Dr. Belli is an applied cognitive psychologist who joined the faculty in 2002, and he is a member of the Cognitive Psychology program. He received his Ph.D. in experimental psychology from the University of New Hampshire in 1987. Dr. Belli’s research interests focus on the role of memory in applied settings, and his published work includes research on autobiographical memory, eyewitness memory, and the role of memory processes in survey response. The content of this work focuses on false memories and methodologies that can improve memory accuracy. Teaching interests include courses on basic and applied cognitive psychology, and on the psychology of survey response. Dr. Belli shares a joint appointment with the Gallup Center’s Survey Research and Methodology Program, in which he serves as Associate Director.
Representative Publications:
Belli, R. F., Traugott, M. W., & Beckmann, M. N. (2001). What leads to voting overreports? Contrasts of overreporters to validated voters and admitted nonvoters in the American National Election Studies. Journal of Official Statistics, 17, 479-498.
Belli, R.F., Shay, W. L., & Stafford, F. P. (2001). Event history calendars and question list surveys: A direct comparison of interviewing methods. Public Opinion Quarterly, 65, 45-74.
Belli, R. F., Schwarz, N., Singer, E., & Talarico, J. (2000). Decomposition can harm the accuracy of behavioral frequency reports. Applied Cognitive Psychology, 14, 295-308.
Belli, R. F., Herzog, A. R., & Van Hoewyk, J. (1999). Scale simplification of expectations for survival: Cognitive ability and the quality of survey responses. Cognitive Technology, 4, 29-38.
Belli, R. F., Traugott, M. W., Young, M., & McGonagle, K. A. (1999). Reducing vote overreporting in surveys: Social desirability, memory failure, and source monitoring. Public Opinion Quarterly, 63, 90-108.
Belli, R. F. (1998). The structure of autobiographical memory and the event history calendar: Potential improvements in the quality of retrospective reports in surveys. Memory, 6, 383-406.
Belli, R. F., Winkielman, P., Read, J. D., Schwarz, N, & Lynn, S. J. (1998). Recalling more childhood events leads to judgments of poorer memory: Implications for the recovered/false memory debate. Psychonomic Bulletin & Review, 5, 318-323.
Belli. R. F., Schuman, H., & Jackson, B. (1997). Autobiographical misremembering: John Dean is not alone. Applied Cognitive Psychology, 11, 187-209.
Belli, R. F., & Loftus, E. F. (1996). The pliability of autobiographical memory: Misinformation and the false memory problem. In D. C. Rubin (Ed.), Remembering our past: Studies in autobiographical memory (pp. 157-179). New York: Cambridge University Press.
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