Biography:Lynne M. Reder

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Lynne M. Reder
BornDec 28, 1950
CitizenshipUnited States
Known forStudies of human memory
Spouse(s)John R. Anderson
Scientific career
FieldsCognitive psychology
InstitutionsCarnegie Mellon University

Lynne M. Reder is an American psychologist whose research contributed to our understanding of human memory.[1]

Career

Reder received her undergraduate degree in Psychology at Stanford University in 1972, graduating as a member of Phi Beta Kappa. In 1976, she earned her PhD in Psychology from the University of Michigan. After a two-year NIMH post-doctoral fellowship at Yale University (1976 to 1978), she joined the faculty at Carnegie Mellon University and retired as full professor (Emerita) in 2021.

Her contributions to psychological science and experimental psychology have been recognized through multiple honors and elected positions:

  • 1999: Elected Fellow, American Psychological Association (APA), Division 3
  • 2001: Elected Fellow, American Association for Advancement of Science (AAAS)
  • 2005: Elected Fellow, Association for Psychological Science (APS)
  • 2007: Elected to the Society of Experimental Psychologists
  • 2010: Elected to the Memory Disorders Research Society (MDRS)
  • 2011 - 2016: Elected to the Governing Board of The Psychonomic Society
  • 2013 - 2017: Elected Member at Large, Section J, American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS)

Selected research and publications

Role of Elaborations and Summaries in Memory Retention

Reder's early work explored the effects of elaborations and summaries on learning. She found that people often learned more from summaries than original texts[2] and that self-generated elaborations improve retention better than elaborations provided by the author[3][4]

Strategy Selection and Question Answering

Reder showed that people do not default to direct retrieval when attempting to answer a question but rather dynamically choose strategies based on intrinsic question features (e.g., feeling of knowing[5], partial matching[6]) and base rates of success[7].

Source of Activation Confusion (SAC) Model of Memory

Reder developed the Source of Activation Confusion (SAC) model, which uses activation-based principles to explain diverse phenomena, including the misinformation effect, contextual fan effects[8], recognition memory (Remember/Know judgments)[9], and age-related memory differences[10].

Role of Hippocampus in Memory

Reder showed that both implicit and explicit memory tasks can rely on the hippocampus, depending on whether the task requires the formation of new associations.

Working Memory and Cognitive Resources

Reder’s contributions to working memory include the development of the Modified Digit Span (MODS) task[11], which predicts cognitive performance across domains. She expanded her SAC model to incorporate the role of working memory in knowledge construction, emphasizing resource limitations in memory processes showing that resources are consumed/depleted as an inverse function of chunk familiarity and rate of replenishment depends on the rate of input and familiarity of the information to be processed.

Legacy

Lynne Reder's pioneering work on elaboration, strategy selection, and memory models continues to inform theoretical frameworks and practical applications.

References

  1. "Memory Lab Carnegie Mellon University" (in en-US). https://www.cmu.edu/dietrich/psychology/memorylab/director.html. 
  2. Reder, L.M.; Anderson, J.R. (1980). "A comparison of texts and their summaries: Memorial consequences. Journal of Verbal Learning and Verbal Behavior". Journal of Verbal Learning and Verbal Behavior 19: 121-134. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S002253718090122X. 
  3. Reder, L.M. (1982). "Elaborations: When do they help and when do they hurt?". De Gruyter Brill 2: 211-224. https://www.degruyter.com/document/doi/10.1515/text.1.1982.2.1-3.211/html. 
  4. Reder, L.M. (1985). "Techniques available to author, teacher and reader to improve retention of main ideas of a chapter". in Chipman, S.; Segal, J.; Glazer, R.. Thinking and learning skills: Current research and open questions, Vol 2. Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates. pp. 37–64. https://www.taylorfrancis.com/chapters/edit/10.4324/9780203056646-4/techniques-available-author-teacher-reader-improve-retention-main-ideas-chapter-lynne-reder. 
  5. Reder, L.M.; Ritter, F. (1992). "What determines initial feeling of knowing? Familiarity with question terms, not with the answer.". Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, Cognition 18: 435-451. https://psycnet.apa.org/record1992-30097-001. 
  6. Reder, L.M. (1991). "Locus of the Moses illusion: Imperfect encoding, retrieval or match?". Journal of Memory and Language 30: 385-406. https://psycnet.apa.org/record/1992-30097-001. 
  7. Reder, L.M. (1988). "Strategic control of retrieval strategies". in Bower, G.. The Psychology of Learning and Motivation, Vol. 22. New York: Academic Press. pp. 227-259. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0079742108600420. 
  8. Reder, L.M.; Donavos, D.K.; Erickson, M.A. (2002). "Perceptual match effects in direct tests of memory: The role of contextual fan". Memory & Cognition 30(2): 312-323. https://link.springer.com/article/10.3758/BF03195292. 
  9. Reder, L.M.; Nhouyvansivong, A.; Schunn, C.D.; Ayers, M.S.; Angstadt, P.; Hiraki, K. (2000). "A mechanistic account of the mirror effect for word frequency: A computational model of remember/know judgments in a continuous recognition paradigm". Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, & Cognition 26(2): 294-320. https://psycnet.apa.org/record/2000-07237-002. 
  10. Buchler, N.E.G.; Reder, L.M. (2007). "Modeling age-related memory deficits: A two-parameter solution". Psychology & Aging 22(1): 104-121. https://psycnet.apa.org/buy/2007-03358-013. 
  11. Lovett, M.C.; Reder, L.M.; Lebiere, C. (1999). "Modeling working memory in a unified architecture: An ACT-R perspective". Models of working memory: Mechanisms of active maintenance and executive control. Cambridge University Press. pp. 135-182. https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/abs/models-of-working-memory/modeling-working-memory-in-a-unified-architecture-an-actr-perspective/76468084C4E27A8F5727F371286C9010.