Department of Communication
2130 Skinner Building
University of Maryland
College Park, MD 20742-7635

Office: Skinner 2114
Phone: 301-405-0873
Fax: 301-314-9471
Email: treimer@umd.edu
Skype: torsten.reimer  

Torsten Reimer (Ph.D. in Psychology, Free University of Berlin, Germany, 1996; Habilitation in Psychology, University of Basel, Switzerland, 2005) joined the department in the fall of 2006 as an assistant professor specializing in persuasion and social influence processes. Dr. Reimer studies the role of communication in decision making and organizational behavior. He has taught courses in social, cognitive, and organizational psychology at the Universities of Potsdam, Berlin, and Basel. Before joining the department, Dr. Reimer worked at the Max Planck Institute for Human Development in Berlin, an interdisciplinary center of excellence devoted to the study of human cognition. An award-winning teacher and researcher, he has published over 40 publications in journals, books, and conference proceedings, including publications in Cognitive Science, Theory and Decision, Marketing Letters, Communication Monographs, Group Processes and Intergroup Relations, and Management Revue. Dr. Reimer's research aims to understand the functionality of heuristic information processing in advice giving, persuasion, and group decision-making. The overarching goal of his research program is to explore how communication principles can facilitate decision making by guiding information processing and reducing information overload. Applied topics include the design of persuasive messages and risk communication.

Golden Anniversary Monograph Award, National Communication Association, 2008; Outstanding Reviewer Award, Organizational Behavior Division, Academy of Management, 2008; Award for Excellence in Research, School of Psychology, University of Basel, Switzerland, 2005

Gerd Gigerenzer's group at the Max Planck Institute for Human Development, Berlin, Germany

Ulrich Hoffrage (Professor of Decision Science at HEC Lausanne, Switzerland)

Ralph Hertwig (Professor of Cognitive and Decision Science at the University of Basel, Psychology Department, Switzerland)

Verlin Hinsz (Professor of Social and Organizational Psychology, Psychology Department, NDSU)

Shenghua Luan (Assistant Professor of Psychology, Singapore Management University)

Rui Mata (Postdoctoral Fellow, Department of Psychology, University of Michigan)

Graduate students at UMD: Bing Han, Sanja Sipek, Christine Skubisz, Shuo Yao

Undergraduate students at UMD: Kyle Bailey, Tashawn Graham, Laura Harger, Jane Jetabut, Charlie Mayer

Teaching

COMM420: Theories of Group Discussion

COMM475: Persuasion

COMM400: Research Methods in Communication

COMM600: Empirical Research in Communication

Reviewing

Communication Monographs, Communication Quarterly, Diagnostica, Group Dynamics: Theory, Research, and Practice, Group Processes and Intergroup Relations, Human Communication Research, International Journal of Sport and Exercise Psychology, Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, Management Communication Quarterly, NeuroPsychoEconomics, Zeitschrift für experimentelle Psychologie (Experimental  Psychology), Zeitschrift für Sozialpsychologie (Social Psychology); National Science Foundation (NSF) (Decision, Risk and Management Science Program), UK Economic and Social Research Council (research grants), Research stipends for graduate students in Austria; Academy of Management (AOM), Cognitive Science Conference, International Communication Association (ICA), National Communication Association (NCA)

Selected Manuscripts

Reimer, T., Reimer, A., & Hinsz, V. (2008). Agenda effects in decision-making groups: Old and new business instigate different group processes in the hidden-profile paradigm. Unpublished manuscript. University of Maryland. abstract

Reimer, T., Yao, S., & Harger, L. (2008). How do groups select ideas they generated in a brainstorming session? Unpublished manuscript. University of Maryland. abstract

Recent Publications

Skubisz, C., Reimer, T., & Hoffrage, U. (in press). Communicating quantitative risk information. In C. Beck (Ed.), Communication Yearbook. New York: Routledge.

Reimer, T., & Hoffrage, U. (in press). Fast and frugal group heuristics. In P. M. Todd, G. Gigerenzer, and the ABC Research Group (Eds.), Ecological rationality: Intelligence in the world. New York: Oxford University Press.

Katsikopoulos, K., & Reimer, T. (in press). Recognition-based consensus: How groups use partial ignorance to make good group decisions. In P. M. Todd, G. Gigerenzer, and the ABC Research Group (Eds.), Ecological rationality: Intelligence in the world. New York: Oxford University Press.

Hertwig, R., Herzog, S., Schooler, L., & Reimer, T. (2008). Fluency heuristic: A model of how the mind exploits a by-product of information retrieval. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition, 34, 1191–1206.

Schwenk, G., & Reimer, T. (2008). Simple heuristics in complex networks: Models of social influence. Journal of Artificial Societies and Social Simulation (JASSS), 11 (3) 4 <http://jasss.soc.surrey.ac. uk/11/3/4.html>.

Reimer, T., & Rieskamp, J. (2007). Fast and frugal heuristics. In R. F. Baumeister & K. D. Vohs (Eds.), Encyclopedia of Social Psychology (pp. 346-348). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.

Rieskamp, J., & Reimer, T. (2007). Ecological rationality. In R. F. Baumeister & K. D. Vohs (Eds.), Encyclopedia of Social Psychology (pp. 273-275). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.

** Reimer, T., Kuendig, S., Hoffrage, U., Park, E., & Hinsz, V. (2007). Effects of the information environment on group discussions and decisions in the hidden-profile paradigm. Communication Monographs, 74, 1-28.

Reimer, T., Hoffrage, U., & Katsikopoulos, K. (2007). Entscheidungsheuristiken in Gruppen [Heuristics in group decision-making]. NeuroPsychoEconomics, 2, 7-29.

Raab, M., & Reimer, T. (2007). Intuitive und deliberative Entscheidungen im Sport [Intuitive and deliberative decisions in sports]. In N. Hagemann, M. Tietjens, & B. Strauß (Eds.), Psychologie der sportlichen Höchstleistung [The psychology of peak performance in sport] (pp. 93-117). Göttingen: Hogrefe.

Schwenk, G., & Reimer, T. (2007). Social influence and bounded rationality: Heuristic decision making in complex networks. In D. S. McNamara, & G. Trafton (Eds.), Proceedings of the Twenty-Ninth Annual Conference of the Cognitive Science Society (pp. 1479-1484). Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.

Brand, S., Reimer, T., & Opwis, K. (2007). How do we learn in a negative mood? Effects of a negative mood on transfer and learning. Learning and Instruction, 17, 1-16.

Reimer, T., Park, E., & Hinsz, V. (2006). Shared and coordinated cognition in competitive and dynamic task environments: An information-processing perspective for team sports. International Journal of Sport and Exercise Psychology, 4, 376-400.

Reimer, T., & Hoffrage, U. (2006). The ecological rationality of simple group heuristics: Effects of group member strategies on decision accuracy. Theory and Decision, 60, 403-438.

Adamowicz, W. A., Hanemann, M., Swait, J., Johnson, R., Layton, D., Regenwetter, M., Reimer, T., & Sorkin, R. (2005). Decision Strategy and Structure in Households: A "groups" perspective. Marketing Letters, 16, 387-399.

** Reimer, T., & Hoffrage, U. (2005). Can simple group heuristics detect hidden profiles in randomly generated environments? Swiss Journal of Psychology, 64, 21-37.

** Reimer, T., Bornstein, A.-L., & Opwis, K. (2005). Positive and negative transfer effects in groups. In T. Betsch & S. Haberstroh (Eds.), The routine of decision making (pp. 175-192). Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.

** Reimer, T., Mata, R., Katsikopoulos, K., & Opwis, K. (2005). On the interplay between heuristic and systematic processes in persuasion. In B.G. Bara, L. Barsalou, & M. Bucciarelli (Eds.), Proceedings of the Twenty-Seventh Annual Conference of the Cognitive Science Society (pp. 1833-1838). Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.

Brunner, T., Reimer, T., & Opwis, K. (2005). Cancellation and focus: The impact of feature attractiveness on recall. In K. Opwis & I.-K. Penner (Eds.), Proceedings of KogWis05. The German Cognitive Science Conference 2005 (pp. 27-32). Basel: Schwabe.

Brand, S., Reimer, T., & Opwis, K. (2005). Effects of negative mood on transfer and learning. In K. Opwis & I.-K. Penner (Eds.), Proceedings of KogWis05. The German Cognitive Science Conference 2005 (pp. 21-26). Basel: Schwabe.

** Reimer, T., & Katsikopoulos, K. (2004). The use of recognition in group decision-making. Cognitive Science, 28, 1009-1029.

** Hoffrage, U., & Reimer, T. (2004). Models of bounded rationality: The approach of fast and frugal heuristics. Management Revue, 15, 437-459.

Reimer, T., Mata, R., & Stoecklin, M. (2004). The use of heuristics in persuasion: Deriving cues on source expertise from argument quality. Current Research in Social Psychology, 10, 69-83.