Role
Senior Lecturer in Psychology and Faculty of Science IT Co-ordinator
Qualifications & background
Ian Dennis took his first degree at Cambridge and obtained his Ph.D. from the University of Reading. He has been at Plymouth since 1975. He has worked on selective attention, reading and visual word recognition and of individual differences in abilities. Current interests are the role of associative mechansims in repetition priming and applications of structural equation modelling.
Professional membership
Teaching interests
- Implicit Memory *
- Statistical Methods especially multiple regression and covariance modelling *
- Psychometrics *
- Human Abilities *
Staff serving as external examiners
External Examiner University of East London, B.Sc. Psychology, 1999-2003
Research interests
- Repetition priming. *
- Applications of Structural Equation Modelling. *
Other research
Conference Papers
Dennis, I., Carder, H.P. & Perfect, T.J. (2008) In repetition priming stimuli re-activate a task on which they previously occurred. Poster presented at the 20th Annual Convention of the Association for Psychological Science, 22nd-25th May, 2008, Chicago.
Dennis, I., Carder, H.P. & Perfect, T.J. (2008). A response congruence effect in cross-task repetition priming. Talk presented to the Experimental Psychology Society, 2nd - 4th April, 2008, University of Cambridge.
Dennis, I., Carder, H.P. & Perfect, T.J. (2006). Abolishing the Conclusion Congruence Effect by an Intervening Task. Talk presented to the Cognitive Section of the British Psychological Society 6th-8th September 2006, University of Lancaster, UK.
Dennis, I., Carder, H.P., & Perfect, T.J. (2006). Can Instance Theory explain the conclusion congruence effect in repetition priming? Talk presented to the Experimental Psychology Society, Plymouth meeting, 10-12th July 2006, University of Plymouth, UK.
Dennis, I., Carder, H.P., & Perfect, T.J. (2006). Is the conclusion congruence effect in repetition priming explained by automatic conclusion retrieval? Poster presented to 4th International Conference on Memory, University of New South Wales, Sydney, 16th-21st July 2006.
Perfect, T. J. & Dennis, I. Do differences in gamma measure differences in metacognition? Paper presented to
the Society for Applied Research in Memory and Copgntion, Aberdeen, July 2003.
Dennis, I. & Perfect, T. J. Problems in the measurement of confidence-accuracy relationships. Paper
presented as part of an invited symposium, 3rd International Conference on Memory, Valencia, July 2001.
Research degrees awarded to supervised students
Allender, C.J.J. 2006 Ph.D. Thesis Title- Predicting leadership and performance in uniformed organisations using the five factor model of personality.
Capon, A. 2000 Ph.D. Thesis Title- Working memory and human reasoning.
Laurie, A.D. 2000 Ph.D. Thesis Title- Cognitive approaches ot the explanation of gambling behaviour: An evaluation.
Grants & contracts
November, 2006 to January, 2008 with T.Perfect.
Repetition priming in single and mixed task environments. ESRC £80,000
September, 2005 to December, 2006 with T.Perfect
Exploring task-specific repetition priming and the response congruence effect. ESRC £45,000.
March, 2002 to July, 2003 with S. Handley
The development of an engineering aptitude measure for Year 7 pupilsLearning and Skills Council, PCFE, Devonport School for Boys £30,000
October ,1997 to 2001 with S. Handley, S. E. Newstead, S.E. & J. Evans,
The development of an algorithm for generating analytical reasoning items Educational Testing Service, Princeton, U.S.A Approx. £350,000
Publications
Mattick, K., Dennis, I., Bradley, P. and Bligh, J. (2008) Content specificity: is it the full story? Statistical modelling of a clinical skills examination. Medical Education, 42, 589-599.
Perfect, T.J., Dennis, I. and Snell,A. (2007) The effects of local and global processing orientation on eyewitness identification performance. Memory , 15, 784-798.
Dennis, I. (2007) Halo effects in grading student projects. Journal of Applied Psychology, 92, 1169-1176.
Parmentier, F. B. R., King S., & Dennis, I. (2006) Local temporal distinctiveness does not benefit auditory verbal and spatial serial recall. Psychonomic Bulletin & Review, 13, 458-465.
Newstead, S. E., Bradon, P., Handley, S. J., Dennis, I. & Evans, J. St. B. T. (2006) Predicting the difficulty of complex logical reasoning problems. Thinking & Reasoning, 12, 62-90.
Chung,M.C., Dennis,I., Easthope, Y., Farmer, S. & Werret, J. (2005) Differentiating posttraumatic stress between elderly and younger residents. Psychiatry: Interpersonal and Biological Processes, 68, 164-173.
Chung, M.C., Dennis, I., Easthope, Y., Werrett, J. & Farmer, S. (2005) A multiple-indicator multiple-cause model for posttraumatic stress reactions: Personality, coping and maladjustment. Psychosomatic Medicine, 67, 251-259.
Handley, S.J., Capon, A., Beveridge, M., Dennis, I., & Evans, J.St.B.T. (2004). Working memory and inhibitory control in the development of children’s reasoning. Thinking and Reasoning, 10, 175-195.
Mattick, K., Dennis, I. and Bligh, J.(2004) Approaches to learning and studying in medical students: validation of a revised inventory and its relation to student characteristics and performance. Medical Education, 38, 535-543.
Dennis, I. and Schmidt, K. (2003). Associative processes in repetition priming. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory and Cognition, 29, 532-538.
Capon, A., Handley,S.J. and Dennis,I. (2003). Working memory and reasoning: An individual differences perspective. Thinking and Reasoning, 9, 203-244.
Evans, J.StB.T., Clibbens,J., Cattani,A., Harris,A. and Dennis,I.(2003). Explicit and implicit processes in multi-cue judgement. Memory and Cognition, 31,6-8-618.
Harries, C., Evans, J. StB. T. and Dennis, I. (2000) Measuring doctors’ self-insight into their prescribing decisions. Applied Cognitive Psychology, 14, 455-477.
Book Chapters
Dennis,I., Handley,S., Bradon,P., Evans, J. StB. T., and Newstead, S.E.(2002) Approaches to modelling item generative tests. In Kyllonen, P. and Irvine, S.H. (eds) Item Generative Testing.
Newstead, S.E, Bradon, P., Handley, S. Evans, J.St.B.T. & Dennis, I. (2002). Using the psychology of reasoning to predict the difficulty of analytical reasoning problems. In S.H. Irvine & P.C. Kyllonen (Eds) Item generation and test development. Erlbaum.
Handley, S., Dennis, I., Evans, J. StB. T. and Capon, A. (2000) Individual differences and the search for counterexamples in syllogistic reasoning. In Schaeken,W., De Vooght,G., Vandierendonck,A. and d’Ydewalle,G. (eds) Deductive Reasoning and Strategies. Mahwah, N.J.; Lawrence Erlbaum.
Wright, D.E. and Dennis, I.(1999) Exploiting the Speed-Accuracy Trade-Off. In Ackerman, P.L., Kyllonen,P.C, and Roberts, R.D. (eds) Learning and Individual Differences: Process, Trait and Content Determinants. Washington, D.C.; American Psychological Association.
