Murray Singer

I have published over eighty-five articles, chapters, and books about language processes, memory, and related topics.

Continuously funded by the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC; formerly the National Research Council) 1974-2018.

• PhD (Psychology), Carnegie Mellon University, 1973
• MS (Psychology), Carnegie Mellon University, 1970 
• BSc First Class Honours (Psychology), McGill University, 1968 

Research interests

• Human cognition
• Language comprehension
• Inference processes in comprehension
• Comprehension monitoring and validation
• Question answering
• Human memory
• Individual differences in comprehension
• Computational modelling
   

Research summary

I focus on adults' comprehension of and memory for text and discourse. The research is guided by a "constructionist" framework, which emphasizes the preservation of coherence, especially regarding situational representations; and the impact of readers' goals. There are several current emphases. First, maintaining coherence depends on the continual, tacit validation (confirming coherence and accuracy) of both explicit and implicit text ideas. Second, I have been studying the metamemorial processes both of post-text question answering and item memory. For example, when asked, about a steamboat race in July, "was it held on a cold day?", do readers search their memory for that statement in the text or instead rely on their general knowledge (it probably wasn't). Third, I use a paradigm coordinating empirical manipulations and multinomial modelling to study the multiplicity of processes and levels of representation that reflect people's accurate and inaccurate memory for text.

• Singer, M. (1990). Psychology of language: An introduction to sentence and discourse processes. Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum. Reprinted-Psychology Press: Psychology Library Editions: Psycholinguistics (Vol. 7). Hove, England: Psychology Press, 2014.
• Singer, M., Spear, J. & Rodrigo-Tamarit, M. (2023). Text validation: Overlooking consistency effect discrepancies. Memory & Cognition, 51, 437-454. 
• Singer, M. (2019). Challenges in processes of validation--and comprehension. Distinguished Scientific Contribution Award invited article, Discourse Processes, 56, 465-483.
• Singer, M. (2013). Validation in reading comprehension. Current Directions in Psychological Science, 22, 361-366. 
• Ferretti, T. R., Singer, M., & Harwood, J. (2013). Processes of discourse integration: Evidence from event-related brain potentials. Discourse Processes, 50, 165-186. 
• Singer, M., & Remillard, G. (2008). Veridical and false memory for text: A multiprocess analysis. Journal of Memory and Language, 59, 18-35. 
• Singer, M., & Wixted, J. T. (2006). Effect of delay on recognition decisions: Evidence for a criterion shift. Memory & Cognition, 34, 125-137.
• Singer, M., & Halldorson, M. (1996). Constructing and validating motive bridging inferences. Cognitive Psychology, 30, 1-38. 
• Graesser, A. C., Singer, M., & Trabasso, T., (1994). Constructing inferences during narrative text comprehension. Psychological Review, 101, 371-395. 
• Singer, M., & Ferreira, F. (1983). Inferring consequences in story comprehension. Journal of Verbal Learning and Verbal Behavior, 22, 437-448. 

• 2018 - Distinguished Scientific Contribution Award, Society for Text and Discourse
• 2007 - Professor of the Year, Faculty of Arts, University of Manitoba
• 2003 - Certificate of Recognition, Continuous Funding Since Inception of Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council
• 1990, 1997, 2001, 2007  - Merit Awards, University of Manitoba
• 1979-1980, 1986-1987 - Leave Fellow, Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada

• 2004-2005 - President, Canadian Society for Brain, Behaviour, and Cognitive Science
• 1998-2001 - Editor, Canadian Journal of Experimental Psychology
• Fellow of six societies: Canadian Psychological Association, 1999; American Psychological Association (Division 3), 2005; Society for Text and Discourse, 2009 (Charter Fellow); Association for Psychological Science, 2015; Psychonomic Society, 2015; Canadian Society for Brain, Behaviour, and Cognitive Science, 2017.
• Productive research leaves at University of Colorado (2); Stanford University; University of California, San Diego (3); and University of British Columbia. Two were supported by Leave Fellowships from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada.