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See our research featured in Stony Brook Magazine

Science Takes Center Stage

The 2023 Science on Stage plays were performed on October 30. To read the plays or to watch the panel discussion that followed the performances, please visit this page on the Alda Center’s website.

On October 30, 2023, our research was featured in this imaginative and exciting  interdisciplinary project, transforming science into art on stage.

‘Science on Stage’ Returns to Stony Brook, Oct. 30

To read the plays or to watch the panel discussion that followed the performances, please visit this page on the Alda Center’s website.

People often create and recall memories in social settings. Yet, the past 100 years of cognitive research has mainly focused on memory at the individual level. Our aim is to understand how social influences shape memory and learning. The Social Memory and Cognition Lab focuses on addressing empirical and theoretical questions about the nature and influences of social memory. This research addresses several questions about (1) how memory propagates among social connections and the consequences of such memory contagion, (2) the indirect influence on our memories of people in our social networks whom we have never met, (3) sharing of emotional memories in social groups, (4) changes in our memory representations as a result of reminiscing with others, (5) social memory and aging, (6) effects of social and non-social scaffolding on learning and using general knowledge, and (7) the emergence of collective memory. Our research has been supported by the National Institute of Mental Health, National Science Foundation, Russell Sage Foundation, a Google Faculty Research Award, and most recently, a 2022 Guggenheim Fellowship.