation). University of Manitoba, Winnipeg, Manitoba. 
 Nathan Mathews

Nathan is pursuing his Honours degree in Psychology. He is interested in computational methods and machine learning in the context of knowledge representation. He plans to pursue his Honours thesis in the lab on a topic that leverages cognitive computing and big data.

Lab alumni

Abdelrahman Elzayadi completed his Honours thesis on blocking and associative learning.
  • Elzayadi, A. (2022). To go or not to go: Demonstrating the blocking effect in humans (Honours dissertation). University of Manitoba, Winnipeg, Manitoba.

Katie Davies completed her Honours thesis on people's distorted perception and miscomprehension of graphed data.
  • Davies, K. (2021). Perception and judgement of visual presented data in university students (Honours dissertation). University of Manitoba, Winnipeg, Manitoba.

Stefaniia Martsynkevych completed her Honours thesis on learning and memory deficits associated with state depression and anxiety.
  • Martsynkevych, S. (2021). Cognitive consequences of depression (Honours dissertation). University of Manitoba, Winnipeg, Manitoba.​

Essence Perera was an undergraduate student who helped to collect experimental data on contingency learning.  She is now working on a graduate degree in clinical psychology.

Matt Slusky was an undergraduate student who helped to collect experimental data on a number of projects.  He completed his Honours degree in Dr. Jonathan Marotta's perception and action laboratory.
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Anna Polyvyanna was an undergraduate student who helped to collect experimental data related to recognition memory.  
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Dr. Michelle Crease-Lark was a visiting PhD student from Dr. Peter Graf's laboratory at University of British Columbia and worked on problems related to prospective memory. She completed her PhD from UBC in 2019.  She taught psychology courses for the University of Winnipeg and is now the Research Coordinator for The Rehabilitation Centre for Children. 

Lisa Tarnowski completed her Honours on semantic modelling and language classification related to depression and anxiety.  
  • Tarnowski, L. (2019). Assessing mental wellness using text analysis (Honours dissertation). University of Manitoba, Winnipeg, Manitoba.

​Chelsea Matsumoto completed her Honours on embodiment, robotics, and cognition.
  • Matsumoto, C. (2019). From abstract to concrete: Associative learning and the situated cognition debate (Honours dissertation). University of Manitoba, Winnipeg, Manitoba.

Dr. Evan Curtis completed his Honours in 2010 on audition and artificial grammar learning and his PhD in 2017 on selective memory impairment in amnesia. His Honours thesis was awarded the W. N. Ten Have Award for Best Honours Thesis in Psychology and his PhD thesis is published. He is now an Associate Professor at Booth University College.
  • Curtis, E. T., & Jamieson, R. K. (2019).  Computational and empirical simulations of selective memory impairments: Converging evidence for a single-system account of memory dissociations. Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology, 74, 798-817.
  • Curtis, E. T. (2017). Reinterpreting selective impairments in memory: Computational and empirical simulations of dissociations in amnesia (PhD dissertation). University of Manitoba, Winnipeg, Manitoba.
  • Curtis, E. T., Chubala, C. M., Spear, J., Jamieson, R. K., Hockley, W. E., & Crump, M. J. C. (2016). False recognition of instruction-set lures. Memory, 24, 32-43.
  • Curtis, E. (2010). The role of item-specific encoding in categorization of music-like sequences (Honours dissertation). University of Manitoba, Winnipeg, Manitoba.

Dr. Chrissy Chubala completed her MA in 2012 on retrospective revaluation and her PhD in 2017 on group function learning. Her PhD thesis was awarded a CPA Certificate of Academic Excellence.  She went on as a Postdoctoral Researcher in Dr. Aimée Surprenant and Dr. Ian Neath's laboratory at Memorial University of Newfoundland. She is now a Defense Scientist at Defense Research and Development Canada in Halifax.
  • Chubala, C. M. (2017). Scaling function learning from individuals to groups (PhD dissertation). University of Manitoba, Winnipeg, Manitoba. ​
  • Cook, M. T., Chubala, C. M., & Jamieson, R. K. (2017). AGSuite: Software to conduct feature analysis of artificial grammar learning performance. Behavior Research Methods, 49, 1639-1651.
  • Chubala, C. M., Johns, B. T., Jamieson, R. K., & Mewhort, D. J. K. (2016). Applying an exemplar model to an implicit rule-learning task: Implicit learning of semantic structure. Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology, 69, 1049-1055.
  • Curtis, E. T., Chubala, C. M., Spear, J., Jamieson, R. K., Hockley, W. E., & Crump, M. J. C. (2016). False recognition of instruction-set lures. Memory, 24, 32-43.
  • Chubala, C. M., & Jamieson, R. K. (2013). Recoding and representation in artificial grammar learning. Behavior Research Methods, 45, 470-479.
  • Chubala, C. M. (2012). The critical role of memory in retrospective revaluation (Masters dissertation). University of Manitoba, Winnipeg, Manitoba. 

Dr. Robert Collins was a visiting PhD student from Dr. Bruce Milliken's laboratory at McMaster University to work on a computational account of the repetition decrement effect and the work is now published. He finished his PhD at McMaster University in 2018 and is now a Defense Scientist at Defense Research and Development Canada in Toronto.
  • Collins, R. N., Milliken, B., & Jamieson, R. K. (2020). MINERVA-DE: An instance model of the deficient processing theory. Journal of Memory and Language, 104151.

Mikayla Preete completed her Honours thesis in 2017 on developing a model for visual semantics. Her thesis was recognized with a CPA Certificate of Academic Excellence. She went on to complete a postgraduate degree computer science at the University of British Columbia and is now a Interaction Designer/Developer.
  • Preete, M. (2017). Latent Semantic Analysis: A theory of visual knowledge? (Honours dissertation). University of Manitoba, Winnipeg, Manitoba. 

Mitch Cunningham was a philosophy student who completed an Undergraduate Student Research Award in 2017 to work on knowledge representation in humans and machines

Adam Hawkeye completed his Honours thesis in 2015 on modality effects in artificial grammar learning.  He is now pursuing a degree and career in actuarial accounting.
  • Hawkeye, A. (2015). Effects of sensory modality in implicit learning using the artificial grammar learning paradigm (Honours dissertation). University of Manitoba, Winnipeg, Manitoba.

Rory Waisman completed his Honours thesis in 2017 that compared the quality of data collected using on-line versus in-lab procedures. He is now pursuing a PhD in the Business Program at the University of Alberta
  • Waisman, R. (2017). Moving the participant pool online: Reliable and efficient decision-making research (Honours dissertation). University of Manitoba, Winnipeg, Manitoba. 

Brian Hauri completed an Undergraduate Student Research Award award in 2009, his Honours thesis in 2010 on unconscious decision making, and his MA in 2013 on symmetry and pattern processing.  He went on to travel the world and teach surfing in the Canary Islands.
  • Hauri, B. (2013). A quantitative analysis of symmetry, fluency, and pattern preference (Masters dissertation). University of Manitoba, Winnipeg, Manitoba.
  • Jamieson, R. K., & Hauri, B. (2012). An exemplar model of performance in the artificial grammar task: Holographic representation. Canadian Journal of Experimental Psychology, 66, 98-105. 
  • Hauri, B. (2010). Unconscious decision making: A novel approach using expected utility theory (Honours dissertation). University of Manitoba, Winnipeg, Manitoba. 

​Andrew Gabel completed his Honours thesis in 2015 on the list-length effect in recognition memory. He is pursuing a graduate degree in psychology at Memorial University of Newfoundland.
  • Gabel, A. (2015). Do instruction set lures produce a list length effect? (Honours dissertation). University of Manitoba, Winnipeg, Manitoba.

Dr. Alexa Yakubovich completed an Undergraduate Student Research Award and her Honours thesis in 2013, both on the illusion of truth. Her thesis was recognized with the W. N. Ten Have Award for Best Thesis in Psychology and a CPA Certificate of Academic Excellence. She completed a PhD degree at University of Oxford as a Rhodes Scholar and was a Postdoctoral Fellow at the Centre for Urban Health at the University of Toronto.  She is now an Assistant Professor at Dalhousie University.
  • Yakubovich, A. (2013). Polarizing truth: Examining the impact of false information on illusory truth (Honours dissertation). University of Manitoba, Winnipeg, Manitoba.

Thomas Toles completed an Undergraduate Student Research Award and his Honours thesis in 2013, both on the illusion of truth. His Honours Thesis was recognized with a CPA Certificate of Academic Excellence. He completed a Masters Degree at University of Oxford as a Rhodes Scholar and then pursued a career in theatre and acting. He is now pursuing a PhD in Clinical Psychology.
  • Toles, T. (2013). Memory mirages: Accurate remembering produces the illusion of truth (Honours dissertation). University of Manitoba, Winnipeg, Manitoba. 

Nigel Daly completed his Honours thesis in 2012 on decision making in relation to climate change. 
  • Daly, N. (2012). Risk taking in environmental decision-making: An examination by the framing effect (Honours dissertation). University of Manitoba, Winnipeg, Manitoba.

Chris Cadonic completed his Honours thesis in 2012 on implicit learning. He went on to complete his MSc in Computational and Biological Engineering and is now a Machine Learner/Artificial Intelligence Developer at BOLDCommerce.
  • Cadonic, C. (2012). Awareness in the serial reaction time task and its implications for understanding amnesia (Honours dissertation). University of Manitoba, Winnipeg, Manitoba.

Scott Bridgeman completed his Honours thesis in 2010 on serial recall
  • Bridgeman, S. (2010). Serial-recall of structured sequences (Honours dissertation). University of Manitoba, Winnipeg, Manitoba.

Julianna Hurley completed her Honours thesis in 2010 on decision making and gambling. She went on to pursue a career in social work.
  • Hurley, J. (2010). The effect of near-misses on gambling behaviour during a simulated video lottery terminal (VLT) task (Honours dissertation). University of Manitoba, Winnipeg, Manitoba. 

Uliana Nevzorova completed an Undergraduate Student Research Award and her Honours thesis in 2010, both on artificial grammar learning. Her thesis was recognized with a CPA Certificate of Academic Excellence. She went on to pursue a MA in Clinical Psychology and is now a practicing clinical psychologist.
  • Nevzorova, U. (2010). Artificial grammar learning in adults and children: Effects of acoustic boundaries (Honours dissertation). University of Manitoba, Winnipeg, Manitoba. 
  • Jamieson, R. K., Nevzorova, U., Lee, G., & Mewhort, D. J. K. (2016). Information theory and artificial grammar learning: Inferring grammaticality from redundancy. Psychological Research, 80, 195-211.

Dr. Signy Holmes completed her Honours thesis in 2009 on implicit learning and amnesia. Her thesis was recognized with the W. N. Ten Have Award for Best Thesis in Psychology and a CPA Certificate of Academic Excellence. Signy went on to pursue a degree in medicine and is now a Diagnostic Radiologist at Health Sciences Centre in Winnipeg.
  • Holmes, S. (2009). The effects of encoding time on recognition and classification task performance (Honours dissertation). University of Manitoba, Winnipeg, Manitoba. 
  • Jamieson, R. K., Holmes, S., & Mewhort, D. J. K. (2010). Global similarity predicts dissociation of classification and recognition: Evidence questioning the implicit/explicit learning distinction in amnesia. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory and Cognition, 36, 1529-1535. 

Courtney O'Brien completed her Honours thesis in 2009 on the relationship between classification and recognition. She is now a Youth Care Worker at Knowles Centre. 
  • O’Brien, C. (2009). The influence of advice in classification and reasoning (Honours dissertation). University of Manitoba, Winnipeg, Manitoba.

Anthony Pranata completed his Honours thesis in 2008 on the relationship between classification and recognition. His thesis was recognized with a CPA Certificate of Academic Excellence. He is now practicing law in British Columbia.
  • Pranata, A. (2008). The effect of categorization on recognition (Honours dissertation). University of Manitoba, Winnipeg, Manitoba. 

Our collaborators

Harinder Aujla (University of Winnipeg)
Glen Bodner (Flinders University)
Matt Crump (Brooklyn College)
Sam Hannah (Capilano University)
Bill Hockley (Wilfrid Laurier University)
Brendan Johns (McGill University)
Mike Jones (Indiana University)
Bruce Milliken (McMaster University)
Penny Pexman (University of Calgary)
Jean Saint-Aubin (Université de Moncton)
Vanessa Taler (University of Ottawa)
Debra Titone (McGill University)
John Vokey (University of Lethbridge)