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- Detailed Information
Matthew H. Erdelyi
Professor
Psychology
Location: 4307 James Hall
Phone: 718.951.5000 x6023
Fax: 718.951.4814
Email:
Matthew Erdelyi was born in Budapest, Hungary, lived in Venezuela for several years, and finally settled in the United States. He is professor of psychology and formerly the Stern Professor of Humor. He has pursued experimental and theoretical work on subliminal perception, the recovery of inaccessible memories and psychodynamics. Along with many articles, he has published two books, Psychoanalysis: Freud's Cognitive Psychology and The Recovery of Unconscious Memories: Hypermnesia and Reminiscence. He has been a visiting scholar at various universities and was a fellow at the Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences in Stanford.
Education:
Ph.D., Yale University - 1968 (Psychology (Personality and Social Psychology))
Areas of Expertise:
Psychodynamics (especially constructive and reconstructive processes in perception and memory; defense mechanisms, such as simple repression and denial), interpretation (as in dreams, fantasy and jokes), the ups and downs of memory (oblivescence-reminiscence, amnesia-hypermnesia) and psychoanalysis.
Books and Publications
"Beware of Being Captured by an Analogy: Dreams Are Like Many Things, Including Aphasia, Subliminal Perception, Hysterical Symptoms, Schizophrenia, Jokes, Daydreams, Poetry, Bartlettian and Freudian Reconstructions, and Yes, Also Mnemonic Techniques." Peer commentary on the paper "Such Stuff as Dreams are Made on -- Elaborative Encoding, the Ancient Art of Memory and the Hippocampus," by Sue Llewellyn. Behavioral and Brain Sciences. In press. (Books and Publications: Forthcoming Publications) 2013
"The Interpretation of Dreams, and of Jokes." Under review. (Books and Publications: Forthcoming Publications) 2013
"Explicit and Implicit Memory." Sensory Perception: Mind and Matter. Eds. B. Barth, P. Giampieri-Deutsch and H.-D. Klein. New York: Springer Verlag. 275-91. (Books and Publications: Chapter) 2012
"The Ups and Downs of Memory." American Psychologist 65: 623-33. doi:1037/a0020440. (Books and Publications: Peer Reviewed Article) 2010
"Forgetting and Remembering in Psychology: Commentary on Paul Connerton's "Seven Types of Forgetting." Memory Studies 1.3: 273-78. (Books and Publications: Peer Reviewed Article) 2008
Bergstein, J. and M.H. Erdelyi. "Recognition Hypermnesia: How to Get It." Memory 16: 689-702. (Books and Publications: Peer Reviewed Article) 2008
"Grainy Continua Versus Categorical Dichotomies (Commentary on Villa, Shevrin, Snodgrass, Bazan, and Brakel's target article, "Testing Freud's Hypotheses that Word Forms and Word Meanings Are Functionally Distinct: Subliminal Primary-Process Cognition and Its Link to Personality)." Neuro-Psychoanalysis 8: 143-45. (Books and Publications: Peer Reviewed Article) 2006
"The Return of the Repressed" (response to commentaries). Behavioral and Brain Sciences 29: 535-51. (Books and Publications: Peer Reviewed Article) 2006
"The Unified Theory of Repression." Behavioral and Brain Sciences 29: 499-511. (Books and Publications: Peer Reviewed Article) 2006
"Comments on Commentaries: Kihlstrom, Bachmann, Reingold, Snodgrass." Consciousness and Cognition 13: 430-33. (Books and Publications: Peer Reviewed Article) 2004
"Subliminal Perception and Its Cognates: Theory, Indeterminacy, and Time." Consciousness and Cognition 13: 73-91. (Books and Publications: Peer Reviewed Article) 2004
Erdelyi, M.H. and D.M. Zizak. "Beyond Gizmo Subliminality." Blurring the Lines: The Psychology of Entertainment Media. Ed. L.J. Shrum. Mahwah, N.J.: Erlbaum. 13-43. (Books and Publications: Chapter) 2004
"Sigmund Freud." Encyclopedia of Learning and Memory, 2nd edition. Ed. J.H. Byrne. New York: Macmillan. 154-57. (Books and Publications: Chapter) 2003
"Defense Processes Can Be Conscious and Unconscious (Comment on Defense Mechanisms in Psychology Today)." American Psychologist 56: 761-62. (Books and Publications: Peer Reviewed Article) 2001
"Studies in Historicism: Archaeological Digs Will Not Resolve the Scientific Questions of Validity and Reliability in Free-Association and Interpretation." Psychological Inquiry 12: 133-35. (Books and Publications: Peer Reviewed Article) 2001
"Repression." Encyclopedia of Psychology, Volume 7. Washington, D.C.: American Psychological Psychological Association and Oxford University Press. 69-71. (Books and Publications: Chapter) 2000
"The Unconscious, Art, and Psychoanalysis." Psychoanalysis and Art at the Millennium: Special Issue of Psychoanalysis and Contemporary Thought 22. Ed. T. Ettinger. 609-26. (Books and Publications: Chapter) 1999
Review of Recovered Memories of Trauma: Transferring the Present to the Past, by C.B. Brenneis. New York: International Universities Press, 1997. Psychoanalytic Books 9: 373-77. (Books and Publications: Peer Reviewed Article) 1998
Review of Freud Scientifically Reappraised: Testing the Theories and Therapy, by S. Fisher and R.P. Greenberg. New York: Wiley, 1996. Psychoanalytic Books 8: 1-9. (Books and Publications: Peer Reviewed Article) 1997
The Recovery of Unconscious Memories: Hypermnesia and Reminiscence. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press. (Books and Publications: Book) 1996
"Freud and Memory: An exchange [with F. Crews]." The New York Review of Books 42 (5), March 23: 65-66. Also in: The Memory Wars, F. Crews and commentators. New York: The New York Review of Books. (Books and Publications: Peer Reviewed Article) 1995
Erdelyi, M.H. and J.D. Frame. "The Case of Dr. John D. Frame's First Memory: Historical Truth and Psychological Distortion." Consciousness and Cognition 4: 95-99. (Books and Publications: Peer Reviewed Article) 1995
"Commentary: Integrating a Dissociation-Prone Psychology." Psychodynamics and Social Cognition: Perspectives on the Representation and Processing of Emotionally Significant Iinformation: Special Issue of Journal of Personality 62.4. Ed. T.J. Strauman. 669-80. (Books and Publications: Chapter) 1994
"Dissociation, Defense, and the Unconscious." Dissociation: Culture, Mind, and Body. Ed. D. Spiegel. Washington, D.C.: American Psychiatric Press. 3-20. (Books and Publications: Peer Reviewed Article) 1994
"Freud and Interdisciplinary Cognitive Science: A Cautionary Tale." Review of Freud's Dream: A Complete Interdisciplinary Science of Mind. Contemporary Psychology 39: 419-20. (Books and Publications: Peer Reviewed Article) 1994
"Hypnotic Hypermnesia: The Empty Set of Hypermnesia." Hypnosis and Delayed Recall: Special Issue of International Journal of Clinical and Experimental Hypnosis 42.4. Eds. F. Frankel and C. Perry. 379-90. (Books and Publications: Chapter) 1994
"Repression: The Mechanism and the Defense." Handbook of Mental Control. Eds. D.M. Wegner and J.W. Pennebakertrol. Englewood Cliffs, N.J.: Prentice-Hall. 126-48. (Books and Publications: Chapter) 1993
"Sigmund Freud." Encyclopedia of Learning and Memory. Ed. L. Squire. New York: Macmillan. 179-82. (Books and Publications: Chapter) 1993
Review of Conscious and Unconscious: Freud's Dynamic Distinction Reconsidered. The Journal of Nervous and Mental Disease 181: 67. (Books and Publications: Peer Reviewed Article) 1993
"Psychodynamics and the Unconscious." American Psychologist 47: 784-87. (Books and Publications: Peer Reviewed Article) 1992
Dinges, D.F., W.G. Whitehouse, E.C. Orne, J.W. Powell, M.T. Orne and M.H. Erdelyi. "Evaluating Hypnotic Memory Enhancement (Hypermnesia and Reminiscence) Using Multitrial Forced Recall." Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition 18: 1139-47. (Books and Publications: Peer Reviewed Article) 1992
Ionescu, M.D. and M.H. Erdelyi. "The Direct Recovery of Subliminal Stimuli." Perception without Awareness. Eds. R.F. Bornstein and T.S. Pittman. New York: Guilford. 143-169. (Books and Publications: Chapter) 1992
"Old Witch's Brew in a New Pot: The Talking Finger and Other Tales of Hypnotic Power." Review of Mind-Body Therapy: Ideodynamic Healing in Hypnosis, by L.E. Rossi and D.B. Cheek. Contemporary Psychology 35: 665-67. (Books and Publications: Peer Reviewed Article) 1990
"Repression, Reconstruction, and Defense: History and Integration of the Psychoanalytic and Experimental Frameworks." Repression and Dissociation: Implications for Personality Theory, Psychopathology, and Health. Ed. J.L. Singer. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press. 1-31. (Books and Publications: Chapter) 1990
"The Most Stupendous Intellectual Confidence Trick in the Twentieth Century: Another Exposé of Psychoanalysis." Review of Cognitive Science and Psychoanalysis. Contemporary Psychology 35: 857-58. (Books and Publications: Peer Reviewed Article) 1990
Erdelyi, M.H., J. Finks and M.B. Feigin-Pfau. "The Effect of Response Bias on Recall Performance, with Some Observations on Processing Bias." Journal of Experimental Psychology: General 118: 245-54. (Books and Publications: Peer Reviewed Article) 1989
"Hypermnesia: Effect of Hypnosis, Fantasy, and Concentration." Hypnosis and Memory. Ed. H.M. Pettinati. New York: Guilford. 64-94. (Books and Publications: Peer Reviewed Article) 1988
"Experimental Indeterminacies in the Dissociation Paradigm of Subliminal Perception." The Behavioral and Brain Sciences 9: 30-31. (Books and Publications: Peer Reviewed Article) 1986
Psychoanalysis: Freud's Cognitive Psychology. New York: W.H. Freeman and Company. Spanish translation: Psicoanalisis: La psicologia cognitiva de Freud. Trans. N. Daurella. Barcelona: Editorial Labor, 1987. Italian translation: Freud cognitivista. Trans. W. Gerbino. Bologna, Italy: II Mulino, 1988. (Books and Publications: Book) 1985
Klatzky, R.L. and M.H. Erdelyi. "The Response Criterion Problem in Tests of Hypnosis and Memory." International Journal of Clinical and Experimental Hypnosis 33: 246-57. (Books and Publications: Peer Reviewed Article) 1985
"The Recovery of Unconscious (Inaccessible) Memories: Laboratory Studies of Hypermnesia." The Psychology of Learning and Motivation: Advances in Research and Theory, Volume 18. Ed. G. Bower. New York: Academic Press. 95-127. (Books and Publications: Peer Reviewed Article) 1984
"A Note on the Level of Recall, Level of Processing, and Imagery Hypotheses of Hypermnesia." Journal of Verbal Learning and Verbal Behavior 21: 656-61. (Books and Publications: Peer Reviewed Article) 1982
"Not Now: Comments on Loftus and Loftus." American Psychologist 36: 527-28. (Books and Publications: Peer Reviewed Article) 1981
Erdelyi, M.H. and J.B. Stein. "Recognition Hypermnesia: The Growth of Recognition Memory (d') over Time with Repeated Testing." Cognition 9: 23-33. (Books and Publications: Peer Reviewed Article) 1981
Erdelyi, M.H. and B. Goldberg. "Let's Not Sweep Repression under the Rug: Toward a Cognitive Psychology of Repression." Functional Disorders of Memory. Eds. J.F. Kihlstrom and F.J. Evans. Hillsdale, N.J.: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates. 355-401. (Books and Publications: Peer Reviewed Article) 1979
Erdelyi, M.H. and J. Kleinbard. "Has Ebbinghaus Decayed with Time? The Growth of Recall (Hypermnesia) over Days." Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Learning and Memory 4: 275-89. (Books and Publications: Peer Reviewed Article) 1978
"A New Look at the New Look: Perceptual Defense and Vigilance." Psychological Review 81: 1-25. (Books and Publications: Peer Reviewed Article) 1974
Erdelyi, M.H. and J. Becker. "Hypermnesia for Pictures: Incremental Memory for Pictures but Not Words in Multiple Recall Trials." Cognitive Psychology 6: 159-71. (Books and Publications: Peer Reviewed Article) 1974
Erdelyi, M.H. and A. Appelbaum. "Cognitive Masking: The Disruptive Effect of an Emotional Stimulus upon the Perception of Contiguous Neutral Items." Bulletin of the Psychonomic Society 1: 59-61. (Books and Publications: Peer Reviewed Article) 1973
"The Role of Fantasy in the Pötzl (Emergence) Phenomenon." Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 24: 186-90. (Books and Publications: Peer Reviewed Article) 1972
"Recovery of Unavailable Perceptual Input." Cognitive Psychology 1: 99-113. (Books and Publications: Peer Reviewed Article) 1970
Haber, R.N. and M.H. Erdelyi. "Emergence and Recovery of Initially Unavailable Perceptual Material." Journal of Verbal Learning and Verbal Behavior 6: 618-28. Also in Contemporary Theory and Research in Visual Perception. Ed. R.N. Haber. New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1968. (Books and Publications: Peer Reviewed Article) 1967
Awards, Honors and Fellowships
Stern Professorship of Humor, 2001-03. (Awards and Honors) 2003
City University of New York Faculty Research Award Program Grants (1973-74; 1974-75; 1975-76; 1977-78; 1978-79; 1984-85; 1985-86; 1986-87; 1988-89; 1990-91; 1993-95; 1996-97; 1997-98; 2000-01). (Awards and Honors) 2001
Fellowship Leave Award (full pay), Fall 2000. (Grants and Fellowships) 2001
Favorite Teacher, Brooklyn College. (Awards and Honors) 1995
Fellow, American Psychological Association (Division 3--Experimental Psychology). (Grants and Fellowships) 1987
Fellow, Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences, Stanford, California, 1982-83. (Grants and Fellowships) 1983
Scholar's Incentive Award, CUNY, 1982-83. (Awards and Honors) 1983
Rutgers University Research Council Grants (1971-72; 1972-73). (Grants and Fellowships) 1973
N.I H. Predoctoral Fellow, Yale University, 1965-68. (Grants and Fellowships) 1968
Woodrow Wilson Fellow, Yale University, 1963-64. (Grants and Fellowships) 1964
Departmental Honors, College of Wooster. (Awards and Honors) 1963
Conferences, Seminars and Symposiums
"The Interpretation of Dreams, and of Jokes." The Association for Psychological Science. May. (Conferences, Seminars and Symposiums: Invited Talk) 2012
