Research Interests and Publications:

Research in Dr. Unsworth's laboratory combines experimental and differential approaches to cognition in order to examine basic memory and attention processes and their role in higher-order cognition. Specifically, we are interested in individual differences in memory and attention capabilities and their relation to higher-order cognitive processes (such as intelligence and reasoning).  Our current work explores two functional characteristics of working memory: the need to actively maintain information in the face of distraction and the need to retrieve information that could not be maintained. It is argued that both functions are needed in a host of cognitive activities, but to differing degrees based on task demands. In addition, we are interested in how discrimination processes at retrieval influence remembering and how individuals differ in those discrimination processes.  Finally, work in the laboratory is aimed at better understanding search and retrieval dynamics in recall. 

Dr. Unsworth will not be accepting master's students for Fall 2012.

Selected Publications:

Unsworth, N., Brewer, G.A., & Spillers, G.J. (In Press). Variation in Cognitive Failures: An Individual Differences Investigation of Everday Attention and Memory Failures. Journal of Memory & Language.

Unsworth, N., & Spillers, G.J.  (2010).  Working memory capacity: Attention, Memory, or Both?  A direct test of the dual-component model. Journal of Memory and Language, 62, 392-406.

Unsworth, N., & Brewer, G.A.  (2010).  Individual differences in false recall:  A latent variable analysis.  Journal of Memory & Language, 62, 19-34.

Unsworth, N., Heitz, R.P., & Parks, N.A. (2008).  The importance of temporal distinctiveness for forgetting over the short-term.  Psychological Science, 19, 1078-1081.

Unsworth, N.  (2008).  Exploring the retrieval dynamics of delayed and final free recall:  Further evidence for temporal-contextual search.  Journal of Memory and Language, 59, 223-236.

Unsworth, N. (2007) Individual differences in working memory capacity and episodic retrieval:  Examining the dynamics of delayed and continuous distractor free recall.  Journal of Experimental Psychology:  Learning, Memory, and Cognition, 33, 1020-1034.

Unsworth N., & Engle, R.W. (2007).  On the division of short-term and working memory:  An examination of simple and complex spans and their relation to higher-order abilities.  Psychological Bulletin, 133, 1038-1066.

Unsworth, N., & Engle, R.W. (2007).  The nature of individual differences in working memory capacity:  Active maintenance in primary memory and controlled search from secondary memory. Psychological Review, 114, 104-132.