1. Mind Wandering in Text Comprehension. This project looks at age differences in the occurrence of mind wandering episodes during text comprehension. Adapted from Schooler, Reichle, and Halpern (2005), the paradigm entails reading the first five chapters of Tolstoy's War & Peace while being probed by the computer for mind wandering occurrences. So far, we have found that older people mind wander less than younger people, and we attribute this to the decreased working memory capacity of the older folks. We are currently trying to replicate these findings with a modified version of the reading task, in which we control for the time participants take to read the story by estimating their normal reading speed.

Graduate Student Overlords: Sabine Krawietz & Andrea Tamplin

The aim of this project is to assess how basic cognitive processes are affected by the structure of the world. More specifically, the architecture of the rooms and spaces we find ourselves in..

1. Large versus small rooms. In this subproject, people perform tasks in either large or small rooms. The expectation is that performance will be better in small rooms for tasks that require more focused attention. This is because the small room tightens the attentional beam and provides less distraction. In comparison, performance in the large room will be better for spatial manipulation tasks, such as mental rotation. This is because the larger room creates a more expansive area in the visuo-spatial sketchpad of working memory, allowing these sorts of tasks to be more easily done.

2. Windows or not. In this subproject, people perform tasks with windows open, or with shades pulled closed. The expectation is that performance will be better with windows closed for tasks that require more focused attention. This is because the closed window tightens the attentional beam and allows for less distraction. In comparison, performance in with the open window will be better for task that require a broad range of memory activation, such as mediated priming. This is because the open window allows for the activation of a borader range of concepts.

Graduate Student Overlords: Sabine Krawietz, Andrea Tamplin, and Windy McNerney

The Automated Knowledge Capture Project focuses on when and how people change strategies when completing a task.

This project is about the development of COCOA (Concentration Or Control Of Attention), a self-report scale measuring concentration abilities. It assesses one's ability to focus or concentrate on everyday behaviors such as reading, listening, and driving and can be used in various applied as well as resarch-oriented scenarios. Studies have shown that COCOA has good reliability and validity with other self-report measures of ADHD, mindfulness, and boredom pronesses as well as a behavioral measure of concentration (Frankfurt Attention and Concentration Test; Moosbrugger & Goldhammer, 2006).

Graduate Student Overlord: Sabine Krawietz

The aim of the LTM consolidation project is to assess different factors that can influence the process of strengthening memories over time. We are focusing on two major influential factors, including sleep and exercise.

1. Sleep. It has been well documented that the process of memory consolidation happens at night, while we are sleeping. We are interested in looking at what happens to your memories when sleep is disrupted during the night, by testing memory capabilities of people with sleep apnea. This is a condition where the airway is periodically blocked while sleeping, causing the person to wake up to get more air. Memory for pictures and sentences are compared for patients with untreated sleep apnea, treated sleep apnea, and no sleep apnea.

2. Exercise. Regular exercise has been shown to increase memory and other cognitive abilities over time. However, few studies have looking at the immediate effects of exercise on memory consolidation. In this set of studies, consolidation capabilities for different types of memories, including procedural and declarative memories, are compared with 30 minutes of aerobic exercise, anaerobic exercise, and no exercise.

Long-term potentiation is the strengthening of connections between neurons, and seems to be how neurons can code memories. Much research has been done to investigate how the strengthening occurs, but it is difficult to measure chemical signals between neurons on a molecular level. However, we have teamed up with nanotechnology research to develop a way to track single molecules as they are passed back and forth between neurons. Tracking single molecules will allow us to determine the molecular basis of memory formation.

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This project focuses on social influences that may affect memory for information.  The current study is assessing whether moral bias alters memories.

The aim of this project is to assess how moving through an environment influences a person's memory for various types of information. At this stage, there are three subprograms aimed at looking at different aspects of this. Most of this work involves using virtual environments on a large display screen in induce a moderate degree of immersion.

1. Walking through doorways causes forgetting. In this subproject, people move from one location to another, moving objects either across a large room or from one room to the next. What we have found is that passing through a doorway disrupts memory for a variety of information, including both memory for the objects being carried as well as for pairs of words. This work has also been extended to smaller screens and real world environments.

2. Memory for a known space. In this subproject, people first memorize a map of a building (a research center). Then, after memorization, people navigate through a virtual version of that space. During this navigation, people are probed for their knowledge about the location of items within that space. What we have been finding is that information tends to be most available for the current location, and that locations that were recently occupied, and now irrelevant show evidence of active suppression.

3. Goal monitoring. In this subproject, people navigate a virtual space while being given a series of constantly changing goals. The aim is to assess how goal maintenance is affected by movement through space, such as walking through doorways.

Graduate Student Overlords: Andrea Tamplin & Sabine Krawietz

The aim of this project is to assess memory and comprehension for a very large text, namely the novel The Stone Diaries, by Carol Shields. At this stage, we have already published work on the retrieval of event-specific information and the forgettng curve (including the reminiscence bump). Currently, we are looking at the reading tiem data to assess how various event components influence the reading process.

Graduate Student Overlord: Windy McNerney