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   Brenda Hannon, Ph.D., Individual Investigator

Brenda Hannon is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Psychology at the University of Texas at San Antonio. Dr. Hannon received her Masters in Cognitive Psychology from the University of Toronto, where she became interested in the possibility of examining individual differences in higher cognitive processes such as inferential processing. Under the guidance of Meredyth Daneman, she completed her Masters thesis on facilitating knowledge-based inferences in less-skilled readers, which was published in 1998 (see Selected Peer-Reviewed Publications below). This manuscript paved the way for her doctoral research on individual differences in the component processes of reading comprehension ability, culminating with a Ph.D. in Cognitive Psychology from the University of Toronto in 2001.

During her graduate years, Dr. Hannon pursued a second line of research, namely memory. She examined the relationships between semantics and encoding specificity (see Hannon & Craik, 2001) and, later, how characteristics of the text and the individual influence susceptibility to semantic illusions. That is, she examined what it is about the question and the individual that makes individuals tend to answer "two" instead of "none" to the question "How many animals of each kind did Moses take on the ark?" (see Hannon & Daneman, 2001a). She also investigated the independent and interactive contributions of the encoding, retrieval, and encoding+retrieval match phases on prospective memory (i.e., memory for future intentions such as remembering to pick up milk after work). The manuscript for this research is currently being prepared for journal submission.

Currently, Dr. Hannon's avenues of research similarly converge on cognitive processes involved in reasoning, reading comprehension, prospective memory, distorted and false memories, strategies for learning, problem-solving, and individual differences in comprehension and IQ. Aside from her current study on differences in test anxiety between Hispanics and European-Americans, Dr. Hannon is actively investigating a strategy for learning similar concepts (e.g., fluid intelligence/ crystallized intelligence). She has a number of projects planned or underway, including exploration of strategy transfer and comparing strategies; solution transfer in problem-solving; and comparisons between components of prospective memory (i.e., memory for future events) to other types of memory; and individual differences in the component processes of reading comprehension (specifically, age-related differences in the component processing of reading comprehension ability (manuscript in preparation), perceptual- and cognitive-related differences in inferential processes in young and senior adults (manuscript in preparation),  the relative contributions of lower-level processes (i.e., word recognition), higher-level processes (i.e., inferencing), and cognitive resources (i.e., working memory) to individual differences in reading and listening comprehension).

Selected Peer-Reviewed Publications:

Hannon, B., & Daneman, M. (2001a). Susceptibility to semantic illusions: An individual-differences perspective. Memory and Cognition, 29, 449-461.

Hannon, B., & Daneman, M. (2001b). A new tool for measuring and understanding individual differences in the component processes of reading comprehension. Journal of Educational Psychology, 93, 103-128.

Hannon, B., & Craik, F. (2001). Encoding specificity revisited: The role of semantics. Canadian Journal of Psychology, 55, 231-243.

Hannon, B., & Daneman, M. (1998). Facilitating knowledge-based inferences in less-skilled readers. Contemporary Educational Psychology, 23, 149-172.