Marlin Directory


Robert Ariel

Robert Ariel

Assistant Professor of Psychology


Degrees Held

Ph.D., Kent State University
B.A., University of Illinois

Office Location: 104 Allen Commons, Allen Village
Phone: 757-455-3288
Email: rariel@vwu.edu
Department/s:
- Psychology

Dr. Robert Ariel received his Ph.D. in experimental psychology with a cognitive focus from Kent State University.  Afterwards, he completed an NRSA postdoctoral fellowship funded by the National Institute on Aging at Georgia Institute of Technology. Before joining the Psychology Department at Virginia Wesleyan University, he was a postdoctoral researcher at Purdue University. Dr. Ariel directs the Self-Regulation, Education, and Aging Lab (SEA Lab) at VWU. The SEA lab's research focuses on understanding and improving self-regulated learning across the lifespan.  Dr. Ariel takes an evidence-based approach to education and his teaching incorporates effective cognitive principles; many of which come from his own research program.  He teaches courses on cognitive psychology, sensation and perception, biological psychology, research methods, and statistics.

Ariel, R., & Karpicke, J. (2018). Improving self-regulated learning with a retrieval practice intervention. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Applied, 24, 43-56.

Ariel, R., Lembeck, N., Moffat, S., & Hertzog, C. (2018). Are there sex differences in confidence and metacognitive monitoring accuracy for everyday, academic, and psychometrically measured spatial ability. Intelligence, 70, 42-51.

Ariel, R., & Moffat, S. (2018). Age-related similarities and differences in monitoring spatial cognition. Aging, Neuropsychology, & Cognition, 25, 351-377.

Hertzog, C., Smith, R. M., & Ariel, R. (2018). Does the Cognitive Reflection Test actually capture heuristic versus analytic reasoning in older adults. Experimental Aging Research, 44:1, 18-34.

Lipowski, S., Ariel, R., Tauber, S. K. U., & Dunlosky, J. (2017). Children’s agenda-based regulation during study-time allocation: The effects of prior performance and rewards on elementary school children’s study choices. Journal of Experimental Child Psychology, 164, 55-67.

Ariel, R., Price, J., & Hertzog, C. (2015). Age-related associate memory deficits in value-based remembering: The contribution of agenda-based regulation and strategy use. Psychology & Aging, 30, 795-808.

Ariel, R., Hines, J. C., & Hertzog, C. (2014). Test framing generates a stability bias for predictions of learning by causing people to discount their learning beliefs. Journal of Memory and Language. 75, 181-198.

Serra, M. J., & Ariel, R. (2014). People use the memory for past test heuristic as an explicit cue for judgments-of-learning. Memory & Cognition, 42, 1260-1272.

Ariel, R., & Castel, A. D. (2014).  Eyes wide open: Enhanced pupil dilation when selectively studying important information.  Experimental Brain Research, 232, 337-344.

Ariel, R., Dunlosky, J., & Toppino, T. C. (2014). Contribution of degraded perception and insufficient encoding on decisions to mass or space study. Experimental Psychology, 61, 110-117.

Pehlivanoglu, D., Jain, S., Ariel, R., & Verhaeghen, P. (2014).  The ties to unbind: Age-related differences in feature (un)binding in working memory for emotional faces. Frontiers in Emotion Science, 5: 253, 1-13.

Ariel, R. (2013).  Learning what to learn: The effects of task experience on strategy shifts in the allocation of study time. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition, 39, 1697-1711.

Ariel, R., & Dunlosky, J. (2013).  When do learners shift from habitual-based to agenda-based processes when selecting items for study? Memory & Cognition, 41, 416-428.

Ariel, R., Al-Harthy, I. S., Was, C. A., & Dunlosky, J. (2011). Habitual reading biases in the allocation of study time. Psychonomic Bulletin & Review, 18, 1015-1021.

Ariel, R., & Dunlosky, J. (2011).  The sensitivity of judgment-of-learning resolution to past test performance, new learning, and forgetting. Memory & Cognition, 39, 171-184.

Dunlosky, J., & Ariel, R. (2011). The influence of agenda-based and habitual processes on item selection during study. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition, 37, 899-912.

Dunlosky, J., & Ariel, R. (2011). Self-regulated learning and the allocation of study time. In the Ross, B. (Eds.) Psychology of Learning and Motivation, Vol 54. (pp. 101- 138).

Dunlosky, J., Ariel, R., & Thiede, K. W. (2011). Agenda-based regulation of study-time allocation.  In P. A. Higham & J. P. Leboe (Eds.) Constructions of Remembering and Metacognition: Essays in honour of Bruce Whittlesea (pp. 182 –198). Basingstoke: Palgrave MacMillan.

Ariel, R., Dunlosky, J., & Bailey, H. (2009).  Agenda-based regulation of study-time allocation:  When agendas override item-based monitoring.  Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, 138, 432-447. 

New Professors Join VWU Faculty
VWU welcomes Dr. Robert Ariel, Dr. Nadia Nafar and Dr. Modupe Oshikoya