Current Projects

Psychology Building, UCR Campus

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., 2018Dimsdale-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.

Directions

The lab is located within the Department of Psychology at UCRiverside. If you are coming to the lab for an MRI study, the UCR CAN MRI Center is conveniently located just next to the Psychology Building. 

The closest available parking is in Lot 6 (please note: you will either need to have a permit for this lot or purchase a voucher at the kiosk). Please be sure to keep your receipt so we can reimburse your parking.

You will be provided with exact directions when we are coordinating the time of your study appointment since our research studies take place in a variety of rooms and we want to make sure you’re going to the right place. For our older participants, or those unfamiliar with campus, your researcher is happy to meet you in the parking lot and walk to our lab together. 

Center for Advanced Neuroimaging (CAN), UCR