James Nairne

Degree: Ph.D Yale, 1981

Research Interests:

Our laboratory investigates basic memory processes. Our experiments are currently testing whether our memory systems are “tuned” to solve adaptive problems from our ancestral past.

Adaptive Memory Lab

Recent Publications:

Poirier, M., Nairne, J. S., Morin, C., Zimmerman, F. G. S., Koutmeridou, K., & Fowler, J. (2012). Memory as discrimination: A challenge to the encoding-retrieval match principle. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, & Cognition, 38, 16-29.

Nairne, J. S., VanArsdall, J. E., Pandeirada, J. N. S., & Blunt, J. R. (2012). Adaptive memory: Enhanced location memory after survival processing. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, & Cognition, 38, 495-501.

Wesselmann, E. D., Nairne, J. S., & Williams, K. D. (2012). An evolutionary social psychological approach to studying the effects of ostracism. Journal of Social Evolutionary, and Cultural Psychology, 6, 309-328.

Nairne, J. S., & Neath, I. (2012). Sensory and working memory. In A. F. Healy & R. W. Proctor (Eds.), Comprehensive Handbook of Psychology (2nd Edition; pp. 419- 445). New York: Wiley.

Nairne, J. S., VanArsdall, J. E., Pandeirada, J. N. S., Cogdill, M., & LeBreton, J. M. (2013). Adaptive memory: The mnemonic value of animacy.Psychological Science, 24, 2099-2105.

VanArsdall, J. E., Nairne, J. S., Pandeirada, J. N. S., & Blunt, J. R. (2013). Adaptive memory: Animacy processing produces mnemonic advantages.Experimental Psychology, 60, 172-178.

Nairne, J. S. (2014). Adaptive memory: Controversies and future directions. In In B. L. Schwartz, M. L. Howe, M. P. Toglia, & H. Otgaar (Eds.), What is adaptive about adaptive memory? (pp. 308-321). New York: Oxford University Press.

Nairne, J. S. (2014). Psychology 6th Edition. Belmont, CA: Wadsworth, Cengage.

VanArsdall, J. E., Nairne, J. S., Pandeirada, J. N. S., & Cogdill, M. (2015). Adaptive memory: Animacy effects persist in paired-associate learning. Memory, 23, 657-663.

Nairne, J. S., Pandeirada, J. N S., Van Arsdall, J. E., & Blunt, J. R. (2015). Source constrained retrieval and survival processing. Memory & Cognition, 43, 1-13.

Nairne, J. S. (2015). The three “Ws” of episodic memory: What, when, and where. American Journal of Psychology, 128, 267-279.

Nairne, J. S. (2015). Grading and the “fairness doctrine” In R. J. Sternberg & S. T. Fiske (Eds.), Ethical principles, case studies, and commentaries for the behavioral and brain sciences (pp. 22-25). New York: Cambridge University Press.

Nairne, J. S. (2015). Adaptive memory: Novel findings acquired through forward engineering. In D. S. Lindsay, C. M. Kelley, A. P Yonelinas, & Roediger, H. L. III Remembering: Attributions, processes, and control in human memory: Papers in honor of Larry L. Jacoby (pp. 3-14). New York: Psychology Press.

Nairne, J. S. (2015). Encoding and retrieval: Beyond Tulving and Thomson’s (1973) encoding specificity. In M. W. Eysenck & D. Groome (Eds.) Cognitive psychology: Revisiting the classic studies (pp. 117-132). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.

Nairne, J. S., & Pandeirada, J. N. S. (2016). Adaptive memory: The evolutionary significance of survival processing. Perspectives on Psychological Science, 11, 496-511.

Nairne, J. S. (2016). Adaptive memory: Fitness-relevant “tunings” help drive learning and remembering. In D. C. Geary & D. Berch (Eds.) Evolutionary perspectives on education and child development (pp. 251-269). Switzerland: Springer International Publishing.

VanArsdall, J. E., Nairne, J. S., Pandeirada, J. N. S., & Cogdill, M. (2017). A categorical retrieval strategy does not explain animacy effects in episodic memory. Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology, 70, 761-771.

Nairne, J. S., Cogdill, M., & Lehman, M. (2017). Adaptive memory: Temporal, semantic, and rating-based clustering following survival processing. Journal of Memory and Language, 93, 304-314.

Nairne, J. S., VanArsdall, J. E., & Cogdill, M. (2017). Remembering the living: Episodic memory is tuned to animacy. Current Directions in Psychological Science, 26, 22-27.

Nairne, J. S., & Coverdale, M. E. (2017). Leo Postman: Master experimentalist. American Journal of Experimental Psychology, 130, 259-268.

Fernandes, N. L., Pandeirada, J. N. S., Soares, S., & Nairne, J. S. (2017). Adaptive memory: The mnemonic value of contamination. Evolution and Human Behavior, 38, 451-460.

Pandeirada, J. N. S., Fernandes, N. L., Vasconcelos, M., & Nairne, J. S. (2017). Adaptive memory: Remembering potential mates. Evolutionary Psychology, 15, 1-11.