The various prongs of my research surround one central question: How do memories persist? Episodic memory – or memory for specific events – changes over time, as some features are forgotten, while others become more resistant to forgetting via consolidation. Crucially, this process of memory change is modulated by the precise way these memories are formed and reactivated.
My research centers on how long-term memory retention relies on reactivation during both sleep and wake (e.g., during re-learning of previously encoded memories) as well as factors at encoding, such as surprise and interactions among memories. I have tackled these questions using a variety of methodologies (e.g., behavior, eye tracking, electroencephalography, naturalistic neuroimaging, autobiographical questionnaires) while using advanced computational techniques (e.g., computational modeling, graph theory, multivariate analyses, real-time designs). For this research, I was one of two post-docs awarded a 2019 Cermak/Corkin Post-Doc Award from the Memory Disorders Research Society, a professional society consisting of most of the leading PIs in memory research, and I was invited to join this society in 2022. Additionally, I was named a Rising Star by the Association for Psychological Science in 2022 and a Fellow by the Psychonomic Society in 2020.
