Publications

Preprints

Popov, V. (2026). m-Bell and m-Stirling numbers: Iterated binomial transforms, hyper-Bessel functions, and moments of the Conway–Maxwell–Poisson distribution. arXiv. [PDF] [DOI]

Popov, V. (2026). Cognitive resources can be intentionally released when processed information becomes irrelevant: Insights from the primacy effect in working memory. PsyArXiv. [PDF] [DOI]

Barthelmes, B. T. & Popov, V. (2026). Towards measuring the theory crisis in psychology: An LLM-assisted discourse-analysis approach. PsyArXiv. [DOI]

van Dongen, N. N., Glöckner, A., Musfeld, P., Sarafoglou, A., Borsboom, D., … Popov, V., … Yuan, L. (2026). The state and status of theory in psychological science. PsyArXiv. [DOI]

Greeno, D. J., Morey, C. C., & Popov, V. (2025). Encoding serial items depletes cognitive resource: An adversarial comparison of reconfiguration and resource-depletion accounts of working memory. PsyArXiv. [PDF] [DOI]

Popov, V. & Oberauer, K. (2024). How to build an observatory for the mind. PsyArXiv. [PDF] [DOI]

Popov, V. (2023). If God Handed Us the Ground-Truth Theory of Memory, How Would We Recognize It? PsyArXiv. [PDF] [DOI]

Popov, V., Pavlova, M. & Hristova, P. (2020). The Internal Structure of Semantic Relations: Effects of Relational Similarity and Typicality. PsyArXiv. [PDF] [DOI]

Journal publications

2026

Ma, S., Popov, V., & Zhang, Q. (2026). Cognitive constraints and reward environments jointly shape memory formation. Psychological Review. Advance online publication. [PDF] [DOI]

Dames, H., Popov, V., & Oberauer, K. (2026). Forget for now, but remember later: Can people selectively remove information from working memory while keeping it in long-term memory? Journal of Cognition, 9(1), 25. [PDF] [DOI]

2025

Frischkorn, G.* & Popov, V.* (co-first authors) (2025). A tutorial for estimating Bayesian hierarchical mixture models for visual working memory tasks: Introducing the Bayesian Measurement Modeling (bmm) package for R. Behavior Research Methods, 57(5), 144. [PDF] [DOI] [Preprint]

Trueblood, J. S., Allison, D., Field, S. M., Fishbach, A., Gaillard, S. D. M., Gigerenzer, G., … Popov, V., … Teodorescu, A. (2025). The misalignment of incentives in academic publishing and implications for journal reform. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 122(5), e2401231121. [PDF] [DOI] [Preprint]

Binz, M., Alaniz, S., Roskies, A., Aczel, B., Bergstrom, C. T., Allen, C., … Popov, V., … Schulz, E. (2025). How should the advancement of large language models affect the practice of science? Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 122(5), e2401227121. [PDF] [DOI] [Preprint]

2024

Ma, S., Popov, V., & Zhang, Q. (2024). A neural index reflecting the amount of cognitive resources available during memory encoding: A model-based approach. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory & Cognition, 51(3), 350–370. [PDF] [DOI] [Preprint]

Dames, H., Musfeld, P., Popov, V., Oberauer, K., & Frischkorn, G. (2024). Responsible Research Assessment Should Prioritize Theory Development and Testing Over Ticking Open Science Boxes. Meta-Psychology, 8. [PDF] [DOI] [Preprint]

2023

Dames, H. & Popov, V. (2023). When does intent matter for memory? Bridging perspectives with Craik. Journal of Experimental Psychology: General. 152(11), 3300–3309. [PDF] [DOI]

Popov, V. & Dames, H. (2023). Intent Matters: Resolving the Intentional vs Incidental Learning Paradox in Episodic Long-term Memory. Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, 152(1), 268–300. [PDF] [DOI] [Preprint] [Data & Code]

2022

Norton, C. M., Ibinson, J. W., Pcola, S. J., Popov, V., Tremel, J. J., Reder, L. M., … & Vogt, K. M. (2022). Neutral auditory words immediately followed by painful electric shock may show reduced next-day recollection. Experimental Brain Research, 240(11), 2939–2951. [PDF] [DOI]

Popov, V., So, M. & Reder, L. (2022). Memory resources recover gradually over time: The effects of word-frequency, presentation rate and list-composition on binding errors and mnemonic precision in source memory. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory & Cognition, 48(9), 1263–1280. [PDF] [DOI] [Data & Code]

2021

Vogt, K., Ibinson, J., Smith, C., Citro, A., Norton, C., Karim, H., Popov, V., Mahajan, A., Aizenstein, H., Reder, L. & Fiez, J. (2021). Midazolam and ketamine produce distinct neural changes in memory, pain, and fear networks during pain. Anesthesiology, 135(1), 69–82. [PDF] [DOI]

2020

Popov, V. & Reder, L. (2020). Greater discrimination difficulty during perceptual learning leads to stronger and more distinct representations. Psychonomic Bulletin & Review, 27(4), 768–775. [PDF] [DOI] [Data & Code]

Popov, V. & Reder, L. (2020). Frequency Effects on Memory: A Resource-Limited Theory. Psychological Review. 127(1), 1–46. [PDF] [DOI] [Preprint] [Data & Code]

Psederska, E., Yankov, G. P., Bozgunov, K., Popov, V., Vasilev, G., & Vassileva, J. (2020). Validation of the Levenson Self-Report Psychopathy Scale in Bulgarian Substance Dependent Individuals. Frontiers in Psychology, 11, 1110. [PDF] [DOI]

2019

Popov, V., Marevic, I., Rummel, J. & Reder, L. (2019). Forgetting is a Feature, not a Bug: Intentionally Forgetting Some Things Helps Us Remember Others by Freeing up Working Memory Resources. Psychological Science. 30(9), 1303-1317. [PDF] [DOI] [Preregistration] [Data, Stimuli & Code]

Popov, V., Zhang, Q., Koch, G. E., Calloway, R. C. & Coutanche, M. N. (2019). Semantic knowledge influences whether novel episodic associations are represented symmetrically or asymmetrically. Memory & Cognition, 47(8), 1567–1581. [PDF] [DOI] [Preregistration] [Preprint] [Stimuli, data & code]

2018

Popov, V.*, Ostarek, M.*, & Tenison, C. (2018). Practices and Pitfalls in Inferring Neural Representations. NeuroImage, 174, 340-351. [PDF] [DOI] [Preprint] [Code]

Shen, Z.*, Popov, V.* (co-first authors), Delahay, A., & Reder, L. (2018). Item Strength Affects Working Memory Capacity. Memory & Cognition, 46(2), 204-215. [PDF] [DOI]

2017

Popov, V., Hristova, P., & Anders, R. (2017). The Relational Luring Effect: Retrieval of relational information during associative recognition. Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, 146(5), 722-745. [PDF] [DOI]

Manelis, A.*, Popov, V.* (co-first authors), Paynter, C., Walsh, M., Wheeler, M., Vogt, K., & Reder, L. (2017). Cortical Networks Involved in Memory for Temporal Order. Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience, 29(7), 1253-1266. [PDF] [DOI]

2016

Reder, L. M., Liu, X. L., Keinath, A., & Popov, V. (2016). Building knowledge requires bricks, not sand: The critical role of familiar constituents in learning. Psychonomic Bulletin & Review, 23(1), 271-277. [PDF] [DOI] [Data]

2015

Popov, V. & Hristova, P. (2015). Unintentional and efficient relational priming. Memory & Cognition, 43(6), 866-878. [PDF] [DOI]

Book chapters

Popov, V. & Reder, L. (2024). Frequency effects in recognition and recall. In M. Kahana & A. Wagner (Eds.), The Oxford Handbook of Human Memory (pp. 765–796). Oxford University Press. [PDF] [DOI]

Refereed full conference papers

2018

Zhang, Q.*, Popov, V.* (co-first authors), Koch, G. E., Calloway, R. C. & Coutanche, M. N. (2018). Fast Memory Integration Facilitated by Schema Consistency. In C. Kalish, M. Rau, J. Zhu, T. Rogers (Eds.), Proceedings of the 40th Annual Conference of the Cognitive Science Society. Austin, TX: Cognitive Science Society. [PDF]

2017

Popov, V. , Ostarek, M., & Tenison, C. (2017). Inferential Pitfalls in Decoding Neural representations. In G. Gunzelmann, A. Howes, T. Tenbrink, & E. Davelaar (Eds.), Proceedings of the 39th Annual Conference of the Cognitive Science Society (pp. 961-966). Austin, TX: Cognitive Science Society.

Popov, V. , & Reder, L. (2017). Target-to-distractor similarity can help visual search performance. In G. Gunzelmann, A. Howes, T. Tenbrink, & E. Davelaar (Eds.), Proceedings of the 39th Annual Conference of the Cognitive Science Society (pp. 968–973). Austin, TX: Cognitive Science Society. [PDF]

Popov, V. , & Reder, L. (2017). Repetition improves memory by strengthening existing traces: Evidence from paired-associate learning under midazolam. In G. Gunzelmann, A. Howes, T. Tenbrink, & E. Davelaar (Eds.), Proceedings of the 39th Annual Conference of the Cognitive Science Society (pp. 2913-2918). Austin, TX: Cognitive Science Society. [PDF]

2014

Popov, V. & Hristova, P. (2014). Automatic analogical reasoning underlies structural priming in comprehension of ambiguous sentences. In P. Bello, M. Guarini, M. McShane, & B. Scassellati (Eds.), Proceedings of the 36th Annual Conference of the Cognitive Science Society (pp. 1192-1197). Austin, TX: Cognitive Science Society. [PDF]

Popov, V. & Petkov, G. (2014). The level of processing affects the magnitude of induced retrograde amnesia. In P. Bello, M. Guarini, M. McShane, & B. Scassellati (Eds.), Proceedings of the 36th Annual Conference of the Cognitive Science Society (pp. 2787-2792). Austin, TX: Cognitive Science Society. [PDF]

Publications in Bulgarian

2016

Popov, V., Nedelchev, D., Peneva, E., Psederska, E., Georgieva, V., Vasilev, G., Vassileva, J. (2016). Psychometric Characteristics of the Bulgarian Version of the Buss-Warren Aggression Questionnaire (BWAQ). Clinical and Consulting Psychology, 4(30), 37-53.

Popov, V., Psederska, E., Peneva, E., Bozgunov, K., Vasilev, G., Nedelchev, D., & Vassileva, J. (2016). Psychometric Characteristics of the Bulgarian Version of the Toronto Alexithymia Scale (TAS-20). Psychological Research, 19(2), 25-42 (in Bulgarian)

Nedelchev, D., Popov, V., Psederska, E., Bozgunov, K., Vasilev, G., Peneva, E., & Vassileva, J. (2016). Psychometric Characteristics of the Bulgarian Version of the Wender Utah Rating Scale (WURS-25) for ADHD. Clinical and Consulting Psychology, 8(2), 3-17 (in Bulgarian)

2015

Popov, V., Bozgunov, K., Vasilev, G., & Vassileva, J. (2015). Psychometric Characteristics of the Bulgarian Version of Levenson’s Self-report Psychopathy Scale. Bulgarian Journal of Psychology, 1-4, 253-278 (in Bulgarian)