The findings are for projects related to ongoing research on associative memory by Overman, an associate professor of psychology and associate director of the Center for the Advancement of Teaching and Learning.
Ten Elon students mentored by Amy Overman, associate professor in the Psychology Department and Neuroscience Program and associate director of the Center for the Advancement of Teaching and Learning, recently disseminated their research findings from experiments on associative memory.
Nine of Overman’s students collectively co-authored three spoken presentations at the Carolinas Psychology Conference, an annual, undergraduate-focused research conference that was held on April 22, 2017, at Campbell University.
Mary Bernhardt ’17 and Laura Bernstein ’19, both Elon College Fellows, presented a talk titled “Generation and corrective feedback in memory for context.” Bernhardt, who graduated with her bachelor’s in psychology this spring, is now a doctoral student in cognitive neuroscience, with a focus on human memory, at Georgia Tech.
Andrew Rowley ’19, Jackie DeRosa ’17 and Kayla McGraw ’19 presented a talk titled “The age-related associative memory deficit can be modified by manner of presentation: The role of reduced cognitive load.” DeRosa, who graduated with her bachelor’s in psychology this spring, is now the full-time lab manager and project coordinator in the Imagination and Modal Cognition Lab at Duke University. DeRosa, McGraw and Rowley have also conducted summer research at Penn State University as part of Overman’s NIH-funded study in collaboration with PSU faculty member Nancy Dennis.
Ashley Howard ’18, Emma Deneen ’18, Alex Giglio ’18 and Joanna Salerno ’18 presented a talk titled “The age-related associative memory deficit can be modified by manner of presentation: The role of encoding-retrieval congruency.” Deneen is an Elon College Fellow; Deneen, Giglio, Howard and Salerno have also conducted summer research at Penn State as part of Overman’s NIH grant.
An additional recent mentoring outcome from Overman’s lab was the publication of a research article by Stephanie Robinson ’11 in the June issue of the American Journal of Undergraduate Research (AJUR). The article, “Strategy abandonment effects in cued recall,” was co-authored with Overman and Joseph Stephens of N.C. A&T State University, and reports results of a study led by Robinson. AJUR is a national, multidisciplinary journal in which student research is peer-reviewed by faculty members with expertise in the relevant fields of study, with a rejection rate of 78 percent. Robinson is currently a doctoral student in psychology, with a focus on cognitive aging, at Brandeis University.
All of the aforementioned projects are part of Overman’s ongoing research into the nature of human memory. Overman directs the Cognitive Neuroscience of Memory and Aging Laboratory, which conducts experimental studies of memory with both young adult and older adult participants. Together, these studies are contributing to scientific knowledge of factors that influence memory performance across the lifespan.