STAV ATIR 312 N. Geneva St., Apt 5, Ithaca, NY, 14850 (203) 809-1080 | [email protected]

Education

2012- CORNELL UNIVERSITY, ITHACA, NY Ph.D. in Social and Personality Psychology [expected, June 2017] Committee Chair: Melissa Ferguson Committee Members: Thomas Gilovich, David Dunning, Khena Swallow

2006-2010 YALE UNIVERSITY, NEW HAVEN, CT B.Sc. Magna Cum Laude, with distinction in the major Major: Psychology Senior thesis topic: “Memory for Information Paired with Humorous, Relevant Jokes” Adviser: Marcia Johnson

2005 SACKLER FACULTY OF MEDICINE AT TEL AVIV UNIVERSITY, TEL AVIV, ISRAEL

Honors and Awards 2015 SPSP Student Poster Award ($100) 2014 SPSP Travel Award ($500) 2014 Cornell University Travel Grant ($288) 2010 Angier Prize for best senior thesis in psychology 2010 Phi Beta Kappa, Yale University 2010 Psi Chi, Yale University

Publications Atir S., Rosenzweig, E., & Dunning D. A. (2015). When Knowledge Knows No Bounds: Self-Perceived Expertise Predicts Claiming of Impossible Knowledge. Psychological Science.

People overestimate their knowledge, at times claiming knowledge of concepts, events, and people that do not exist and cannot be known, a phenomenon called overclaiming. What underlies assertions of such impossible knowledge? We found that people overclaim to the extent that they perceive their personal expertise favorably. Studies 1a and 1b showed that self-perceived financial knowledge positively predicts claiming knowledge of nonexistent financial concepts, independent of actual knowledge. Study 2 demonstrated that self-perceived knowledge within specific domains (e.g., biology) is associated specifically with overclaiming within those domains. In Study 3, warning participants that some of the concepts they saw were fictitious did not reduce the relationship between self-perceived knowledge and overclaiming, which suggests that this relationship is not driven by impression management. In Study 4, boosting self-perceived expertise in geography prompted assertions of familiarity with nonexistent places, which supports a causal role for self-perceived expertise in claiming impossible knowledge.

1 Manuscripts in Preparation Atir S., Rosenzweig, E., & Dunning D. A. (in preparation). A Lot of Knowledge Is a Dangerous Thing: Expertise Predicts Overclaiming.

When do people claim to have knowledge of people, concepts, and events they do not—and can’t possibly—have? And does their overall knowledge about a topic predict this type of overclaiming? The results of six studies suggest that possessing genuine knowledge about a topic predicts claiming knowledge of nonexistent topic-related information. We found that those who genuinely know more about politics were more likely to claim knowledge of political figures that do not exist (study 1). Further, genuine knowledge predicted overclaiming independently of self- perceived knowledge (studies 1a-c and study 2). We utilized the university course setting to show that students’ overclaiming of course-related knowledge increased as they gained relevant knowledge (from the beginning of the summer to the end of the semester; study 3). Finally, we demonstrate that people with greater knowledge come up with more associations with the nonexistent terms, which mediates the link between genuine knowledge and overclaiming. Taken together, the results suggest that the more people genuinely know about a topic, the more likely they are to claim knowledge about the topic that they do not possess.

Atir, S. and Swallow, K. M. (in preparation). If Target Detection Boosts Memory for Context, Then What about Reward?

The context of a goal-relevant item is remembered better than the context of a distracting item. In this study we examine a natural explanation for this effect: that it reflects enhanced memory for reward and its context. In one experiment, participants learned to associate a color (e.g., blue) with a monetary reward. They then monitored a series of colored squares (e.g., blue and green squares) for a target (e.g., red square) as they encoded a series of pictures for a later memory test. A second experiment asked participants to perform the detection task while they encoded pictures of rewarding and neutral objects. Despite finding clear and replicable effects of target detection on picture memory, we found no effects of rewarding stimuli. These data provide additional support for the claim that the decision to respond to goal-relevant stimuli boosts the encoding of concurrent information.

Chaired Symposia Atir, S., (2015, May). The When, How, and Why of Overconfidence: The Causes and Consequences of Accurate vs. Inaccurate Self-Knowledge. Symposium to be presented at The Association for Psychological Science Annual Convention, New York, NY. (Speakers: Stav Atir, Matthew Fisher, Joyce Ehrlinger, Elizabeth Tenney)

Conference Oral Presentations Atir, S., Rosenzweig, E., Dunning, D. (2015, May). A Lot of Knowledge Is a Dangerous Thing: Expertise Predicts Overclaiming. Paper to be presented at The Association for Psychological Science Annual Convention, New York, NY.

Atir, S., Dunning, D., & Rosenzweig, E. (2014, May). I Think I Know, Therefore I Overclaim; Perceived Self-Knowledge Predicts Overclaiming. Paper presented at the Midwestern Psychological Association Annual Meeting, Chicago, Illinois.

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Conference Poster Presentations Atir, S., Rosenzweig, E., Dunning, D. (2016, January). Gaining Knowledge Increases Claims of Invented Knowledge. Poster to be presented at The Society for Personality and Social Psychology Annual Meeting, San Diego, California.

Atir, S., Rosenzweig, E., Dunning, D. (2015, February). A Lot of Knowledge Is a Dangerous Thing: Expertise Predicts Overclaiming. Poster presented at The Society for Personality and Social Psychology Annual Meeting, Long Beach, California.

Swallow, K. and Atir, S. (2014, November). If Target Detection Boosts Memory for Context, Then What about Reward? Poster presented at the Psychonomic Society's Annual Meeting, Long Beach, California.

Atir, S. and Kable, J. W. (2012, March). Ventromedial Prefrontal Damage Increases Susceptibility to Contextual Effects on Decision-Making. Poster presented at the Cognitive Neuroscience Society Annual Meeting, Chicago, Illinois.

Mukherjee, D., Atir, S., & Kable, J. (2012, April). Negative Affect and Decision Making. Poster presented at the Anxiety Disorders Association of America Annual Meeting, Arlington, Virginia.

Atir, S., Higgins, J. A., & Johnson, M. K. (2010, March). Memory for Factual Information Is Enhanced When Accompanied by Humorous, Relevant Statements. Poster presented at the 24th Annual Conference on the Teaching of Psychology, Tarrytown, NY. Above poster also presented at the Yale Undergraduate Psychology Symposium (2010, February).

Invited Talks Atir, S., Higgins, J. A., & Johnson, M. K. (2010, April). Memory for Information Paired with Humorous, Relevant Statements (April, 2010). Yale University, Department of Psychology, Psi Chi event.

Teaching Experience 2016 Social Cognition, Teaching Assistant (Professor: Melissa Ferguson) 2015 Introduction to Social Psychology, Teaching Assistant (Professor: Thomas Gilovich) 2014 Psychology and Law, Teaching Assistant (Professor: David Dunning) 2014 Introduction to Social Psychology, Teaching Assistant (Professor: Thomas Gilovich) 2013 Introduction to Personality Psychology, Teaching Assistant (Professor: Vivian Zayas) 2010 Psychology of Personality, Grader (Professor: Joseph Kable)

Early Research Experience

2010-2012 UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA, PHILADELPHIA, PA, Research Specialist Adviser: Joseph Kable 2008-2010 YALE UNIVERSITY, NEW HAVEN, CT, Research Assistant Adviser: Marcia Johnson

3 2009 WEIZMANN INSTITUTE, REHOVOT, ISRAEL, participant in the undergraduate summer program: The Karyn Kupcinet International Science School for Overseas Students Adviser: Yadin Dudai 2008 HARVARD UNIVERSITY, CAMBRIDGE, MA, Summer Research Assistant Adviser: Daniel Wegner

References Melissa J. Ferguson Joseph W. Kable Department of Psychology Department of Psychology Cornell University University of Pennsylvania 230 Uris Hall C37 Solomon Labs Ithaca, NY 14853 Philadelphia, PA 19104

David A. Dunning Marcia K. Johnson Department of Psychology Department of Psychology Cornell University Yale University 278B Uris Hall 305-306 Sheffield Hall Ithaca, NY 14853 New Haven, CT

Thomas D. Gilovich Department of Psychology Cornell University 220 Uris Hall Ithaca, NY 14853

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