Prof Zoltan Dienes

Biography

For my publications please go to my homepage:

http://www.lifesci.sussex.ac.uk/home/Zoltan_Dienes/

BA (Hons) Natural Sciences 1984 University of Cambridge
MA (Hons) Experimental Psychology 1987 Macquarie University
D.Phil Experimental Psychology 1990 University of Oxford

Lecturer 1990-1997 Experimental Psychology, University of Sussex
Reader 1997 - 2008 Experimental Psychology, University of Sussex
Professor 2008-  Psychology, University of Sussex

Role

Course Convenor:  Conscious and Unconscious Processes; Philosophy of Psychology

Integrated Martial Arts Instructor.  Line manager is Luke Terrill.

I am interested in the distinction between conscious and unconscious mental states, both states of knowing and intending. For example, much of the knowledge we acquire for dealing with the world appears to be unconscious. We can learn to use certain linguistic structures, to appreciate certain styles of music, to obey cultural rules, or to gain perceptual motor mastery of a domain without consciously knowing the underlying regularities. How is such knowledge acquired? By what methods can know whether knowledge is conscious or unconscious? What type of structures can be learnt unconsciously? How can such learning be computationally modelled? I am also interested in hypnosis, a way of acting which I argue is intentional but the person is strategically unaware of those intentions.

I am course convenor for Conscious and Unconscious Mental Processes, a final year option; and for Philosophy of Psychology, a final year core course. In addition, I teach a topic on hypnosis for the first year elective Contemporary Issues in Psychology, and a topic on philosophy of science as part of core teaching for masters students.

Student Consultation

Tuesdays 9-10am

Thursdays 9-10am

Dienes, Zoltan and Hutton, Sam (2013) Understanding hypnosis metacognitively: rTMS applied to left DLPFC increases hypnotic suggestibility. Cortex, 49 (2). pp. 386-392. ISSN 0010-9452

Parris, Benjamin A, Dienes, Zoltan and Hodgson, Timothy L (2012) Temporal constraints of the word blindness posthypnotic suggestion on Stroop task performance. Journal of Experimental Psychology. Human Perception and Performance, 38 (4). pp. 833-837. ISSN 1939-1277

Kiyokawa, Sachiko, Dienes, Zoltán, Tanaka, Daisuke, Yamada, Ayumi and Crowe, Louise (2012) Cross cultural differences in unconscious knowledge. Cognition, 124 (1). pp. 16-24. ISSN 1873-7838

Mealor, Andy David and Dienes, Zoltan (2012) Conscious and unconscious thought in artificial grammar learning. Consciousness and Cognition, 21 (2). pp. 865-874. ISSN 1053-8100

Mealor, Andy and Dienes, Zoltan (2012) No-loss gambling shows the speed of the unconscious. Consciousness and Cognition, 21 (1). pp. 228-237. ISSN 1053-8100

Dienes, Zoltan (2012) Conscious versus unconscious learning of structure. In: Statistical learning and language acquisition. Studies in second and foreign language education, 1 . De Gruyter Mouton, Boston. ISBN 9781934078235

Dienes, Zoltan, Baddeley, Roland J and Jansari, Ashok (2012) Rapidly measuring the speed of unconscious learning: amnesics learn quickly and happy people slowly. PloS ONE, 7 (3). e33400. ISSN 1932-6203

Guo, Xiuyan, Zheng, Li, Zhu, Lei, Yang, Zhiliang, Chen, Chao, Zhang, Lei, Ma, Wendy and Dienes, Zoltan (2011) Acquisition of conscious and unconscious knowledge of semantic prosody. Consciousness and Cognition, 20 (2). pp. 417-425. ISSN 1053-8100

Dienes, Zoltan, Scott, Ryan B and Wan, Lulu (2011) The role of familiarity in implicit learning. In: Constructions of remembering and metacognition: essays in honour of Bruce Whittlesea. Palgrave Macmillan, New York. ISBN 0230579418

Dienes, Zoltán and Scott, Ryan (2005) Measuring unconscious knowledge: Distinguishing structural knowledge and judgment knowledge. Psychological Research, 69 (5-6). pp. 338-351. ISSN 0340-0727