MEMORY RESEARCH LABORATORY | DEPARTMENT OF PSYCHOLOGY
Research
In our lab, we seek answers to the following sorts of questions: What cognitive and neural mechanisms are involved in the creation of memories? What cognitive and neural processes are affected (or not) by healthy aging and Alzheimer’s disease? How are emotional memories processed, and how do social factors influence remembering? What do we know about our own memory functions (metamemory), and how does this knowledge vary across individuals?
Use the boxes below to explore some of our current lines of research and associated news/media coverage.
False Memories and Retrieval Monitoring Mechanisms
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Retrieval monitoring can be defined as the cognitive search and evaluation processes that people use when attempting to recollect events from memory. When retrieval monitoring fails, memories can be distorted. Using carefully designed behavioral tasks as well as neuroimaging (fMRI), our lab aims to understand the psychological mechanisms involved in retrieval monitoring, as well as the different factors involved in false memory creation. For an overview of our research on the different retrieval monitoring mechanisms that are known to affect false memory creation — in both the lab and in life — see Gallo & Lampinen (2016, Oxford Handbook of Metamemory), and also see Gallo (2013, Current Directions) and Gallo (2010, Memory & Cognition). For our recent study exploring individual differences in cognitive abilities and their relationship to “paranormal beliefs”, see Gray & Gallo (2016, Memory & Cognition)
Media coverage:
Memory and Metacognition in Aging and Alzheimer’s Disease
fMRI evidence for aging-related decrease in the visual details associated with subjectively vivid memories
(from McDonough et al., 2014, NeuroImage)
Normal cognitive aging is sometimes associated with reduced performance on memory tests, but not always. Alzheimer’s disease causes qualitatively different and more severe impairments. Using behavioral tasks, subjective reports, and neuroimaging (fMRI), our lab studies differences – and similarities – between younger and older adults on tasks of memory and cognition, as well as the extent that people are aware of their own cognitive abilities (known as “metacognition”). A better understanding of these mechanisms will help us to more effectively disentangle normal aging from the earliest stages of Alzheimer’s disease, and to ultimately design more effective treatments. We have also been exploring the effects of social factors on cognitive performance in older adults (stereotype threat, see Wong & Gallo, 2016, Memory). These social factors have important clinical implications because they suggest that reduced performance on cognitive tests in older adults and corresponding differences in brain activity do not necessarily implicate neural decline.