Research Interests

Colleen Parks' research examines human memory with the goal of enhancing our theoretical understanding of memory function. Her current research focuses on encoding and retrieval processes underlying different types of recognition memory performance, theoretical models of recognition memory, and the nature of recollection and familiarity. Her research examines questions about the nature of the processes (and representations) underlying recognition memory performance (e.g., how does recollection work?), relationships between different memory processes (e.g., are familiarity and implicit memory related?), and questions about which models are best at describing and predicting memory performance (e.g., single versus dual-process models). She examines these issues using a variety of methods including implicit and explicit tests, the process dissociation procedure, the remember-know procedure, and ROC modeling.

Dr. Parks received her doctoral degree in Experimental Psychology from the Georgia Institute of Technology in 2004.