Embedded Files
Main Research Interests
Main Research Interests
My research explores how people mentally represent the past and how these reflections shape emotions, judgments, and social relationships. I study topics including nostalgia, counterfactual thinking, subjective temporal distance, and judgment and decision-making.
My current projects incorporate the following topics:
Nostalgia
Nostalgia
Investigating the affective signature of nostalgia and how nostalgia impacts our current/future self-perceptions and relationships with others.
Subjective Temporal Distance
Subjective Temporal Distance
Examining how our perception of temporal distance affects the way we mentally reconstruct and simulate past events, as well as the self-related factors that contribute to one's perceptions of temporal distance from the past.
Counterfactual Thinking
Counterfactual Thinking
Analyzing how imagining alternative scenarios and engaging in counterfactual thinking influence our mental simulations of different self-concepts and possible futures.
Peer-Reviewed Publications
Peer-Reviewed Publications
Kayton, K. & Markman, K. D. (in press). Finding the good in the bad: Nostalgic recollections of the covid-19 pandemic. Journal of Positive Psychology. https://doi.org/10.1080/17439760.2026.2683407
Kayton, K., Fischer, G., Barth, H., & Patalano, A. L. (2024). The left digit effect in an unbounded number line task. Psychonomic Bulletin & Review, 31(5), 2313-2322.
Gwiazda, G., Kayton, K., Alia, N., Bondhus, C., Barth, H., & Patalano, A. L. (2024). Does instructional intervention reduce the left digit effect in number line estimation?. Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology, 77(10), 2111-2123.
Manuscripts Under Review
Manuscripts Under Review
Alia, N., Kayton, K., Mittal, P., Barth, H., & Patalano, A. L. Influence of benchmarks on the left digit effect in number line estimation. Under review.
Manuscripts In Prep
Manuscripts In Prep
Kayton, K., & Markman, K. D. Remembering the Good in the Bad: Nostalgia as a Reconstructive Process in Meaning-Making. Manuscript in preparation.
Conference Poster Presentations
Conference Poster Presentations
Kayton, K., Deng, Q., & Markman, K. (2026, February). Growing apart or growing together: The bittersweet nature of romantic nostalgia. Poster to be presented at the Society for Personality and Social Psychology Annual Convention.
Deng, Q., Kayton, K., Cleaveland, L., Ostrowski, J. L., Woodland, P. E., & Mischkowski, D. (2026, February). Longitudinal evaluation of the prosocial pain scale psychometric properties. Poster to be presented at the Society for Personality and Social Psychology Annual Convention.
Kayton, K. & Markman, K. (2025, February). Nostalgia and the covid-19 pandemic. Poster presented at the Society for Personality and Social Psychology Annual Convention.
Kayton, K. & Markman, K. (2024, February). Perceptions of positive change and subjective temporal distance. Poster presented at the Society for Personality and Social Psychology Annual Convention.
Alia, N., Kayton, K., Mittal, P., Barth, H., & Patalano, A.L. (2023, November). Influence of labeled versus unlabeled benchmarks on the left digit effect in number line estimation. Poster presented at the Psychonomic Society Annual Meeting.
Patalano, A.L., Kayton, K., & Barth, H. (2023, March). Modeling the left digit effect in number line estimation. Poster presented at the APS International Convention of Psychological Science.
Kayton, K. & Markman, K. (2023, February). Counterfactuals, Conspiracy Theories, and the Covid-19 Pandemic. Poster presented at the Society for Personality and Social Psychology Annual Convention.
Kayton, K., Mittal, P., Barth, H., & Patalano, A.L (2022, November) Testing the presence of benchmarks on the left digit effect in number line estimation. Poster presented at the Psychonomic Society Annual Meeting (virtual presentation).
Kayton, K. Fischer, F., Barth, H., & Patalano, A.L. (2022, November) The left digit effect in an unbounded number line task. Poster presented at the Psychonomic Society Annual Meeting (virtual presentation).
Gwiazda, G., Bondhus, C., Kayton, K., Barth, H., & Patalano, A.L. (2022, November) Telling people about the left digit effect in number line estimation does not reduce the effect. Poster presented at the Psychonomic Society Annual Meeting (virtual presentation).
Kayton, K., Krueger, K., & Schumann, K. (2022, February) The rusty halo effect during conflict: How people view their transgressing romantic partners through a negative lens. Poster presented at the Society for Personality and Social Psychology Annual Convention (virtual presentation).
Bondhus, C., Gwiazda, G., Williams, K. Kayton, K., Barth, H., & Patalano, A.L. (2021, November) Trial-based predictors of the left digit effect in number line estimation. Poster presented at the Psychonomic Society Annual Meeting (virtual presentation).
Vaidya, L., Kayton, K., Barth, H., & Patalano, A.L. (2021, November) Test-retest reliability of the left digit effect in number line estimation. Poster presented at the Psychonomic Society Annual Meeting (virtual presentation).
Gwiazda, G., Bondhus, C., Kayton, K., Barth, H., Patalano, A.L. (2021, May) Telling people about the left digit effect in number line estimation does not reduce the effect. Poster presented at the Annual Meeting of the Association for Psychological Science (virtual presentation).
Williams, K., Kayton, K., Stenbaek, C., Green, J., Fischer, G., Barth, H., & Patalano, A.L. (2021, May) Competitive summary feedback improves number line estimation accuracy but does not reduce the left digit effect. Poster presented at the Annual Meeting of the Association for Psychological Science (virtual presentation).
Page updated
Google Sites
Report abuse