Contact Information

Email: cuttler@psych.ubc.ca

Phone: (604) 822-2140

Office: 2535 Kenny

Lab:   3202 Kenny

 

Research

 

Research Interests

s        Prospective Memory

s        Obsessive Compulsive Disorder

s        Schizophrenia

s        Eyewitness Memory and Offenders

 

Recent and Current Research

 

s        Morality of Memory

This project investigated the reasons for why intentions/prospective memory tasks are sometimes not followed through with and how personality relates to these reasons. More specifically, we explored why agreements to do something at a later time are sometimes not followed through with. For this purpose, we developed and administered a questionnaire, entitled The Morality of Memory (MMQ). The questionnaire presents participants with 12 scenarios/situations in which an agreement to do something was broken and then asks them to rate several reasons for why the agreement was broken. It explores 1) how who broke the agreement (the self or someone else), 2) how the importance of the agreement and 3) how the relationship to the person the agreement was broken with, mediate participants’ perceptions of and attributions for the causes of broken agreements. To explore the relationships between perceptions of/reasons for failure and personality we also administered the NEO-FFI.

 

s        Individual Differences in Prospective Memory

Prospective memory -- the ability to recollect intentions, plans and agreements -- varies greatly among individuals. We explored whether some of this variability stems from individual differences in personality (e.g. conscientiousness) and/or lifestyle (e.g. busyness). Participants completed various indicators of personality, environmental demands and cognitive ability, as well as three different prospective memory tasks. Two of the latter tasks were lab-based, they focused on an intention that had to be executed in the laboratory, while the third was field-based, concerned with an intention that had to be executed in the context of the participants’ day-to-day life. The data revealed differences in the best predictors of performance across the three tasks: socially prescribed perfectionism was negatively related to performance on one of the lab tasks; neuroticism was positively related to performance on one of the lab tasks; conscientiousness was positively related to performance on the field task and one of the lab tasks. No relationship was found between prospective memory performance and lifestyle. In accordance with previous research we found that older adults performed worse than younger adults on the lab based prospective memory tasks and better than younger adults on the field based prospective memory task. Further, we found that age related differences in personality mediate older adults’ superior performance on the field based prospective memory task.

 

s        OCD and Prospective Memory

People with obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD) experience persistent and distressing thoughts. In most cases, anxiety is relieved by performing repetitive acts, such as washing, checking or counting. Obsessive thoughts and compulsive behaviours can occupy so much time that people with OCD have difficulty functioning at work, taking care of themselves and relating to others. At its most extreme, OCD requires hospitalization. In a series of studies we are investigating whether impaired prospective memory — the type of memory required to remember an intention such as turning off the stove or taking medications — is linked to compulsive checking. Studies have shown prospective memory is impaired in patients with schizophrenia and depression, but little is known about the influence of anxiety on this type of memory. This research could lead to more effective behavioural interventions that reduce the frequency of compulsive checking and improve quality of life for OCD patients.

 

Education

s        Currently working toward PhD

s        MA University of British Columbia

s        BA University of British Columbia

 

Work Experience

 

s        Research Assistant

September 2001-Sept 2004     Memory and Cognition Laboratory

August 2001-August 2002         Riverview Psychiatric Hospital

May 2000-May 2002                  Yuille Forensic Laboratory

 

s        Teaching Assistant

January 2005-May 2005            Psych 334      Instructor: Eric Eich

Sept 2004-Dec 2004                 Psych 333      Instructor: Jonathan Schooler

June 2004-July 2004                  Psych 218      Instructor: Dawn Macaulay

January 2004-May 2004            Psych 260      Instructor:  Ron Rensink

January 2004-May 2004            Psych 334      Instructor:  Eric Eich

June 2003-July 2003                  Psych 333      Instructor:  Claudia Jacova

September 2002-May 2003      Psych 100      Instructors: Peter Graf and Del Paulhus

January 2003-May 2003            Psych 260      Instructor:  Ron Rensink

 

Professional Affiliations

s        Golden Key Honor Society

s        Associate member of the Canadian Society for Brain, Behaviour and Cognitive Science

s        Student member of the Western Psychological Association

s        Cognitive Representative for the Department of Psychology Graduate Student Council

 

Funding

s        Elizabeth Young Lacey Scholarship in Psychology (Sept 2002-Sept 2003)

s        Graduate Entrance Scholarship (Sept 2002-Sept 2003)

s        NSERC PGSA (May 2003- May 2005)

s        Michael Smith Foundation for Health Research Junior Graduate Studentship (May 2004- May 2006)

 

Publications

 

Cuttler, C., & Graf, P. (in preperation). Individual differences in prospective memory performance.

 

Cuttler, C., Graf, P., & Yew. D. (in preperation). Broken agreements.

 

Woodward, T. S., Whitman, J. C., Cuttler, C. C., & Moritz, S. (in preparation). Source memory biases associated with reality distortion in schizophrenia.

 

Cooper, B. S., Cuttler, C., Dell, P., & Yuille, J.C. (in submission). Dissociation and Amnesia: An exploratory study with male offenders.

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Moritz, S., Kuelz, A., Jacobsen, D., Cuttler, C., & Fricke, S (in submission). Severity of subjective cognitive impairment in everyday life in OCD and depressive patients.

 

Woodward, T. S., Moritz, S., Cuttler, C. & Whitman, J. C. (in submission). A generalized cognitive bias against disconfirmatory evidence (BADE) contributes to delusion maintenance in schizophrenia.

 

Moritz, S., Kloss, M., Jacobsen, D., Fricke, S., Cuttler, C., Brassen, S., & Hand, I. (in press). Neurocognitive impairment does not predict treatment outcome in obsessive-compulsive disorder. Behaviour Research and Therapy.

 

Moritz, S., Woodward, T. S., Whitman, J., & Cuttler, C. (in press). Confidence errors as a possible basis for delusions in schizophrenia. Journal of Nervous and Mental Disease.

 

Moritz, S., Woodward, T. S., Cuttler, C., Whitman, J., & Watson, J. M. (2004). False memories in schizophrenia. Neuropsychology. 18(2), 276-283.

 

 

Conference Presentations

              

Cuttler, C., & Graf, P. (November, 2004). Do personality, environmental demands, and age influence prospective memory? Poster presented at the 45th Annual Meeting of the Psychonomic Society, Minneapolis, Minnesota.  

                              
               Cuttler, C., & Graf, P. (September, 2004). Prospective memory and personality. Paper presented at the Consultation Meeting for the BC Aging Research Network, Vancouver, BC
               
               Cuttler, C., & Graf, P. (August, 2004). Individual differences in prospective memory. Paper presented at the 28th International Congress of Psychology, Beijing, China.
 
               Cuttler, C., & Graf, P. (June 2004). Don’t forget: Individual differences in prospective memory. Poster presented at the 14th Annual Meeting of the Canadian Society for Brain, Behaviour and Cognitive Science, St. Johns, Newfoundland. 
 
               Boydell, C., Percy, A., Millman, N., Cuttler, C., & Eich, E. (June 2004). Mood dependent memory. Poster presented at the 6th Annual Northwest Cognition and Memory Conference, Victoria, BC.
 
               Cuttler, C., & Graf, P. (May 2004). Don’t forget: Individual differences in prospective memory.  Paper presented at the 6th Annual Northwest Cognition and Memory Conference, Victoria, BC.
 
               Percy, A., Boydell, C., Millman, N., Cuttler, C., & Eich, E. (June 2004). Does your mood influence what you remember? Mood congruence in autobiographical memory generation. Poster presented at the 6th Annual Northwest Cognition and Memory Conference, Victoria, BC.
 
               Woodward, T. S., Moritz, S., Cuttler, C., & Whitman, J. (February, 2004). A generalized cognitive deficit in integrating disconfirmatory evidence underlies delusion maintenance in schizophrenia. Poster presented at the Biennial Winter Workshop on Schizophrenia, Davos, Switzerland.

 

Cuttler, C., Graf, P., Yew, D., & Wang, S. (November, 2003). Prospective memory and personality. Poster presented at the 44th Annual Meeting of the Psychonomic Society, Vancouver, BC. 

 

Graf, P., & Cuttler, C. (September 2003). Prospective memory in and out of context. Invited Symposium presented at the XIII Conference of the European Society of Cognitive Psychology, Granada, Spain.

 

Cuttler, C., Woodward, T. S., Uttl, B., Whitman, J., & Graf, P. (June, 2003). The association between cognitive flexibility and thought disorder in schizophrenia. Poster presented at the 5th Annual Northwest Cognition and Memory Conference, Seattle, WA.  

 

Yew, D., Cuttler, C., Wang, S., & Graf, P. (June, 2003). Understanding broken promises. Poster presented at the 5th Annual Northwest Cognition and Memory Conference, Seattle, WA.

 

Toufaniasl, M., Toufaniasl, A., Phillips, J., Cuttler, C., & Graf, P. (June, 2003). Prospective memory in the pool and games arcade.  Poster presented at the 5th Annual Northwest Cognition and Memory Conference, Seattle, WA.

 

Cuttler, C., Graf, P. (June, 2003). Morality of memory. Poster presented at the 13th Annual Meeting of the Canadian Society for Brain Behaviour and Cognitive Science, Hamilton, Ont.

 

Whitman, J., Woodward, T. S., Moritz, S., Cuttler, C. & Ngan, E. (June, 2002). Thought disorder and inhibition: Compensating for an overactive semantic network. Poster presented at the 17th Annual Research Day of the Department of Psychiatry, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC.

 

Cuttler, C., Woodward, T.S., Whitman, J., Moritz, S., & Graf, P. (May, 2002). Source attribution errors are associated with delusions in schizophrenia. Poster presented at the 4th Annual Northwest Cognition and Memory Conference, Vancouver, BC.

 

Whitman, J., Woodward, T. S., Moritz, S., Cuttler, C., & Graf, P. (May, 2002). Prime recall and controlled attention. Poster presented at the 4th Annual Northwest Cognition and Memory Conference, Vancouver, BC.