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
Kelly Presents at the Virtual Working Memory Symposium
This June (2021) Kelly presented her work on creativity and consolidation into long-term memory at the Virtual Working Memory Symposium. This is a virtual replacement for the cancelled in-person working-memory events when graduate students typically get experience speaking to established working memory researchers. Stay tuned for more on this project as it evolves.
Welcome to our New Undergraduate Research Assistants
A warm welcome to Madisen & Kristen who are joining the lab this winter! They will be helping us explore how perceptual process impact remembering in working and long-term memory. We look forward to their help starting our research here at USD!
Virtual Psychonomics 2020 Presentaitons
Kelly & Tim presented some recent research at this year's virtual Meeting of the Psychonomic Society. Kelly presented a poster on the role of creativity in working memory to long-term memory transfer. Tim presented work the lab has been doing on when and why multitasking leads to lower memory performance compared to single-task memory performance. The virtual format worked well and exceeded our expectations!
Welcome to our New Graduate Student
We are happy to have Megan McCray joining the lab in Fall 2020. She will be exploring working memory function in multitasking conditions.
The Memory and Attention Lab is Moving to South Dakota
The lab is moving to the University of South Dakota this Fall (2020). Once we are settled in we will be recruiting students to join our research efforts. We are joining the Human Factors program at USD which focuses on the role of cognition in understanding how humans interact with the world around them. For more information contact Dr. Ricker.
New Publications
We have new papers published in journals including, Acta Psychologica, Attention, Perception, & Psychophysics, and Journal of Cognition. Check them out in our publications section for more information.
Kelly's Masters Work Published in JEP:LMC
Doctoral student Kelly Cotton had her Masters research published in the Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition this summer. Her paper demonstrates that consolidation of a trace into working memory also improves long-term recognition for the same information. Her work suggests working memory consolidation is not limited to affecting working memory alone and could potentially be an initial step in the long-term consolidation process.
Cotton, K., & Ricker, T.J. (2020). Working memory consolidation improves long-term memory recognition. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition.