My research involves describing the cognitive mechanisms responsible for the nature of human learning and memory, with a particular focus on categorization and dimensional attention. I am interested in ‘solving’ Plato’s (other) problem: “... to be able to cut up each kind … along its natural joints, and to try not to splinter any part, as a bad butcher might do.” In the context of the cognitive science of learning and memory, this equates to finding a way to count the number, and a way to characterize the nature, of the cognitive systems responsible for performance over a range of related tasks and measures. To meet this challenge I use empirical studies, computational models, and advanced statistical techniques.

- Professor, Department of Psychology, Syracuse University, 2013 – present.

- Associate Professor, Institute of Cognitive Science, University of Louisiana, Lafayette. 2005 – 2013.

- Assistant Professor, Institute of Cognitive Science, University of Louisiana, Lafayette. 2002 – 2005.

- Senior Lecturer, Department of Psychology, University of Western Australia. 2002.

- Lecturer, Department of Psychology, University of Western Australia. 1995 – 2002. Tenured, 2000.

- Postdoctoral Research Fellow in Mathematical Psychology, Department of Psychology, Indiana University, Bloomington. 1993 – 1995.

Kalish, M. (2013). Learning and extrapolating a periodic function. Memory & Cognition, 41, 886-96.

Griffiths, T. L., Lewandowsky, S., & Kalish, M. L. (2013). The effects of cultural transmission are modulated by the amount of information transmitted. Cognitive Science, 37, 953-67.

Kalish, M. & Dunn, J. (2012). What can cognitive neuroscience tell us about recognition memory? Australian Journal of Psychology, 64, 29-36.

Dunn, J., Newell, B. & Kalish, M. (2012). The effect of feedback delay and feedback type on perceptual category learning. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory and Cognition, 38, 840-859.

Lewandowsky, S., Yang, L., Newell, B. & Kalish, M. (2012). Working memory does not dissociate between different perceptual categorization tasks. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory and Cognition, 38, 881-904.

Kwantes, P., Neal, A. & Kalish, M. (2012). Item order matters in a function learning task. Canadian Journal of Experimental Psychology, 66, 90-97.

Trigg, J. & Kalish, M. (2011). Explaining how the mind works: on the relation between cognitive science and philosophy. Topics in Cognitive Science, 3, 399-424.