Richard Harris, Ph.D.

Research Interests

As part of the Cognitive and Human Factors Psychology program, Dr. Harris' research examines issues involving language and cognition, primarily in the areas of psycholinguistics and mass communication. While some of his research has a strong applied component, other work is clearly basic research. Although he has studied many specific problems in these areas over the years, currently active research includes the following:

Autobiographical memory for media experiences. This project assesses people's memory for their own experiences of consuming media, for example, watching a movie. It examines not only memory for the content of the film or program but also for the social experience of viewing, the thoughts and emotions remembered as experienced while watching, and the consequences of viewing that are remembered. This research has been a useful complement to more traditional laboratory and field studies of media effects. This project has looked at watching violent and romantic movies and sporting events. It has also examined perception of antisocial media messages about smoking and memory for music and associated memories from different lifetime periods.

Comprehension and memory for figurative language. This project falls more in the area of basic psycholinguistic research. Memory and comprehension studies using a variety of methodologies have compared metaphors such as "Submarines are whales" and similes such as "Submarines are like whales". Other studies have examined the reasons that people choose to use figurative language, i.e., their "discourse goals.".

Lexical processing. A new laboratory equipped to collect reaction time data, using the e-prime software, has recently been established. Dr. Harris' students have conducted recent studies looking at lexical neighborhood effects, affect priming and mood congruence, and construction of meaning in foreign-language vocabulary.

Studies of language processing in languages other than English and in bilinguals. Dr. Harris has done several studies of language comprehension and memory for materials in Spanish, German, and other languages, as well as English, usually in collaboration with other researchers elsewhere. He has also studied information processing in bilinguals, particularly Spanish-English speakers, and processing of words that are either cognates or false cognates across two languages.

In addition to empirical research, Dr. Harris is the author of two textbooks in multiple editions and the editor of several books of readings. He also leads occasional community workshops on critical viewing, media literacy, and managing television in the home. He and his students have authored several book chapters on psychology and media.

Recent Representative Publications

Research Articles

Friel, B.M., & Harris, R.J. (2004). Toward an empirical definition of cognateness: Translation elicitation in six languages. International Journal of Cognitive Technology, 9, 40-54.

Harris, R.J., Sanborn, F.W., Scott, C.L., Dodds, L., & Brandenburg, J.D. (2004). Autobiographical memories for seeing romantic movies on a date: Romance is not just for women. Media Psychology, 6, 257-284.

Harris, R.J., Hoekstra, S.J., Scott, C.L., Sanborn, F.W., Karafa, J.A., & Brandenburg, J.D. (2000). Young men's and women's different autobiographical memories of the experience of seeing frightening movies on a date. Media Psychology, 2, 245-268.

Harris, R.J., & Mosier, N.J. (1999). Memory for metaphors and similes in discourse. Discourse Processes, 28(3), 257-270.

Harris, R.J., Tebbe, M.R., Leka, G.E., Garcia, R.C., & Erramouspe, R. (1999). Monolingual and bilingual memory for English and Spanish metaphors and similes. Metaphor and Symbol, 14, 1-16.

Hoekstra, S.J., Harris, R.J., & Helmick, A. (1999) Autobiographical memories about the experience of seeing frightening movies in childhood. Media Psychology, 1, 117-140.

Wichman, A.L., Friel, B.M., & Harris, R.J. (2001). The effect of lexical, pragmatic, and morphological violations on reading time and deviance ratings of English and German sentences. Memory & Cognition, 29, 493-502.

Review Chapters

Harris,R.J., Bonds-Raacke, J.M., & Cady, E.T. (2004, in press). Using autobiographical memory to study media. In R. Walker and D. Herrman (Eds.), Proceedings from conference on cognition and technology. Jefferson NC: McFarland Publishers.

Harris, R.J., Cady, E.T., & Tran, T.Q. (2005, in press). Comprehension and memory. In J. Bryant and P. Vorderer (Eds.). Psychology of Entertainment. Mahwah NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.

Harris, R.J., & Scott, C.L. (2002). Effects of sex in the media. In J. Bryant and D. Zillman (Eds.), Media Effects: Advances in theory and research. (2nd ed.) (Pp. 307-331). Mahwah NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.

Textbooks

Harris, R.J. (2004). A cognitive psychology of mass communication. (4th ed.). Mahwah NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.

Leahey, T.H., & Harris, R.J. (2001). Learning and cognition. (5th ed.). Upper Saddle River NJ: Prentice-Hall.

Student Involvement

Dr. Harris regularly has several graduate and undergraduate students working with him, either in one of the projects described above or in an independent project not part of his programmatic research. Students are typically initially integrated into an ongoing research project and are progressively encouraged to show increasing independence in research design and initiative. For example, a beginning student might start off by collecting and analyzing data from a study already planned and then gradually move to designing and implementing a follow-up study to that. In language research, the writing and construction of the stimulus materials is of the utmost importance. Thus, this phase of research is typical a central concern that occupies significant effort and time commitment. Students also receive experience presenting research in a seminar and conference format and, for graduate students, the supervision of undergraduate assistants. Students regularly are co-authors on publications, and, if appropriate, first authors.

Dr. Harris' model of mentoring is to hold each student to high standards and expectations but to provide a highly supportive. Students are encouraged to talk to him about whatever concerns they have about research, the graduate program, or life in general. The goal is to help every student succeed and complete the graduate program prepared to be an effective professor or researcher in whatever their chosen career direction. The emphasis in Dr. Harris' laboratory is on collegiality, not competition. Although he gives frequent encouragement and reminders, he also expects graduate students to take much of their own initiative and set their own deadlines.

Dr. Harris has also served as a secondary major professor and collaborator with graduate students whose primary research emphasis is in Judgment and Decision Making or Social Psychology. He is quite open to that sort of supervision and collaboration.

Some past doctoral students of Dr. Harris now work for the Army Research Institute, Federal Aviation Administration, Young and Rubicam Advertising, and the National Science Foundation. A majority are employed as college or university professors, at Park University, Delaware State University, University of Texas-Pan American, Christian Brothers University, Kansas Wesleyan University, Briar Cliff University, Ferris State University, Tennessee State University, Michigan State University, University of Northern Iowa, Messiah College, and North Carolina Wesleyan College, among others.

In addition to research, Dr. Harris also supervises the Undergraduate Teaching Practicum, whereby outstanding undergraduate psychology majors may apply to be Teaching Apprentices in General Psychology. In this capacity they have full responsibility for teaching a recitation section of General Psychology once a week during a semester.

Current graduate students

Additional Information

Dr. Harris is married to Caprice Becker, Director of Medical Services at Mosaic. They have three children, Clint (born 1989) and Natalie and Grady (twins born in 1991). Some of his hobbies are travel, reading, hiking, theater, genealogy, and stamp collecting. Also interested in cross-cultural issues, he has on past sabbaticals served as a Fulbright Visiting Professor in Belo Horizonte, Brazil, and Montevideo, Uruguay. Although born and raised in suburban Pittsburgh PA, Dr. Harris has come to love the smaller college-town life of Manhattan.