Select papers

The following are a selected set of works from our lab. Please see our individual CVs for a complete listing of publications and presentations. 

• Wenger, M. J., Townsend, J. T., & Newbolds, S. F. (2025). The Neurocognitive efficiency score: Derivation, validation, and application of a novel combination of concurrent electrophysiological and behavioral data. Cognitive, Affective, & Behavioral Neuroscience, doi: https://doi.org/10.3758/s13415-025-01311-2 (PDF)

• Wenger, M. J., Townsend, J. T., & Ak, A. (2025). The Sequential categorization-identification paradigm (SCIP): A Paradigm for the concurrent testing of strong hypotheses regarding psychological representation and processing. Attention, Perception, & Psychophysics, https://doi.org/10.3758/s13414-025-03080-z (PDF).

• Barnett, A. L., Wenger, M. J., Miles, P. Wu, D., Isingizwe, Z. R., Benbrook, D. M., & Yuan, H. (2025). Cognitive performance in relation to systemic and brain iron at perimenopause. Nutrients, 17(5), 745. (PDF)

• Rhoten, S. E., Wenger, M. J., & De Stefano, L. E. (2024). Iron deficiency negatively affects behavioral measures of learning, indirect neural measures of dopamine, and neural efficiency. Cognitive, Affective, and Behavioral Neuroscience. https://doi.org/10.3758/s13415-024-01241-5 (PDF)

• Newbolds, S. F., & Wenger, M. J. (2024). Assessing the pattern electroretinogram as a proxy measure for dopamine in the context of iron deficiency. Nutritional Neuroscience. (PDF) https://doi.org/10.1080/1028415X.2024.2304943

• Chesbro, G. A., Owens, C., Reese, M., De Stefano, L., Kellawan, J. M., Larson, D. J., Wenger, M. J., & Larson, R. D. (2024). Changes in brain activity immediately post-exercise indicate a role for central fatigue in the volitional termination of exercise. International Journal of Exercise Science. (PDF).

• Barnett, A. L., Wenger, M. J., Yunus, F. M., Jalal, C., & DellaValle, D. M. (2023). The Effect of iron-fortified lentils on blood and cognitive status among adolescent girls in Bangladesh. Nutrients, 15, 5001. https://doi.org/10.3390/nu15235001. (PDF). Featured in the Special Issue: Ironing Human Health: From Basic Discovery to Clinical Translational Medicine (link).

• Wenger, M. J., Murray-Kolb, L. E., Scott, S. P., Boy, E., & Haas, J. D. (2022). Modeling relationships between iron status, behavior, and brain electrophysiology: Evidence from a randomized study involving a biofortified grain in Indian adolescents. BMC Public Health, 22, 1299, https://doi.org/10.1186/s12889-022-13612-z. (PDF).

• Liu, Y., Townsend, J. T., \& Wenger, M. J. (2022). Don’t be a square: The Processing mechanisms characterizing the elemental dimensions of width and height. Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology. https://doi.org/10.1177/17470218221096950 (PDF)

• Wenger, M. J. Townsend, J. T., De Stefano, L. A., & Liu , Y. (2021). Effects of shifts in response preferences on characteristics of representation and real-time processing: An application to the Hering illusion. Attention, Perception, & Performance, https://doi.org/10.3758/s13414-021-02397-9 (PDF).

• Ashby, F. G., & Wenger, M. J. (2021). Statistical decision theory. In F. G. Ashby, H. Colonius, & E. Dzhafarov (Eds.), New Handbook of Mathematical Psychology, Volume 3: Perceptual and Cognitive Processes. Cambridge University Press. (PDF)

• Wenger, M. J., DellaValle, D. M., Todd, L. E., Barnett, A. L., & Haas, J. D. (2021). Limited shared variance among measures of cognitive performance used in nutrition research: The Need to prioritize construct validity and biological mechanisms in choice of measures. Current Developments in Nutrition. https://doi.org/10.1093/cdn/nzab070 (PDF)

• Townsend, J. T., & Wenger, M. J. (2021). A beginning quantitative taxonomy of cognitive activation systems and application to continuous flow processes. Attention, Perception, & Performance. https://doi.org/10.3758/s13414-020-02180-2 (PDF)

• Gibson, B. G., Pauzek, J., Trost, J., & Wenger, M. J. (2020). Perceived uncertainty is greater for joint- than single-distribution probability cues. Attention, Perception, & Performance. (PDF)

• Townsend, J. T., Liu, Y., Zhang, R., & Wenger, M. J. (2020). Interactive parallel models: No, Virginia, violation of Miller’s race inequality does not imply coactivation, and Yes, Virginia, context invariance is testable. The Quantitative Methods for Psychology, 16 (2), 192-212. (PDF).

• Centanni, T., M., Halpern, A. R., Seisler, A. R., & Wenger, M. J. (2020). Context-dependent neural responses to minor notes in frontal and temporal regions distinguish musicians from nonmusicians. Cognitive, Affective, and Behavioral Neuroscience. (PDF)

• Wenger, M. J., & Rhoten, S. E. (2020,). Perceptual learning produces perceptual objects. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition. (PDF)

• Wenger, M. J., Rhoten, S. E., Murray-Kolb, L. E., Scott, S. P., Boy, E., Gahutu, J-B., & Haas, J. D. (2019). Changes in iron status are related to changes in brain activity and behavior in Rwandan female university students: Results from a randomized controlled efficacy trial involving iron-biofortified beans. Journal of Nutrition, 149 (4), 687–697. (PDF, supplement, outside coverage).

• Scott, S. P., Murray-Kolb, L. E., Wenger, M. J., Udipi, S. A., Gughre, P. S., Boy, E., & Haas, J. D. (2018). Cognitive performance in Indian school-going adolescents is positively affected by consumption of iron-biofortified pearl millet: A 6-month randomized controlled efficacy trial. Journal of Nutrition, 148(9), 1462-1471. (PDF, outside coverage)

• Townsend, J. T., Wenger, M. J., & Houpt, J. W. (2018). Uncovering mental architecture and related mechanisms in elementary human perception, cognition, and action. In J. T. Wixted (Ed.,), Stevens’ Handbook of Experimental Psychology and Cognitive Neuroscience, Fourth Edition. Wiley. DOI: 10.1002/9781119170174.epcn511. (PDF). Book’s main page here.

• Von Der Heide, R. J., Wenger, M. J., Bittner, J. L., & Fitousi, D. (2018). Converging operations and the role of perceptual and decisional influences on the perception of faces: neural and behavioral evidence. Brain and Cognition, 122, 59-75. (PDF)

• Wenger, M. J., DellaValle, D. M., Murray-Kolb, L. E., & Haas, J. D. (2017). Effect of iron deficiency on simultaneous measures of behavior, brain activity, and energy expenditure in the performance of a cognitive task. Nutritional Neuroscience, 22(3), 196-206. (PDF).

• Wenger, M. J., Murray-Kolb, L. E., Nevins, J. E. H., Venkatramanan, S., Reinhart, G. A., Wesley, A., & Haas, J. D. (2017). Consumption of a double-fortified salt affects perceptual, attentional, and mnemonic functioning in women in a randomized controlled trial in India. Journal of Nutrition, (PDF).

• Murray-Kolb, L. E., Wenger, M. J., Scott, S. P., Rhoten, S. E., Lung’aho, M. G., & Haas, J. D. (2017). Consumption of iron-biofortified beans positively affects cognitive performance in 18- to 27-year-old Rwandan female college students in an 18-week randomized controlled efficacy trial. Journal of Nutrition, 147 (11), 2109-2117. (PDF, our work in the news).

• Cornes, K., Donnelly, N., Godwin, H., & Wenger, M. J. (2011). Perceptual and decisional factors influencing the discrimination of inversion in the Thatcher illusion. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception and Performance, 37(3), 645. (PDF)

• Wenger, M. J., Negash, S., Petersen, R. C., & Petersen, L. (2010). Modeling and estimating recall processing capacity: sensitivity and diagnostic utility in application to mild cognitive impairment. Journal of Mathematical Psychology, 54(1), 73-89. (PDF)

• Wenger, M. J., & Townsend, J. T. (2006). On the costs and benefits of faces and words: Process characteristics of feature search in highly meaningful stimuli. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception and Performance, 32(3), 755-779. (PDF)

• Wenger, M. J., & Gibson, B. S. (2004). Using hazard functions to assess changes in processing capacity in an attentional cuing paradigm. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception and Performance, 30(4), 708-719. (PDF).

• Townsend, J. T., & Wenger, M. J. (2004). A Theory of interactive parallel processing: New capacity measures and predictions for a response time inequality series. Psychological Review, 111(4), 1003-1035. (PDF)

• Wenger, M. J., & Ingvalson, E. M. (2003). Preserving informational separability and violating decisional separability in facial perception and recognition. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition, 29(6), 1106. (PDF)

• Wenger, M. J., & Ingvalson, E. M. (2002). A decisional component of holistic encoding. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition, 28(5), 872. (PDF)

• Wenger, M. J. (1999). On the whats and hows of retrieval in the acquisition of a simple skill. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition, 25 (5), 1137-1160. (PDF)

• Wenger, M. J., & Payne, D. G. (1996). On the acquisition of mnemonic skill: Application of skilled memory theory. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Applied, 1 (3), 194-215. (PDF).