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Todd A. Kahan
Associate Professor, Department Chair  ·  Ph.D. University at Albany, State University of New York, 1998

 Todd A. Kahan
  • Visual perception and masking

  • Word recognition processes involved in reading

  • Selective attention

  • Semantic priming

  • Implicit and explicit memory

Contact Information

Phone: 207-786-6180

Email: tkahan@bates.edu

Office: Pettengill 364

Cognition Laboratory website: http://abacus.bates.edu/~tkahan

  

Education

Research Interests

People must attend to, perceive, and store into memory an enormous amount of visual input on a daily basis. However, the way in which these seemingly simple tasks are accomplished remains somewhat of a mystery. Part of this mystery arises because attention, perception, memory and language are so highly interconnected they are often hard to disentangle. Professor Kahan's research focuses on the interplay between these cognitive functions.  He is conducting research examining: object substitution masking, object trimming, attentional capture, the attentional blink phenomenon, both semantic and repetition priming, negative priming, Stroop interference, and other visual paradigms which may help to clarify the interconnected roles of attention, perception, and memory.

Courses Taught

Selected Publications

* indicates Bates student

Kahan, T. A., *Colligan, S. M., & *Wiedman, J. N. (in press). Are visual features of a looming or receding object processed in a capacity-free manner? Consciousness and Cognition.

Kahan, T. A., *Hengen, K. B., & Mathis, K. M. (2011). An examination of orthographic and phonological processing using the task-choice procedure. Language and Cognitive Processes, 26, 171-190.

Kahan, T. A., & Enns, J. T. (2010). Object trimming: When masking dots alter rather than replace target representations. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception and Performance, 36, 88-102. [see demonstration here]

Kahan, T. A. (2009). Lexical decision task. In D. Matsumoto (Ed.), The Cambridge Dictionary of Psychology. UK: Cambridge University Press.

Kahan, T. A., & *Hely, C. D. (2008). The role of valence and frequency in the emotional Stroop task. Psychonomic Bulletin & Review, 15, 956-960.

Kahan, T. A., & Mathis, K. M. (2007). Searching under cups for clues about memory: A classroom demonstration. Teaching of Psychology, 34, 124-128.

Kahan, T. A., & *Lichtman, A. S. (2006). Looking at object substitution masking in depth and motion: Towards a two-object theory of object substitution. Perception & Psychophysics, 68, 437-446.

Kahan, T. A., Sellinger, J. J., & Broman-Fulks, J. J. (2006). Associative and phonological priming effects following letter search on the prime. American Journal of Psychology, 119, 239-254.

Kahan, T. A., & Mathis, K. M. (2002). Gestalt grouping and common onset masking. Perception & Psychophysics, 64, 1248-1259.

Kahan, T. A. (2000). Negative priming from masked words: Retrospective prime-clarification or center-surround inhibition? Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition, 26, 1392-1410. (Recipient of an APA New Investigator Award)

Kahan, T. A., Neely, J. H., & Forsythe, W. J. (1999). Dissociated backward priming effects in lexical decision and pronunciation tasks. Psychonomic Bulletin and Review, 6 (1), 105- 110.

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