• Associate Professor, Psychology
• Associate Professor, Radiology

McDermott

• Ph.D. in Cognitive Psychology at Rice University
• M.A. in Cognitive Psychology, at Rice University
• B.A. in Psychology at University of Notre Dame

News Stories & Tip Sheets:

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Remember the future Imaging pinpoints brain regions that 'see the future' Jan. 2, 2007 -- Comparing images of brain activity in response to the "self-remember," left, and "self-future" event cues, researchers found a surprisingly complete overlap among regions of the brain used. Using brain imaging, researchers from Washington University in St. Louis have identified several brain regions that are involved in the uniquely human ability to envision future events. The study, to be published in the journal PNAS, provides evidence that memory and future thought are highly interrelated and helps explain why future thought may be impossible without memories. Findings suggest that envisioning the future may be a critical prerequisite for many higher-level planning processes.

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Clips:

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Future recall New Scientist (UK) March 27, 2007 -- Cover story on the connection neuroscientists are finding between our memory of the past and our imagining of the future. Evidence is accumulating of an intimate mental connection between recalling the past and imagining the future. Neuroscientists and psychologists have found that people who have lost their memories also lose their ability to imagine the future, and that the brain regions that are used for remembering are also used for imagining. Article includes fMRI research done by WUSTL psychology professor Kathleen McDermott and colleague Karl Szpunar.

Abilities to visualize past, future overlap USA Today, Scientific American, Washington Post and 35 others Jan. 2, 2007 -- Our ability to daydream about our futures is closely related to our ability to recall our pasts and might even depend on it, according to a WUSTL study released Monday in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. WUSTL psychology professor and co-author Kathleen McDermott comments.

POSITIONS HELD:

• Assistant Professor, Department of Psychology, Washington University, 2001-present
• Assistant Professor, Department of Radiology, Washington University School of Medicine 2001-present
• Adjunct Assistant Professor, Department of Psychology, University of Missouri 1999-present
• Research Associate, Department of Radiology, Washington University School of Medicine 1996-1998
• Research Assistant Professor, Department of Psychology, Washington University 1998-2001

RESEARCH INTERESTS:

• Functional neuroimaging of human memory
• False memory phenomena and illusions of memory
• Implicit tests of memory
• Effects of testing on subsequent retrieval
• Imaginal processes and their relation to perceptual processes
• Neural substrates of language
• Development of language mapping techniques to aid neurosurgical planning

TEACHING:

• Memory, Statistics (undergraduate), Cognition

FUNDING:

• National Institutes of Health Behavioral Science Track Award for Rapid Transition (BSTART). Factors affecting the creation of false memories, $25,000 (direct costs). Principal Investigator. Aug. 1998- Aug. 1999.
• Office of Technical Services contract. Functional imaging of cognitive deception, $516,000 (direct costs). Co-P.I. July 1998-July 2000
• McDonnell-Pew Program in Cognitive Neuroscience. Cognitive processing in inferior frontal gyrus: Beyond the verbal/nonverbal heuristic. $150,000 (direct costs). Principal Investigator. September 1999-September 2002.
• Office of Technical Services. Functional imaging of cognitive deception II, $130,000 (direct costs). Co-P.I. Aug. 2000 - Aug. 2001.
• National Science Foundation Professional Opportunities for Women program. The role of right frontal cortex in episodic memory encoding. Principal Investigator. $50,000 (direct costs). SES-0074848. Oct.1, 2000 - March 31, 2001.
• National Institutes of Health. The neural substrates of false and veridical memory. Principal Investigator. $100,000 (direct costs). Sept, 2001-Aug. 2003.
• McDonnell Center for Higher Brain Function. The neural substrates of false and veridical memory. Principal Investigator. $60,000 (total costs). Sept 2001-Aug 2003.

PUBLICATIONS

Journal articles

• Roediger, H.L. & McDermott, K.B. (1992). Depression and implicit memory: A commentary. Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 101, 587- 591.
• McDermott, K.B. & Roediger, H.L. (1994). Effects of imagery on perceptual implicit memory tests. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition, 20, 1379-1390.
• Roediger, H.L. & McDermott, K.B. (1994). The problem of differing false alarm rates for the process dissociation procedure: Comment on Verfaellie and Treadwell (1993). Neuropsychology, 8, 284-288.
• Roediger, H.L. & McDermott, K.B. (1995). Creating false memories: Remembering words not presented in lists. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition, 21, 803-814.
• Roediger, H.L. & McDermott, K.B. (1996). False perceptions of false memories. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition, 22, 814-816.
• McDermott, K.B. (1996). The persistence of false memories in list recall. Journal of Memory and Language, 35, 212-230.
• Roediger, H.L., Jacoby, J.D., & McDermott, K.B. (1996). Misinformation effects in recall: Creating false memories through repeated retrieval. Journal of Memory and Language, 35, 300-318.
• Schacter, D.L., Reiman, E., Curran, T., Yun, L.S., Bandy, D., McDermott, K.B., & Roediger, H.L. (1996). Neuroanatomical correlates of veridical and illusory recognition memory: Evidence from positron emission tomography. Neuron, 17, 267-274.
• McDermott, K.B. & Roediger, H.L. (1996). Exact and conceptual repetition dissociate conceptual tests: Problems for transfer appropriate processing theory. Canadian Journal of Experimental Psychology, 50, 57-71.
• McDermott, K.B. (1997). Priming on perceptual implicit memory tests can be achieved through presentation of associates. Psychonomic Bulletin & Review, 4, 582-586.
• McDermott 4 Kelley, W.M., Miezen, F.M., McDermott, K.B., Buckner, R.L., Raichle, M.E., Cohen, N.J., Ollinger, J.M., Akbudak, E., Conturo, T.E., Snyder, A.Z., & Petersen, S.E. (1998). Hemispheric asymmetry for verbal and nonverbal memory encoding in human dorsal frontal cortex. Neuron, 20, 927-936.
• McDermott, K.B. & Roediger, H.L. (1998). Attempting to avoid illusory memories: Robust false recognition of associates persists under conditions of explicit warnings and immediate testing. Journal of Memory and Language, 39, 508-520.
• Stadler, M.A., Roediger, H.L., & McDermott, K.B. (1999). Norms for word lists that create false memories. Memory & Cognition, 27, 494-500.
• Roediger, H.L. & McDermott, K.B. (1999). False alarms about false memories. Psychological Review, 106, 406-410.
• Balota, D.A., Cortese, M.J., Duchek, J.M., Adams, D., Roediger, H.L., McDermott, K.B., & Yerys, B.E. (1999). Veridical and false memories in healthy older adults and in Dementia of the Alzheimers Type. Cognitive Neuropsychology, 16, 361-384.
• McDermott, K.B., Ojemann, J.G., Petersen, S.E., Ollinger, J.M., Snyder, A.Z., Akbudak,
• E., Conturo, T.E., & Raichle, M.E. (1999). Direct comparison of episodic encoding and retrieval of words: An event-related fMRI study. Memory, 7, 661-678.
• McDermott, K.B., Buckner, R.L ., Kelley, W.M., Petersen, S.E., &. Sanders, A.L. (1999). Set-specific and code-specific activation in frontal cortex: An fMRI study of encoding and retrieval of faces and words. Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience, 11, 631-640.
• Roediger, H.L. & McDermott, K.B. (2000). Tricks of memory. Current Directions in Psychological Science, 9, 123-127.
• McDermott, K.B., Jones, T.C., Petersen, S.E., Lageman, S.K., & Roediger, H.L. Retrieval success is accompanied by enhanced activation in anterior prefrontal cortex during recognition memory: An event-related fMRI study. (2000). Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience, 12, 965-976.
• Gallo, D.A., McDermott, K.B., Percer, J.M., & Roediger, H.L. (2001). Modality effects in false recall and false recognition. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition, 27, 339-353.
• Thapar, A. & McDermott, K.B. (2001). False recall and false recognition induced by presentation of associated words: Effects of retention interval and level of processing. Memory & Cognition, 29, 424-432.
• McDermott, K.B. & Watson, J.M. (2001). The rise and fall of false recall: The impact of presentation duration. Journal of Memory and Language, 45, 160-176.
• McDermott 5 Roediger, H.L., Watson, J.M., McDermott, K.B., & Gallo, D.A. (2001). Factors that determine false recall: A multiple regression analysis. Psychonomic Bulletin & Review, 8, 385-407.
• Gallo, D.A., Roediger, H.L., & McDermott, K.B. (2001). Associative false recognition occurs without strategic criterion shifts. Psychonomic Bulletin & Review, 8, 579- 586.
• McDermott, K.B., Petersen, S.E., Watson, J.M., & Ojemann, J.G. (2003). A method for identifying regions preferentially activated by semantic and phonological processing. Neuropsychologia, 41, 293-303.
• Marsh, E.J., McDermott, K.B, & Roediger, H.L. (in press). Does test-induced priming play a role in the creation of false memories?

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