Michael K. Gardner, Ph.D. |
Selected Publications:Woltz, D.J., Gardner, M.K., & Gyll, S.P. (in press). The role of attention processes in near transfer of cognitive skills. Submitted to the Learning and Individual Differences. Gardner, M.K., Woltz, D.J., & Bell, B.G. (in press). Issues in sequence memory representation: At what levels are cognitive skills acquired? American Journal of Psychology. Woltz, D.J., Gardner, M.K., & Bell, B.G. (2000). Negative transfer errors in cognitive skills: Strong-but-wrong sequence application. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition, 26(3), 601-625. Clark, E., Gardner, M.K., Brown, G., & Howell, R.J. (1990). Changes in analogical reasoning in adulthood. Experimental Aging Research, 16(2), 95-99. Sternberg, R.J., & Gardner, M.K. (1983). Unities in inductive reasoning. Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, 112, 80-116. |
Professor, Associate Department Chair |
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Program Affiliation(s):Learning & Cognition, Statistical & Research Methods Degrees:PhD, Yale University, 1982 - Cognitive Psychology
Bio:I have pursued research in two separate areas of learning and cognition. The first, in collaboration with Dan Woltz, has studied the acquisition and representation of sequential cognitive skills. We have been interested in how sequential skills (e.g., the application of a set of "logic gates" to digital information) are stored in memory, its "procedural" and "implicit" nature, how this representation can result in undetected errors by otherwise skilled individuals. Our interest in errors have led to an interest in skill transfer, or how the conditions of training can facilitate or impede later performance of new problems. Finally, we have been interested in determining which individual differences variables (e.g., working memory and attention) are related to better performance on sequential cognitive skills. The second area I've been involved in concerns human intelligence in general, and the ability to solve analogies in particular. I've developed information processing models of analogical reasoning, series completion tasks, and classification tasks in collaboration with my graduate school mentor Robert J. Sternberg. I've also looked at the information processing behind analogical reasoning in a number of special populations: adults with closed head injuries, recovering alcoholics, and the elderly. Much of this work was in collaboration with Elaine Clark (and numerous graduate students). In terms of methodology, I have background in multiple regression, and I teach the Educational Psychology Department's course on factor analysis, multidimensional scaling, and cluster analysis. I believe that there are many interesting problems in psychology, and I enjoy collaborating with others. |
