Human Memory Lab (Yonelinas)

In the Human Memory Lab we aim to understand how memory works… and why it often fails. We examine factors that influence memory such as stress and aging. We also investigate the brain networks involved in memory using neuroimaging methods like fMRI, and by examining people with memory problems related to medical conditions such as stroke and cardiac arrest.

Full Lab Website

 

Research Topics

Receiver Operating Characteristics (ROCs)

Receiver operating characteristics are used to examine the relationship between hits and false alarm rates across changes in response criterion.

Perception and Working Memory

Recent work has indicated the medial temporal lobes are involved in some forms of perception and working memory. Current work is examining the processes involved in these types of tasks in order to test competing theories of memory and perception.

Novelty and Emotion

Novel or distinctive events are remembered well. For example, pictures that are made novel by presenting them in a relatively uncommon color are associated with enhanced recollection and familiarity based recognition memory.

Memory Models

Recent evidence from a wide variety of behavioral and neuroscientific studies has led most researchers to reject both “threshold” or “signal detection” classes of models in favor of ‘hybrid’ models—such as the Dual Process Signal Detection (DPSD) model—that combine the strengths of both approaches.

Implicit Memory

Implicit memory is critical for many complex human behaviors.

Aging

Normal aging is associated with hippocampal atrophy and declines in white matter integrity.