Cognitive mechanisms in memory: Investigation of novelty detection and gist/detail contents in individual memories, and study of shared memories for public events and family stories

The research of my lab (Memory and Pathological Aging lab) aims to understand the cognitive and neural mechanisms that allow humans to remember the events they have experienced. I will present the most recent data from the two lines of research we investigate. The first line of research deals with cognitive mechanisms and contents of individual memories. A first series of studies analyze the status of novelty detection in relation to episodic memory. A second series of experiments assesses memories for gist versus details and how these types of memories change with aging. The second line of research explores the social aspects of memory. On the one hand, we examine the creation of collective memories by analyzing shared memories of public events. On the other hand, we focus on the case of intergenerational transmission of memories in families.