Research

Graduate Research

I am a student in the Psychology Ph.D. program and Brain, Behavior, & Cognition concentration at Washington University in St. Louis, Missouri, and a member of Dr. Henry Roediger’s Memory Lab, which conducts human learning and memory research.  Currently, the lab is engaged in three general lines of research: applying cognitive psychology to educational practice, memory illusions and false memories, and dissociations between explicit and implicit measures of attention.  Additionally, the lab investigates applied research as well; an ongoing program on test-enhanced learning in the classroom is in place at several nearby schools.

My current research investigates the correlation between memory accuracy and memory confidence.  Research psychologists have widely disagreed on whether accuracy and confidence are related.  My work attempts to determine whether there are different types of memory elements for which accuracy and confidence are highly interrelated and, alternately, elements for which the two have no relation.  I am also interested in possible individual differences that underlie memory confidence and the effects of such differences.

Undergraduate Research

At the College of William & Mary, I was primarily involved in three research laboratories: Dr. Todd Thrash’s Personality Lab, Dr. Jeanine Stefanucci’s Perception Lab, and Dr. Chris Ball’s Human Memory and Cognition Lab.  I gained familiarity with many research methodologies, including:

• survey research
• EEG/ERP studies
• virtual reality
• eye tracking

I assisted with a number of studies including investigations on humor, autobiographical memories, object perception, distance estimation, and more.

Much of this research culminated in my Departmental Honors Thesis in Psychology, entitled, “Eye Movements While Zoning Out During Reading: Implications for Mind Wandering and Metaconsciousness.”  A copy of this research can be obtained here.