Dr. Jennifer Tomes B.A., M.A., Ph.D. (University of Western Ontario), Associate Professor Office: Crabtree 215 Telephone: (506) 364-2460 Email: jtomes@mta.ca

Courses taught:

Psychology 1011: Introduction to Psychology II
Psychology 2201: Cognitive Processes
Psychology 3201: Memory
Psychology 3211: Sensation & Perception
Psychology 4201: Advanced Topics in Cognition
Psychology 4501: Selected Topics
Psychology 4903: Honours Seminar

Research interests:

My area of study is cognitive psychology. The primary focus of my research is human memory. Specifically, I am interested in differences between real and illusory memories and have a number of projects currently underway investigating various issues pertaining to these types of "memories”. I am intrigued by the fact that people often report a higher confidence for false, suggested "memories" than for real memories. I am attempting to determine how individuals compute confidence judgements, what these judgements are based on, and what the differences are between judgements for real and illusory memories. My interest in illusory memories has also led me to investigate individual differences in suggestibility to false post-event information. I have also investigated suggestibility to different types of events including depictions of crimes versus more ordinary, everyday scenes, and suggestibility for emotional and graphic scenes versus less graphic scenes.

My secondary research interests involve educational testing strategies and how they impact student learning.

Recent publications:

Tomes, J. L., Wasylkiw, L., & Mockler, B. A. (2011). Studying for success: Diaries of students' study behaviours. Education Research and Review, 17, 1-12.

Wasylkiw, L, & Tomes, J. L. (2010). Using tests to enhance active learning. Proceedings of the AAU Showcase, Teaching to Engage and Retain.

Ruci, L., Tomes, J. L., & Zelenski, J. M. (2009). Mood-congruent false memories in the DRM paradigm. Cognition & Emotion, 23, 1153-1165.

Wasylkiw, L., Tomes, J. L., & Smith, F. (2008). Subset testing: Prevalence and implications for study behaviours. Journal of Experimental Education, 76, 243-257.

Claxton-Oldfield, S., Tomes, J., Brennan, M., Fawcett, C., & Claxton-Oldfield, J. (2005). Palliative care volunteerism among college students in Canada. American Journal of Hospice & Palliative Medicine, 22 (2), 111-118.

Johnson, A. M., Pollard, C., Vernon, P. A., Tomes, J. L., & Jog, M. S. (2005). Memory perception and strategy use in Parkinson's disease. Parkinsonism and Related Disorders, 11,111-115.

Tomes, J. L. & Katz, A. N. (2000). Confidence-accuracy relations for real and suggested events. Memory, 8, 273-283.

Tomes, J. L. & Katz, A. N. (1997). Habitual susceptibility to misinformation and individual differences in eyewitness memory. Applied Cognitive Psychology, 11, 233-251.