Alan Brown, Ph.D.
Professor and Director of Undergraduate Studies
Ph.D., Northwestern University

Research interests

• Déjà vu experience
• Violence and memory function
• Tip of the tongue state

• Cognitive factors in food preference
 

Déjà vu experience

A déjà vu experience is an illusion of recognition failure where one objectively knows that the present experience is new, but subjectively one feels that it has been experienced before.  We are currently pursuing several avenues of research that will hopefully help elucidate the possible mechanisms that underlie this experience.
 

Representative Publications

Brown, A. S. (2003).  A review of the déjà vu experience.  Psychological Bulletin,

     129, 394–413.

Brown, A. S.  (2004).  The déjà vu experience.  New York:  Psychology Press.

Brown, A. S. (2004).  The déjà vu illusion.  Current Directions in Psychological

     Science, 13, 256-259.
Brown, A. S., & Marsh, E. J. (2008). Evoking false beliefs about

     autobiographical experience.  Psychonomic Bulletin & Review, 15, 186-190.

 

A cumulating body of literature has documented the detrimental effects of stress on memory function at both a biological and psychological level.  I am working on several different fronts to address this topic.  One line of investigation involves the negative influence of chronic stress from an abusive family environment on the development of children’s cognitive functioning.  The other projects are focused on memory for episodes of partner violence in adolescents and adults, and how such retrospective autobiographical reports can be improved.
 

Representative Publication

Jouriles, E. N.,  McDonald, R.,  Garrido, E., Rosenfield, D. &  Brown, A. S. 

     (2006). Assessing physical violence in adolescent romantic relationships: can

     we do it better?  Psychological Assessment, 2005, 469-475.Jouriles, E. N., Brown, A. S., McDonald, R., Rosenfield, D., Leahy, M. M., & Silver,
        C. (in press). Intimate partner violence and preschoolers’ explicit memory
        functioning.  Journal of Family Psychology.
 

A tip of the tongue experience is when you attempt to access a word that you know well, but it is temporarily and inexplicably inaccessible right at the moment.  I am examining how this problem may relate to vocabulary size, using older adults and bilinguals to evaluate this hypothesis.  I am also looking at possible inhibition from prior retrievals in the etiology of TOTs.
 

Representative Publications

Brown, A. S. (1991).  A review of the tip of the tongue phenomenon.  Psychological

     Bulletin, 109, 204-223.

Brown, A. S., & Nix, L. A. (1996).  Age differences in the tip-of-the-tongue

     experience. American Journal of Psychology, 109, 79-91.

Gollan, T. H., & Brown, A. S.  (2006). From tip-of-the-tongue (TOT) data to

      theoretical implications:  When more TOTs means better retrieval.  Journal of

      Experimental Psychology:  General, 135, 462-483.

Many factors contribute to the formation and maintenance of food preferences. These can involve such things as the food aversions that we experience, socially coerced eating episodes, and comfort food preferences. Aside from a better understanding of eating behaviors, we are hoping to develop ways to address weight control through the cognitive re-evaluation of one's personal food preference habits.

Representative Publications
Batsell, W. R., & Brown, A. S.  (1998).  Human flavor-aversion learning:  A
         comparison of traditional aversions and cognitive aversions.  Learning and
         Motivation, 29, 383-396.

Batsell, W. R., Brown, A. S., Ansfield, M. E., & Paschall, G. Y. (2002). “You WILL
         eat all of that!”:  A retrospective analysis of forced consumption episodes. 
         Appetite, 38, 211-219.