Simon Dennis

Associate Professor
Psychology
200E Lazenby Hall
614.292.2229
dennis.210@osu.edu

Education
B.S., University of Queensland, Computer Science and Mathematics (1987)
B.A., University of Queensland, Psychology (1988)
Ph.D., University of Queensland, Computer Science and Psychology (1993)

Teaching/Research
Dr. Dennis's main areas of interest include human memory and language processing.  He focuses primarily on episodic recognition, serial recall, and the processes behind the extraction of propositional information from text.  Dr. Dennis is also involved in a number of applied projects in the areas of defense, education, and information technology.  In particular, he works with a group developing technologies that assist intelligence agents to process large amounts of textual information, to automatically grade essays, to assess and promote vocabulary development, and to model how users interact with websites.

Selected Publications
"Probabilistic Inference in Human Semantic Memory," with M. Steyvers and T.L. Griffiths (Trends in Cognitive Sciences, 2006)

"A Memory-Based Theory of Verbal Cognition" (Cognitive Science, 2005)

"An Unsupervised Method for the Extraction of Propositional Information from Text" (Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 2004)

"A Context Noise Model of Episodic Word Recognition," with M.S. Humphreys (Psychological Review, 2001)

"ERP 'Old/New' Effects: Memory Strength and Decisional Factor(s)," with S. Finnegan, M.S. Humphreys, and G.Geffen (Neuropsychologia, 2002)

"Towards a Theory of Human Memory: Data Structures and Access Processes," with M.S. Humphreys and J. Wiles (Behavioral and Brain Sciences 1994)

"Beyond the Tower of Babel in Human Memory Research: The Validity and Utility of Specification," with M.S. Humphreys and J. Wiles (Behavioral and Brain Sciences, 1994)

Honors, Awards, and Service
Air Force Office of Scientific Research Grant, "Networks of Memories," with M. Belkin (2009-12)

Australian Research Council Grant, "Single and Dual Process Models of Recognition Memory: Reconciliation of Behavioral, Eelectrophysiological, and Neuro-imaging data," with J. Dunn and G.I. de Zubicaray (2008-11)

Grant for Defense Research and Development in Canada,"Computational Models Standing Offer," with M. Humphreys and A. Smith (2006-09)

Senior Researcher Grant, Defense Science and Technology Organization (2006)

Defense Science and Technology Organization Grant, "The Textual Entailment Challenge," with M. Butavicius (2006)

Mershon Project
The Psychology of Hate (2009-10)