Coutanche

Marc Coutanche

Associate Professor of Psychology, University of Pittsburgh-Pittsburgh Campus
Chapter Member: Central Pennsylvania SSN
Areas of Expertise:

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(412) 624-7458
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About Marc

Coutanche's research focuses on human memory, learning, perception. and brain imaging. Overarching themes in Coutanche's writings include how we acquire knowledge, optimal ways to learn and remember, the benefits of sleep on memory, and developing advanced analysis methods for neuroimaging techniques. Coutanche has served as a speaker in the Yale 'Science in the News' public talk series, as a contributor to the Howard Hughes Medical Institute 'Ask a Scientist service, is on the Editorial Board of several international journals, and is a member of the Cognitive Neuroscience Society, Psychonomic Society, Society for Neuroscience, and Memory Disorders Research Society.

Contributions | No Jargon Podcast | Member Spotlight | In the News | Publications

Contributions

The President and DOGE Repeat the Soviet's Big Mistake

Commentary,

In the News

Quoted by Nichole Faina and Justin P. Jones in "Ace Finals Using These Memory Tricks," University of Pittsburgh Pittwire, April 18, 2022.
Research discussed by Peter Nicholas, in "The Unraveling of Donald Trump," The Atlantic , October 18, 2019.
Research discussed by D. Templeton , in "Using Brain Patterns May Be First Step to Reading the Mind, CMU Study Shows," Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, July 11, 2017.
Quoted by Tyler Dague in "We Go Inside the Escape-Room Phenomenon," Pittsburgh City Paper, July 6, 2016.
Quoted by Linda Carroll in "How Unconscious Memory Trips Us Up," Today , NBC News , March 26, 2016.
Opinion: "Using Fruits and Veggies to Break Down How We Remember and Identify Objects," Marc Coutanche, Cognitive Neuroscience Society , September 4, 2014.

Publications

"The Link Between Conceptual and Perceptual Information in Memory" in Visual Memory, edited by Timothy Brady, (Routledge, 2021).

Examines how perceptual information and more abstract information is brought together in memory.

"Sleep Reduces the Semantic Coherence of Memory Recall: An Application of Latent Semantic Analysis to Investigate Memory Reconstruction" (with Xueying Ren). Psychonomic Bulletin & Review 28 (2021): 1336-1343.

Shows that sleep changes the organization of our memories to let us connect and recall more distinct aspects of our experiences.

"Neural Activity in Human Visual Cortex is Transformed by Learning Real World Size" (with Sharon L Thompson-Schill). Neuroimage 186, no. 1 (2019): 570-576.

Finds that learning new facts transforms the way they are encoded in the brain activity of our visual cortex.

"An Empirical Analysis of Popular Press Claims Regarding Linguistic Change in President Donald J. Trump" (with John P. Paulus). Frontiers in Psychology 9 (2018).

Analyzes unscripted speeches over 7 years and finds evidence of the same type of linguistic decline that was previously observed for President Ronald Regan.