He studied cognitive (experimental) psychology at Binghamton University (SUNY) and received his Ph.D. in 1996. Upon completing his doctoral degree, he taught at Francis Marion University in Florence, South Carolina, for six years and Arizona State University for five years before moving to Sam Houston State University in 2006. His diverse research focuses on cognitive psychology with an emphasis on memory. His research has involved such various topics as face recognition, eyewitness memory, false memory, hypermnesia, and helicopter cockpit design. Dr. Anastasi teaches a broad array of courses at both the undergraduate and graduate levels and has received several teaching awards for his work in the classroom.