The Memory and Attention Laboratory at the University of South Dakota is part of the Human Factors program in the Department of Psychology. We study memory, attention, and multitasking in humans. Our work informs current theories of how working memories are formed, the causes of forgetting, and the relationship between working memory and higher-order cognitive behavior.
News
Paper Published in Cognitive Research: Principles and Implications this week (July 2022)
In this collaboration with Dr. Sandry's lab at Montclair State University we use drift diffusion modeling to differentiate cognitive and motor slowing. This approach has interesting applications in human factors and understanding neurological disorders.
Sandry, J., & Ricker, T.J. (2022). Motor speed does not impact the drift rate: A computational hierarchical Drift Diffusion approach to differentiate cognitive and motor speed. Cognitive Research: Principles and Implications, 7, 66. https://doi.org/10.1186/s41235-022-00412-7
Kelly Presents at the Virtual Working Memory Symposium (June 2022)
Kelly presented her work on working memory and mind wandering, during multitasking online. The gist, at first glance performance looks the same as in the lab, but the underlying cognitive processes are quite different.
Collaboration on Mathematical Models of MS Published (May 2022)
In this collaboration with Dr. Sandry's lab at Montclair State University we did some mathematical modeling to explore better ways of assessing cognitive decline in Multiple Sclerosis. We show a relationship between components of motor slowing and brain morphometry in MS patients:
Mui, M., Ruben, R., Ricker, T.J., Dobryankova, E., & Sandry, J. (in press). Ex-Gaussian analysis of simple response time and the relationship with brain morphometry in multiple sclerosis. Multiple Sclerosis and Related Disorders.
Paper Accepted for Publication this week (May 2022)
A collaboration with Evie Vergauwe arguing that cognitive load and standard interference approaches fail to adequately account dual-task memory disruption. Instead we propose a new enrichment account:
Ricker, T.J., & Vergauwe, E. (2022). Boundary conditions for observing cognitive load effects in visual working memory. Memory & Cognition, 1-17. doi:10.3758/s13421-022-01320-3
Congrats to Kristen Quigley for Graduating from USD with her B.S. in Neuroscience! (May 2022)
Kristen is moving on to pursue her PhD in Neuroscience from the University of Nevada, Reno
A new undergraduate RA joins the lab. Welcome Garrett! (April 2022)
Two New Papers Accepted for Publication this Week (March 2022)
Kelly's review of the relationship between working and long-term consolidation: Cotton, K. & Ricker, T.J. (2022). Examining the relationship between working memory consolidation and long-term memory consolidation. Psychonomic Bulletin & Review. And a collaboration with Dr. Karen Hebert in Occupational Therapy developing a scale to report emotional experiences in activities of daily living: Hebert, K.R. & Ricker, T.J. (2022). Reliability of the emotional experiences in activities of daily living scale (EEADLs). Occupational Therapy Journal of Research: Occupation, Participation and Health.
Presentation at the Distributed Working Memory Series (November 2021)
Work from our lab on computational modeling of working memory representations, link available on the series website.
The Lab Presents at Psychonomics (November 2021)
This year we have 3 poster presentations. Kelly, Megan, & Tim are each presenting one project from our lab.
Megan Presents at the Annual Meeting of the South Dakota Psychological Association (October 2021)
Megan took first place in the student poster award competition!
Welcome to the New Members of the Lab (September 2021)
Katie, Grace, & Anika are joining the laboratory as undergraduate research assistants this Fall. They will be assisting Kelly Cotton with her work on creativity and working memory consolidation.