Emeritus Professor K Geoffrey White, Our People, Department of Psychology

Email kgwhite@psy.otago.ac.nz
Tel 64 3 479 7629

Emeritus Professor White was Head of the Psychology Department at Otago University for 10 years from 1987, and for 5 years from 2004 was the University's Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Research). He joined the Otago Psychology Department in 1985, having spent 13 years lecturing at the Victoria University of Wellington and in visiting appointments at Colorado College, University of Colorado, Boulder, and University of California, San Diego. He has been President of the New Zealand Psychological Society and for many years was a member of the New Zealand Psychologists' Registration Board. He edited the New Zealand Journal of Psychology and has been Associate Editor of the Journal of the Experimental Analysis of Behavior.

He has been the recipient of the New Zealand Psychological Society's Hunter Award and Adcock Award, and in 2000 with John Wixted was the recipient of the American Psychological Association's George A Miller Award. He is a Fellow of several national and international organisations, including the Royal Society of New Zealand. He has successfully supervised over 20 PhD students and many Master's students, and in 2003 was the University's inaugural supervisor of the year. In 2009 he was made an Officer of the New Zealand Order of Merit for services to science and psychology.

Research Interests

Memory, discrimination, and learning

Find out more about Emeritus Professor White's research interests

Publications

White, K. G. (2018). Direct remembering, mediated remembering, and atypical forgetting functions. Journal of the Experimental Analysis of Behavior, 109(1), 70-86. doi: 10.1002/jeab.298 Journal - Research Article

Magalhães, P., & White, K. G. (2016). The sunk cost effect across species: A review of persistence in a course of action due to prior investment. Journal of the Experimental Analysis of Behavior, 105(3), 339-361. doi: 10.1002/jeab.202 Journal - Research Article

Cowie, S., Bizo, L. A., & White, K. G. (2016). Reinforcer distributions affect timing in the free-operant psychophysical choice procedure. Learning & Motivation, 53, 24-35. doi: 10.1016/j.lmot.2015.10.003 Journal - Research Article

White, K. G., & Sargisson, R. J. (2015). A delay-specific differential outcomes effect in delayed matching to sample. Learning & Behavior, 43(3), 217-227. doi: 10.3758/s13420-015-0174-1 Journal - Research Article

White, K. G., & Magalhães, P. (2015). The sunk cost effect in pigeons and people: A case of within-trials contrast? Behavioural Processes, 112, 22-28. doi: 10.1016/j.beproc.2014.09.035 Journal - Research Article

2018

Journal - Research Article

White, K. G. (2018). Direct remembering, mediated remembering, and atypical forgetting functions. Journal of the Experimental Analysis of Behavior, 109(1), 70-86. doi: 10.1002/jeab.298

2016

Journal - Research Article

2015

Journal - Research Article

White, K. G., & Sargisson, R. J. (2015). A delay-specific differential outcomes effect in delayed matching to sample. Learning & Behavior, 43(3), 217-227. doi: 10.3758/s13420-015-0174-1

White, K. G., & Magalhães, P. (2015). The sunk cost effect in pigeons and people: A case of within-trials contrast? Behavioural Processes, 112, 22-28. doi: 10.1016/j.beproc.2014.09.035

2014

Journal - Research Article

White, K. G., & Millar, J. G. (2014). Attentuation of the differential outcomes effect by extraneous reward. Behavioural Processes, 108, 7-10. doi: 10.1016/j.beproc.2014.08.028

Magalhães, P., & White, K. G. (2014). A good time to leave?: The sunk time effect in pigeons. Behavioural Processes, 105, 1-5. doi: 10.1016/j.beproc.2014.02.010

Magalhães, P., & White, K. G. (2014). Persistence in extinction: The sunk time effect. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Animal Learning & Cognition, 40(1), 38-54. doi: 10.1037/xan0000009

Magalhães, P., & White, K. G. (2014). The effect of a prior investment on choice: The sunk cost effect. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Animal Learning & Cognition, 40(1), 22-37. doi: 10.1037/xan0000007

Calder, A., & White, K. G. (2014). In search of consolidation of short-term memory in nonhuman animals. Learning & Behavior, 42(1), 83-92. doi: 10.3758/s13420-013-0127-5

2013

Chapter in Book - Research

White, K. G. (2013). Remembering and forgetting. In G. J. Madden, W. V. Dube, T. D. Hackenberg, G. P. Hanley & K. A. Lattal (Eds.), APA handbook of behavior analysis (Vol. 1 Methods and principles). (pp. 411-437). Washington, DC: American Psychological Association. doi: 10.1037/13937-018

Journal - Research Article

Kinloch, J. M., & White, K. G. (2013). A concurrent-choice analysis of amount-dependent temporal discounting. Behavioural Processes, 97, 1-5. doi: 10.1016/j.beproc.2013.03.007

Beeby, E., & White, K. G. (2013). Preference reversal between impulsive and self-control choice. Journal of the Experimental Analysis of Behavior, 99(3), 260-276. doi: 10.1002/jeab.23

Magalhães, P., & White, K. G. (2013). Sunk cost and work ethic effects reflect suboptimal choice between different work requirements. Behavioural Processes, 94, 55-59. doi: 10.1016/j.beproc.2012.12.003

2012

Journal - Research Article

Grace, R. C., White, K. G., & Sargisson, R. J. (2012). Evidence for a magnitude effect in temporal discounting with pigeons. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Animal Behavior Processes, 38(1), 102-108. doi: 10.1037/a0026345

Magalhães, P., White, K. G., Stewart, T., Beeby, E., & van der Vliet, W. P. (2012). Suboptimal choice in nonhuman animals: Rats commit the sunk cost error. Learning & Behavior, 40, 195-206. doi: 10.3758/s13420-011-0055-1

White, K. G. (2012). Dissociation of short-term forgetting from the passage of time. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory & Cognition, 38(1), 255-259. doi: 10.1037/a0025197

Conference Contribution - Verbal presentation and other Conference outputs

White, K. G. (2012, May). Timing, remembering, and the reinforcement context. Verbal presentation at the 35th Annual Meeting of the Society for the Quantitative Analyses of Behavior (SQAB), Seattle, WA.

2011

Journal - Research Article

White, K. G., & Brown, G. S. (2011). Reversing the course of forgetting. Journal of the Experimental Analysis of Behavior, 96(2), 177-189. doi: 10.1901/jeab.2011.96-177

White, K. G., & Brown, G. S. (2011). Reversing the signaled magnitude effect in delayed matching to sample: Delay-specific remembering? Journal of the Experimental Analysis of Behavior, 96(1), 7-15. doi: 10.1901/jeab.2011.96-7

White, K. G., & Sargisson, R. J. (2011). Maintained generalization of delay-specific remembering. Behavioural Processes, 87(3), 310-313. doi: 10.1016/j.beproc.2011.06.004

Journal - Professional & Other Non-Research Articles

Shahan, T. A., & White, K. G. (2011). Preface: SQAB 2010: Choice, Discounting, and the Future Value of Quantitative Analyses. Behavioural Processes, 87(1), iv-v. doi: 10.1016/s0376-6357(11)00068-4

2010

Journal - Research Article

White, K. G., & Wixted, J. T. (2010). Psychophysics of remembering: To bias or not to bias? Journal of the Experimental Analysis of Behavior, 94(1), 83-94. doi: 10.1901/jeab.2010.94-83

Journal - Professional & Other Non-Research Articles

Shahan, T. A., White, K. G., & Grace, R. C. (2010). SQAB 2009: Flying high. Behavioural Processes, 84, 353-355. doi: 10.1016/j.beproc.2010.02.019

Conference Contribution - Published proceedings: Abstract

White, G., & Magalhães, P. (2010). Time and size in the Sunk Cost Effect. Proceedings of the New Zealand Association for Behaviour Analysis Annual Conference. NZABA. Retrieved from http://nzaba.org/previous-conferences/

White, G. (2010). Delay-specific remembering. Proceedings of the New Zealand Association for Behaviour Analysis Annual Conference. NZABA. Retrieved from http://nzaba.org/previous-conferences/

Magalhães, P., & White, G. (2010). The Sunk Cost Effect: An exploration in non-human animals. Proceedings of the New Zealand Association for Behaviour Analysis Annual Conference. NZABA. Retrieved from http://nzaba.org/previous-conferences/

2009

Journal - Research Article

Brown, G. S., & White, K. G. (2009). Measuring discriminability when there are multiple sources of bias. Behavior Research Methods, 41(1), 75-84.

Brown, G. S., & White, K. G. (2009). Reinforcer probability, reinforcer magnitude, and the reinforcement context for remembering. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Animal Behavior Processes, 35(2), 238-249. doi: 10.1037/a0013864

Brown, G. S., & White, K. G. (2009). A computational technique for improving estimates of discriminability and bias across multiple dimensions of choice. Behavior Research Methods, 41(2), 515-523. doi: 10.3758/BRM.41.2.515

Conference Contribution - Published proceedings: Abstract

White, G., & Brown, G. (2009). The causes of forgetting. Proceedings of the New Zealand Association for Behaviour Analysis 6th Annual Conference. (pp. 17-18). NZABA. Retrieved from http://nzaba.files.wordpress.com/2009/08/nzaba_info_and_prgm2.pdf

Conference Contribution - Verbal presentation and other Conference outputs

White, G. (2009, November). Time and memory. Verbal presentation at the Psycolloquy Seminar, Dunedin, New Zealand.

2008

Conference Contribution - Published proceedings: Abstract

White, G. (2008). Timeless memories. Proceedings of the New Zealand Association for Behaviour Analysis 5th Annual Conference. (pp. 7). NZABA. Retrieved from http://nzaba.org/previous-conferences/

2007

Journal - Research Article

Sargisson, R. J., & White, K. G. (2007). Remembering as discrimination in delayed matching to sample: Discriminability and bias. Learning & Behavior, 35(3), 177-183.

Sargisson, R. J., McLean, I. G., Brown, G. S., & White, K. G. (2007). Seasonal variation in pigeon body weight and delayed matching-to-sample performance. Journal of the Experimental Analysis of Behavior, 88(3), 395-404.

Sargisson, R. J., & White, K. G. (2007). Timing, remembering, and discrimination. Journal of the Experimental Analysis of Behavior, 87(1), 25-37.

Parr, W. V., Green, J. A., White, K. G., & Sherlock, R. R. (2007). The distinctive flavour of New Zealand Sauvignon blanc: Sensory characterisation by wine professionals. Food Quality & Preference, 18, 849-861.

2006

Chapter in Book - Research

White, K. G. (2006). Impact of the Performance-Based Research Fund on staffing in Tertiary Education Institutions. In L. Bakker, J. Boston, L. Campbell & R. Smyth (Eds.), Evaluating the Performance-Based Research Fund: Framing the debate. (pp. 337-346). Wellington, New Zealand: Institute of Policy Studies.

Journal - Research Article

Parr, W. V., Green, J. A., & White, K. G. (2006). Wine judging, context and New Zealand Sauvignon Blanc. European Review of Applied Psychology, 56, 231-238.

Conference Contribution - Published proceedings: Full paper

Parr, W. V., Green, J. A., & White, K. G. (2006). Elucidating the concept ″Marlborough Sauvignon blanc″: Wine professionals' perceptions of typicality. Proceedings of the Sixth International Symposium for Cool Climate Viticulture & OEnology. Havelock North, New Zealand: ICCS. [Full Paper]

2005

Journal - Research Article

Brown, G. S., & White, K. G. (2005). Remembering: The role of extraneous reinforcement. Learning & Behavior, 33(3), 309-323.

Brown, G. S., & White, K. G. (2005). The optimal correction for estimating extreme discriminability. Behavior Research Methods, 37(3), 436-449.

Brown, G. S., & White, K. G. (2005). On the effects of signaling reinforcer probability and magnitude in delayed matching to sample. Journal of the Experimental Analysis of Behavior, 83(2), 119-128.

Parr, W. V., Green, J. A., & White, K. G. (2005). Flavour and aroma of New Zealand Sauvignon Blanc. Australian & New Zealand Grapegrower & Winemaker, (497a), 100-108.

Conference Contribution - Verbal presentation and other Conference outputs

Parr, W., Green, J. A., & White, K. G. (2005, July). Wine judging, context and New Zealand Sauvignon blanc wine. Verbal presentation at the International Workshop on Psychology of Perception, Sensory Evaluation and Context, Paris, France.

2004

Journal - Research Article

Ong, E. L., & White, K. G. (2004). Amount-dependent temporal discounting? Behavioural Processes, 66, 201-212.

Parr, W. V., White, K. G., & Heatherbell, D. A. (2004). Exploring the nature of wine expertise: What underlies wine experts' olfactory recognition memory advantage? Food Quality & Preference, 15, 411-420.

White, K. G., Parkinson, A. E., Brown, G. S., & Wixted, J. T. (2004). Local proactive interference in delayed matching to sample: The role of reinforcement. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Animal Behavior Processes, 30(2), 83-95.

Sargisson, R. J., & White, K. G. (2004). Need probability effects in animal short-term memory. Behavioural Processes, 65, 57-66.

2003

Journal - Research Article

Sargisson, R. J., & White, K. G. (2003). On the form of the forgetting function: The effects of arithmetic and logarithmic distributions of delays. Journal of the Experimental Analysis of Behavior, 80, 295-309.

Wright, F. K., & White, K. G. (2003). Effects of methylphenidate on working memory in pigeons. Cognitive, Affective & Behavioral Neuroscience, 3, 300-308.

Howard, M. L., & White, K. G. (2003). Social influence in pigeons (Columba livia): The role of differential reinforcement. Journal of the Experimental Analysis of Behavior, 79, 175-191.

Sargisson, R. J., & White, K. G. (2003). The effect of reinforcer delays on the form of the forgetting function. Journal of the Experimental Analysis of Behavior, 80, 77-94.

2002

Journal - Research Article

Parr, W. V., Heatherbell, D., & White, K. G. (2002). Demystifying wine expertise: Olfactory threshold, perceptual skill and semantic memory in expert and novice wine judges. Chemical Senses, 27, 747-755.

White, K. G. (2002). Psychophysics of remembering: The discrimination hypothesis. Current Directions in Psychological Science, 11(4), 141-145.

White, K. G., & Ruske, A. C. (2002). Memory deficits in Alzheimer's disease: The encoding hypothesis and cholinergic function. Psychonomic Science, 9(3), 426-437.

White, K. G. (2002). Temporal generalization and diffusion in forgetting. Behavioural Processes, 57, 121-129.

2001

Journal - Research Article

White, K. G., & Wixted, J. T. (2001). Psychophysics of remembering. General Psychologist, 36(3), 56-63.

Sargisson, R. J., & White, K. G. (2001). Generalization of delayed matching to sample following training at different delays. Journal of the Experimental Analysis of Behavior, 75, 1-14.

White, K. G. (2001). Forgetting functions. Animal Learning & Behavior, 29(3), 193-207.

2000

Journal - Research Article

White, K. G., & Cameron, J. (2000). Resistance to change, contrast, and intrinsic motivation. Behavioral & Brain Sciences, 23(1), 115-116.

Parkes, M., & White, K. G. (2000). Glucose attenuation of memory impairments. Behavioral Neuroscience, 114(2), 307-319.

1999

Journal - Research Article

Ruske, A. C., & White, K. G. (1999). Facilitation of memory performance by a novel muscarinic agonist in young and old rats. Pharmacology Biochemistry & Behavior, 63(4), 663-667.

White, K. G., & Wixted, J. T. (1999). Psychophysics of remembering. Journal of the Experimental Analysis of Behavior, 71, 91-113.

Ruske, A. C., & White, K. G. (1999). Attenuation of scopolamine-induced deficits in pigeons' attention to delayed matching-to-sample cues by d-cycloserine. Psychobiology, 27(4), 507-512.

1997

Chapter in Book - Research

Walker, F. A., White, K. G., Beekhuis, M., & Symonds, A. (1997). The Psychologists Act (1981): Implications for registered psychologists. In H. Love & W. Whittaker (Eds.), Practical Issues for Clinical and Applied Psychologists in New Zealand. (pp. 408-417). Wellington: The New Zealand Psychological Society.

Journal - Research Article

Harper, D. N., & White, K. G. (1997). Retroactive interference and rate of forgetting in delayed matching-to-sample performance. Animal Learning & Behavior, 25(2), 158-164.

Ruske, A. C. M., Fisher, A., & White, K. G. (1997). Attenuation of scopolamine-induced deficits in delayed-matching performance by a new muscarinic agonist. Psychobiology, 25(4), 313-320.

Bizo, L. A., & White, K. G. (1997). Timing with controlled reinforcer density: implications for models of timing. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Animal Behavior Processes, 23(1), 44-55.

1996

Journal - Research Article

White, K., Ruske, A. C. M., & Colombo, M. W. (1996). Memory procedures, performance and processes in pigeons. Cognitive Brain Research, 3, 309-317.

White, K., & Harper, D. N. (1996). Quantitative reanalysis of lesion effects on rate of forgetting in macaques. Behavioural Brain Research, 74, 223-227.

White, K. (1996). Direct remembering and the correspondence metaphor. Behavioral & Brain Sciences, 19, 208-209.

Ruske, A. C. M., Harper, D. N., Colombo, M. W., & White, K. (1996). NMDA receptor action and spatial memory: the effects of MK-801 and D-cycloserine on rate of forgetting and initial discriminability. Psychobiology, 23, 277-283.

White, K. G., & Cooney, E. B. (1996). Consequences of remembering: Independence of performance at different retention intervals. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Animal Behavior Processes, 22(1), 51-59. doi: 10.1037/0097-7403.22.1.51

1995

Journal - Research Article

Bizo, L. A., & White, K. (1995). Reinforcement context and pacemaker rate in the behavioral theory of timing. Animal Learning & Behavior, 23, 376-382.

Schmid, J., Hunter, P. R., White, K., Nand, A. K., & Cannon, R. D. (1995). Physiological traits associated with success of Candida albicans strains as commensal colonizers and pathogens. Journal of Clinical Microbiology, 33, 2920-2926.

Jones, B. M., White, K., & Alsop, B. L. (1995). On two effects of signaling the consequences for remembering. Animal Learning & Behavior, 23(3), 256-272.