Our Team

Principal Investigator

Signy Sheldon.jpg

Dr. Signy Sheldon

associate professor

Department of Psychology, McGill University

Canada Research Chair in Cognitive Neuroscience of Memory

2014 Post-doctoral Research Fellow, Rotman Research Institute, Baycrest Centre for Geriatric Care, Toronto, ON, Canada
2011 Post-doctoral Research Fellow, Division of Neurosurgery, St. Michael’s Hospital, Toronto, ON, Canada
2011 Ph.D., Psychology, University of Toronto, Toronto, ON, Canada
2006 M.A., University of Toronto, Toronto, ON, Canada

Graduate Students

DR. CHARLES FERRIS
Postdoctoral Researcher
charles.ferris[at]mail.mcgill.ca
I am a memory researcher interested in the neural correlates of autobiographical episodic memory who completed his Ph.D. in Cognition and Development at Emory University working with Dr. Stephan Hamann. Following completion of my Doctorate, I worked as a postdoctoral researcher at The Ohio State University with Dr. Baldwin Way using neuroimaging approaches to examine brain development in adolescents. My research interests focus on how the underlying content of memories is represented, how that content can change based on access processes (e.g., modality, goal, context) and how the retrieval of memory content is supported by networks of brain regions.

JAMIE SNYTTEPhD Student in Experimental Psychologyjamie.snytte[at]mail.mcgill.caI am currently interested in how impairments in cognition manifest in clinical disorders such as depression. Specifically, the goal of my research is to characterize the… — JAMIE SNYTTE
PhD Student in Clinical Psychology
jamie.snytte[at]mail.mcgill.ca
I am currently interested in how impairments in cognition manifest in clinical disorders such as depression. Specifically, the goal of my research is to characterize the link between medial temporal lobe structure and function, and autobiographical memory deficits. Under the co-supervision of Dr. Natasha Rajah, my work also focuses aging processes, and how sex contributes to the risk for disorders such as depression and Alzheimer's disease.

CAN FENERCI

PhD Student in Experimental Psychology

can.fenerci[at]mail.mcgill.ca

My research program investigates how aging affects the retrieval of complex episodic events. Specifically,The goals of my PhD research are to (1) identify how aging changes the way we encode and recollect our experiences, (2) determine how these age-related behavioral changes are reflected in the brain.

LUKE ATACK
Master’s Student in Experimental Psychology
luke.atack[at]mail.mcgill.ca
My research program investigates the underlying mechanisms involved in schema formation and updating. Broadly, I am interested in identifying the optimal conditions in which schema updating occurs. Specifically, I am interested in using the memory system to update maladaptive self-schemas.

AZARA LALLA
PhD Student in Experimental Psychology
azara.lalla[at]mail.mcgill.ca
My research program investigates how episodic processes support decision-making. Broadly, I would like to answer the question of how imagining the future in different ways influences what we choose to do and how we feel about those decisions.

undergraduate students

TING TING LIU
I recently graduated from McGill University with a BA in Psychology. After completing my research project with Lauri last year on autobiographical memory, this year I will be working as a research assistant and lab coordinator for the Sheldon Memory Lab. I will be continuing to help Jamie with his follow-up study on memory and emotion, which I worked on as a volunteer during the summer, and plan to collaborate with past lab members on a replication study headed by Dr. Sheldon about schema-updating in episodic memory.

MARIANNE BEAULIEU
Hi! My name is Marianne, I'm currently a U3 student majoring in psychology and minoring in neuroscience. I'm back at the lab after studying abroad for a semester and will be working alongside Can Fenerci on a research project that investigates how changing encoding goals affects age-related differences in episodic memory.

ECE BASOGLU
Hi! My name is Ece, and I am a fourth-year Psychology student with a minor in Cognitive Science. I will be completing my senior honours thesis while working with Azara on a project exploring the link between episodic processes and decision-making.

KAILIN SUMMERS
My name is Kailin, I recently completed my undergraduate studies in Cognitive Science (Computer Science stream) and am now working as a research assistant in the Sheldon Memory Lab. I am working with Dr. Sheldon to apply natural language processing (NLP) techniques to study autobiographical memories.

JULIA NATHANSON
My name is Julia, and I am a fourth-year psychology student. I am returning to the lab after a semester abroad, and working on a project with Jamie that investigates how the semantic knowledge may help scaffold memory across the lifetime.

CAITLIN MALONEY
My name is Caitlin, and I am a fourth-year undergraduate student majoring in Psychology and minoring in Interdisciplinary Life Sciences. This year, I will be working with Azara on completing a research project that investigates how option similarity impacts value-based decision-making.

SAMANTHA O’TOOLE
I am in my final year as an undergraduate student majoring in Honours Psychology with a minor in Classical Studies. This year, I will be working with Can Fenerci to complete my honours thesis investigating the effects of aging and goals on episodic memory retrieval using text analysis. I am interested in child eyewitness memory for repeated events and memory susceptibility to suggestions.

STEPHANIE DONALDSON
Hi! My name is Stephanie and I am a U3 undergraduate student majoring in Psychology and minoring in Sociology. This year I will be completing my senior honours thesis under the supervision of Dr. Sheldon to investigate the effect on memories for complex events when reducing sensory stimulation post-encoding.

SARA TOCA
Hi! My name is Sara, and I am a second-year Psychology major with a minor in Interdisciplinary Life Sciences. This year, I will be completing my honours thesis and helping Dr. Ferris with his project on how different processes can shape underlying representations of memory and retrieval.

OUR MASCOT: THE COG DOG

Click here to contact us if you are interested in being part of our team

COLLABORATORS

At McGill

Jennifer Bartz
Veronique Bohbot
Caroline Palmer
Lesley Fellows
Ross Otto
Mathieu Roy
Madeleine Sharp
Nathan Spreng
Natasha Rajah

At Other Universities

Brian Levine (UofT)
Morris Moscovitch (UofT)
Mary Pat McAndrews (UofT)
Nicole Anderson (UofT)
Carrie Esopenko (Rutgers)
Daniela Palombo (UBC)
Jens Pruessner (Konstanz)
Shayna Rosenbaum (York University)
Stefan Kohler (Western)
Louis Renoult (East Anglia)

alumni

Graduate Students

Lauri Gurguryan
Rebecca Scheurich
Sarah Peters
Marianne Lévesque (collaborator)
Cherie Strikwerda-Brown (collaborator)
Jonas Nitschke (collaborator)
Greta Melega (collaborator)
Olivia Zaborowska (collaborator)
Dorothee Shoemaker

Undergraduate Students

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