Research

Dr. Dimsdale-Zucker’s prior research has focused on trying to understand the ways in which contextual information from the time of learning (“encoding”) shapes memories at the time of memory retrieval (Dimsdale-Zucker, et al., 2018; Dimsdale-Zucker, et al., 2022). The lab is currently continuing this line of work by trying to understand what happens to our memory representations when there are interruptions (“event boundaries”) in contexts (Gonzales & Dimsdale-Zucker, in analysis). In a novel extension, we are actively developing paradigms to look at how context influences our perception of the passage of time and influences what we remember.

In a separate line of work using a computational approach called Hidden Markov Modeling, we are investigating how context influences the organization of free recall. Here, we are testing predictions about how different kinds of context may have differential influences on the way in which we recall information and what we remember.

The lab also is interested in understanding how memory in these domains changes with healthy aging. Dr. Dimsdale-Zucker is affiliated with the UCR Aging Initiative and is actively collaborating with other labs at UCR and beyond on this line of research.  

If any of this research sounds exciting to you, we encourage you to consider applying to the lab as PhD student (see FAQ here) or as a postdoc (please email Dr. Dimsdale-Zucker directly). If you are interested in participating, please contact the lab at ucrmemorylab [at] gmail [dot] com.