Nicholas D. Duran

Cognitive and Information Sciences

University of California, Merced

Social Sciences and Management Building

Merced, CA 95340

Current Positions

Postdoctoral Researcher, University of California, Merced, Cognitive and Information Sciences, Merced, CA

Honorary Senior Research Associate, University College London, Division of Psychology and Language Sciences, London, UK

Education

Ph.D. (2011), Experimental Psychology (Cognitive Science Emphasis), University of Memphis, Memphis, TN

M.S. (2007), Experimental Psychology (Cognitive Science Emphasis), University of Memphis, Memphis, TN

B.A. (2005), Psychology (Psycholinguistic Emphasis), University of California, Riverside, Riverside, CA

Fellowships & Grants

SBE NSF Minority Postdoctoral Research Fellowship (Behavioral and Cognitive Sciences), 2011-2013, $120,000

NSF Graduate Research Fellowship, 2006-2009, $120,000

Publications

Refereed Journal Publications

Duran, N. D., & Dale, R. (submitted). Perspective-taking in dialogue as self-organization under social constraints.

 

Dale, R., Duran, N. D., & Morehead, J. R. (in press). Prediction during statistical learning, and implications for the implicit/explicit divide. Advances in Cognitive Psychology. (special issue on implicit learning)

Duran, N. D., & Dale, R., & Kreuz, R. J. (2011). Listeners invest in an assumed otherÕs perspective despite cognitive cost. Cognition, 121, 22-40.

 

Dale, R. & Duran, N. D. (2011). The cognitive dynamics of negated sentence verification. Cognitive Science, 35, 983-996.

Duran, N. D., Dale, R., & McNamara, D. S. (2010). The action dynamics of overcoming the truth. Psychonomic Bulletin and Review, 17, 486-491.

Duran, N. D., McCarthy, P. M., Hall, C., & McNamara, D. S. (2010). The linguistic correlates of conversational deception: Comparing natural language processing technologies. Applied Psycholinguistics, 31, 439-462.

Myers, J. C., McCarthy, P. M., Duran, N. D., & McNamara, D. S. (2010). The bit in the middle: A computational analysis of the linguistic features of body paragraphs. Behavior Research Methods.

Bellissens, C., Jeuniaux, P., Duran, N. D., McNamara, D. S. (2010). A text relatedness and dependency computational model: Using Latent Semantic Analysis and Coh-Metrix to predict self-explanation quality. Studia Informatica Universalis, 8, 85-125.

McCarthy, P. M., Hall, C., Duran N. D., Doiuchi, M., Duncan, B., Fujiwara, Y., & McNamara, D. S., (2009). A computational analysis of journal abstracts written by Japanese, American, and British scientists. The ESPecialist, 30, 141-173.

Dale, R., Roche, J., & Duran, N. D. (2008). Language is complex. International Journal of Psychology and Psychological Therapy, 8, 351-362. (invited article)

McCarthy, P. M., Renner, A. M.  Duncan, M. G., Duran, N. D., Lightman, E. J., & McNamara. D. S. (2008). Identifying topic sentencehood. Behavior Research Methods, 40, 647-664.

Duran, N. D., McCarthy, P. M., Graesser, A. C, & McNamara, D. S. (2007). Using temporal cohesion to predict temporal coherence in narrative and expository texts. Behavior Research Methods, 39, 212-223.

Refereed Conference Proceedings 

Duran, N. D. & Dale, R. (2012). Increased vigilance in monitoring others' mental states during deception. Proceedings of the 34th Annual Conference of the Cognitive Science Society.

McCarthy, P. M., Duran, N. D., & Booker, L. M. (2012). The devil is in the details: New directions in deception analysis. In the Proceedings of the 25th Annual Conference of the International Florida Artificial Intelligence Research Society, Marco Island, FL. (invited proceedings)

Duran, N. D. & Dale, R. (2011). Spatial cognition adapts to social context. Proceedings of the 33rd Annual Conference of the Cognitive Science Society. Boston, MA (pp. 1111-1116).

Duran, N. D. & Dale, R. (2009). Anticipatory arm placement in the statistical learning of position sequences. Proceedings of the 31st Annual Conference of the Cognitive Science Society. Amsterdam, Netherlands (pp. 893-898). Austin, TX: Cognitive Science Society.

Duran, N.D., Crossley, S., Hall, C., McCarthy, P., & McNamara, D. S. (2009). Expanding a catalogue of deceptive linguistic features with NLP technologies. In the Proceedings of the 22nd Annual Conference of the International Florida Artificial Intelligence Research Society, Sanibel Island, FL.

Duran, N. D., Bellissens, C., Taylor, R. S., & McNamara, D. S. (2007). Quantifying text difficulty with automated indices of cohesion and semantics. In D. S. McNamara and G. Trafton (Eds.), Proceedings of the 29th annual conference of the Cognitive Science Society. Nashville, TN (pp. 233-238). Austin, TX: Cognitive Science Society.

Bellissens, C., Jeuniaux, P., Duran, N. D., & McNamara, D. S. (2007). Towards a textual cohesion model that predicts self-explanation inference generation as a function of text structure and readersÕ knowledge. In D. S. McNamara and G. Trafton (Eds.), Proceedings of the 29th Annual Conference of the Cognitive Science Society. Nashville, TN (pp. 815-820). Austin, TX: Cognitive Science Society.

Willits, J. A., DÕMello, S. K., Duran, N. D., & Olney, A. (2007). Distributional statistics and thematic role relationships. In D. S. McNamara and G. Trafton (Eds.), Proceedings of the 29th Annual Conference of the Cognitive Science Society. Nashville, TN (pp. 707-712). Austin, TX: Cognitive Science Society.

Duran, N. D., McCarthy, P. M., Graesser, A. C., & McNamara, D. S. (2006). Using Coh-Metrix temporal indices to predict psychological measures of time. In R. Sun & N. Miyake (Eds.), Proceedings of the 28th Annual Conference of the Cognitive Science Society. Vancouver, Canada (pp. 190-195). Austin, TX: Cognitive Science Society.

Book Chapters

Dale, R., Duran, N. D., & Roche, J. (2011). Action dynamics in language processing. In R. K. Mishra & N. Srinivasan (Eds.), Language-Cognition Interface: State of the Art.

Published Abstracts 

Duran, N. D., Dale, R., & Kreuz, R. J. (2010). Nonlinear dynamics of perspective taking [Abstract]. In the Proceedings of the 51st Annual Meeting of the Psychonomic Society (p. 22). Austin, TX: Psychonomic Society Publications.

Duran, N. D., Dale, R., & McNamara, D. S. (2008). Does the arm know when youÕre lying? [Abstract]. In the Proceedings of the 49th Annual Meeting of the Psychonomic Society (p. 22). Austin, TX: Psychonomic Society Publications.

Duran, N. D., & Dale, R. (2008). Dynamic lexical processing evident in Wiimote trajectories [Abstract]. In B. C. Love, K. McRae, & V. M. Sloutsky (Eds.), Proceedings of the 30th Annual Conference of the Cognitive Science Society (p. 1281). Austin, TX: Cognitive Science Society.

Duran, N. D., & Burgess, C. (2004). Distinguishing pour, load, and fill verbs in high­-dimensional memory space [Abstract]. In the Proceedings of the 45th Annual Meeting of the Psychonomic Society (p. 35). Austin, TX: Psychonomic Society Publications.

Presentations

Refereed Conference Presentations

Duran, N. D. & Dale, R. (2011). Creating illusory social connectivity in Amazon Mechanical Turk. Paper presented at the Crowdsourcing Technologies for Language and Cognition Studies Workshop (in conjunction with the Linguistic Society of America Summer Institute). University of Colorado, Boulder.

Duran, N. D. & Dale, R. (2011). Spatial cognition adapts to social context. Poster presented at the 33rd Annual Conference of the Cognitive Science Society. Boston, Massachusetts: Cognitive Science Society.

Duran, N. D. & McCarthy, P. M. (2010). The language of deception. Paper presented at the 23rd Annual Conference of the International Florida Artificial Intelligence Research Society, Daytona Beach, FL. [Invited Talk]

Duran, N. D. & Dale, R. (2009). Anticipatory arm placement in the statistical learning of position sequences. Poster presented at the 31st Annual Conference of the Cognitive Science Society. Amsterdam, Netherlands: Cognitive Science Society.

Duran, N. D., Hall, C., & McCarthy, P. M. (2009). Using statistically improbable n-gram features to reveal the thematic content of deception. Paper presented at the 39th Annual Meeting of the Society for Computers in Psychology, Boston, MA

Duran, N. D., Hall, C., McCarthy, P. M., & McNamara, D. S. (2009). The linguistic correlates of conversational deception: Comparing natural language processing technologies. Paper presented at the 22nd Annual Conference of the International Florida Artificial Intelligence Research Society, Sanibel Island, FL.

Duran, N. D., Dale, R., & McNamara (2008). The continuous dynamics of false responding. Paper presented at the 38th Annual Meeting of the Society for Computers in Psychology, Chicago, IL.

Duran, N. D., & Dale, R. (2008). Dynamic lexical processing evident in Wiimote trajectories. Poster presented at the 30th Annual Conference of the Cognitive Science Society. Washington, D. C.

Duran, N. D., Dale, R., & McNamara, D. S. (2008). Automated detection of coordination between child and caregivers using natural language processing. Paper presented at the 18th Annual Meeting of the Society for Text and Discourse, Memphis, TN. [Recipient of the Outstanding Student Paper Award]

Duran, N. D., Bellissens, C., Taylor, R. S., & McNamara, D. S. (2007). Quantifying text difficulty with automated indices of cohesion and semantics. Paper presented at the 29th Annual Conference of the Cognitive Science Society, Nashville, TN.

Duran, N. D., McCarthy, P.M., Bellissens, C., McNamara, D. (2007). What makes a text difficult? Paper presented at the 17th Annual Meeting of the Society for Text and Discourse, Glasgow, Scotland.

Duran, N. D., & Lightman, E. (2006). Are gender differences between Venusians and Martians out of this world?: A computational approach for assessing linguistic style. Paper presented at the Southeastern Conference on Linguistics (SECOL LXXIII), Auburn, AL.

Duran, N. D., McCarthy, P. M., Graesser, A. C., & McNamara, D. S. (2006). Using Coh-Metrix temporal indices to predict psychological measures of time. Paper presented at the 28th Annual Conference of the Cognitive Science Society, Vancouver, BC, Canada.

Duran, N., McCarthy, P., Hancock, J., & McNamara, D. S. (2006). Discovering where the truth lies: Using Coh-Metrix to detect deception in text. Paper presented at the 36th Annual Meeting of the Society for Computers in Psychology, Houston, Texas.

Duran, N. D., & McNamara, D. S. (2006). ItÕs about time: Discriminating differences in temporality between genres. Poster presented at the 16th Annual Meeting of the Society for Text and Discourse, Minneapolis, MN.

Duran, N., & Burgess, C. (2004). Distinguishing pour, load, and fill verbs in high­-dimensional memory space. Poster presented at the 45th Annual Meeting of the Psychonomic Society, Minneapolis, MN.

Duran, N., Burgess, C., & Hatzopoulos, A. (2004). Assessing HALÕs vocabulary intelligence. Paper presented at the 34th Annual Meeting of the Society for Computers in Psychology, Minneapolis, MN.

Duran, N. (2004). Mimicking human verbal intelligence: HAL and the Nelson-Denny vocabulary test. Paper presented at the 13th Annual UCLA Undergraduate Psychology Conference, Los Angeles, CA.

Duran, N. (2004). An alternative to innateness: Distinguishing pour and load verbs in high-dimensional memory space. Paper presented at the 13th Annual UCLA Undergraduate Psychology Conference, Los Angeles, CA.

Duran, N. (2004). Inhibitions to the social self: Perceptions of trustworthiness and social phobia. Poster presented at the 13th Annual UCLA Undergraduate Psychology Conference, Los Angeles, CA.

Refereed Conference Presentations (not main presenter)

Duran, N. D., Dale, R., & Kreuz, R. J. (2010). Nonlinear dynamics of perspective taking. Paper presented at the 51st Annual Meeting of the Psychonomic Society, St. Louis, MO.

Dale, R. & Duran, N. D. (2009). Dynamical characterization of semantic coupling in child-caregiver interaction. Paper presented at the 15th International Conference on Perception and Action, Minneapolis, MN.

Duran, N. D., Dale, R., & McNamara, D. S. (2008). Does the arm know when youÕre lying? Paper presented at the 49th Annual Meeting of the Psychonomic Society, Chicago, IL.

Hu, X., Cai, Z., Duran, N. D., & Olney, A. (November, 2006).  Theoretical framework of semantic spaces: More applications. Paper presented at the 16th Annual Meeting of the Society for Text and Discourse, Houston, Texas.

McCarthy, P., Renner, A., Duncan, M., Duran, N. D., & McNamara, D.S. (November, 2006). Computationally identifying topic sentences: Comparing the Co-Reference Model to an Individual Features Model. Paper presented at the 16th Annual Meeting of the Society for Text and Discourse, Houston, Texas.

OÕReilly, T., Taylor, R. S., Duran, N. D., McNamara, D.S. (2006). Beyond the science domain: The transfer of reading strategies to non-expository texts. Paper presented at the 16th Annual Meeting of the Society for Text and Discourse, Minneapolis, MN

Local Presentations

Duran, N. D. (2011, April). Lie to me: Uncovering the cognitive processes and underlying dynamics of deception. Invited presentation at the Cognitive Science Seminar, Memphis, Tennessee.

Morehead, R., Duran, N. D., Dale, R. (2010, May). Making manual wagers in predictive visuospatial environments. Presentation at the Institute for Intelligent Systems Student Research Conference, Memphis, Tennessee.

Duran, N. D. (2010, April). A dynamical perspective on taking the perspective of another. Presentation at the Experimental Psychology Brown Bag, Memphis, Tennessee.

Duran, N. D. (2007, April). Using distributional statistics: Event-based expectancy in syntactic processing. Presentation at the Experimental Psychology Brown Bag, Memphis, Tennessee.

Lightman, E., & Duran, N. D. (2006, April). Predicting variations in gendered speech. Poster presented at the University of Memphis Diversity Conference, Memphis, TN.

Duran, N. D. (2006, February). Evaluating temporal coherence. Presentation at the Experimental Psychology Brown Bag, Memphis, Tennessee. 

Research Experience

Graduate Student Researcher, Cognition and Integrated Action Lab, University of Memphis (December 2006 – Present)

Supervisor: Dr. Rick Dale

Projects:

Using action dynamics to explore language learning

Using action dynamics to explore deceptive behavior

Coordination in human interaction

Complex dynamical systems in psychological research

Graduate Student Researcher, Cognitive Science and Educational Practices Lab, University of Memphis – Institute for Intelligent Systems (August 2005 – Present)

Supervisor: Dr. Danielle McNamara

Projects:

Applying natural language processing to language comprehension

Applying natural language processing to detecting deception

Intelligent tutoring systems in educational practices

Undergraduate Student Researcher, Psycholinguistics and Computational Cognition Lab, University of California, Riverside (July 2003 – July 2005)

Supervisor: Dr. Curt Burgess

Project:

High-dimensional semantic models

Teaching

Instructor for "Learning and Cognitive Processes" (Undergraduate Honors), Spring 2010.

Teaching Assistant for ÒNonlinear Methods for Psychological ScienceÓ, American Psychological Association (APA) Advanced Training Institute, University of Cincinnati, Cincinnati, OH (June 8th-12th, 2009)

Guest Lecturer in English Department graduate level courses: Introduction to Syntax, Corpus Analysis

Awards

Outstanding Student Paper Award, Society for Text and Discourse, 2008

Roland L. Frye Achievement Award for Outstanding Achievement in Experimental Psychology Research, University of Memphis, Department of Psychology, 2007-2008 (One graduate student selected each year by faculty)

Program Directors Award for Excellence, University of Memphis, Department of Psychology, Graduate 2005-2006 (One graduate student selected each year by faculty)

Outstanding Student for the College of Humanities, Arts, and Social Sciences, University of California, Riverside, College of Humanities, Arts, and Social Sciences, 2003-2004 (One graduating student is selected each year by faculty of the College of Humanities, Arts, and Social Sciences)

Academic Program Excellence Award for Psychology, University of California, Riverside, Department of Psychology, 2003-2004 (One graduating student is selected each year by faculty of the Psychology Department)

Academic Service & Leadership

President, Graduate Student Coordinating Committee, 2009-2010 (Student Advocacy Group for 150+ Psychology Graduate Students at the University of Memphis)

Interim President, Institute for Intelligent Systems Student Organization, 2009-2010

Organizing Chair: Cognition and Artificial Intelligence. Special Track for the Florida Artificial Intelligence Society (FLAIRS) International Conference, 2010

Co-Organizing Chair: Cognition, AI, and Human Computer Interaction. Special Track for the Florida Artificial Intelligence Society (FLAIRS) International Conference, 2011

Experimental Program Representative, Graduate Student Coordinating Committee, 2006-2007

President, University of California-Riverside Habitat for Humanity, 2003-2005

Reviewer

Cognitive Science

Discourse Processes

Cognitive Processing

Journal of Experimental & Theoretical Artificial Intelligence

Advances in Cognitive Psychology

Applied Psychophysiology and Biofeedback

Annual Meeting of the Florida Artificial Intelligence Research Society (International)

European Cognitive Science Conference

Annual Meeting of the Cognitive Science Society

Annual Meeting of the Society for Text and Discourse

Professional Affiliations

Cognitive Science Society

Society for Text and Discourse

Society for Computers in Psychology

American Psychological Association

Additional Training

ÒNonlinear Methods for Psychological ScienceÓ, American Psychological Association (APA) Advanced Training Institute, University of Cincinnati, Cincinnati, OH (June 9th-13th, 2008).

Dynamical and Nonlinear Analysis of Communication and Problem Solving Training Seminar, University of Radbaud, Nijmegen, Netherlands (January 12th-14th, 2008).

Technical Skills

Formal Languages: Python, R, Flash (ActionScript), some Awk

Math Packages: MATLAB, R, SPSS, |Stat, some SAS, some Weka

Operating Systems: Mac, Unix, Windows