Meet Alyssa Asmar (pictured below), the newest Science Communication intern at the Psychonomic Society! Over the next six months, she will work closely with our Digital Content team to write engaging blog posts highlighting research from our members and the Society’s journals. We’re delighted to have her on board and can’t wait to share her work with you!
What’s your area of research?
My research primarily examines cognitive and affective influences on emotion regulation and memory. In particular, I am interested in understanding how different motivations to regulate negative emotions influence downstream memory and emotional outcomes. There are a lot of interesting competing hypotheses about what motivation does to memory outcomes, which makes this a really fun research question, especially in the context of studying motivation to down-regulate negative emotions. Lately, I’ve also been increasingly interested in understanding how emotional memories change over time, including what factors shape their persistence or transformation.
What’s the most exciting concept in cognitive science?
The concept of memory reconsolidation has been a topic that has excited me since I first learned about it in undergrad. It’s the process where a recalled memory briefly enters a vulnerable state, making it possible to alter how it was originally encoded based on any new information introduced. I have a lot of interest in emotion regulation, particularly cognitive reappraisal, a regulation strategy that involves reframing a situation to feel better about it. It’s cool to think about how the use of cognitive reappraisal on recalled memories could facilitate reconsolidation, potentially adaptively updating negative memories.
What’s the most critical unsolved challenge or unanswered question for cognitive scientists?
I may be a little bit biased, but I think one challenge is developing a strong understanding of how memories are encoded and retrieved. There is a lot of research aiming to address this broad question with a lot of valuable findings. However, there is still a lot we don’t know, and there are often inconsistencies within the literature. These inconsistencies might stem from various motivational, cognitive, and emotional differences across individuals and contexts. To capture the complexities of memory processes, it is valuable to study them in both real-world contexts and controlled laboratory settings across different populations.
What drew you to science communication?
I feel like a lot of interesting research just sits in journals, with not nearly enough people discovering it. The time scale for research findings to be disseminated can be incredibly long, and science communication helps facilitate this process. Sometimes, scientific writing can also be a little bit challenging to follow, especially if you don’t have a strong background in the methodology or area of research, so having someone present the information in an easy way to understand is incredibly valuable. I think it’s also nice to draw attention to papers that researchers otherwise wouldn’t have come across to help inspire new scientific perspectives. Finally, just talking about cool research findings in a way that is accessible to everyone is something I enjoy :).
Is there anything else you want us to know about you?
I’m a 3rd year PhD student at the University of Denver, working with two wonderful mentors, Dr. Kimberly Chiew and Dr. Kateri McRae. Outside of the lab, I love to spend time in the mountains and nature, camping, hiking, running, skiing, and roller skating! I also really enjoy creating wire-wrapped jewelry, and sometimes, I combine my hobbies—I’ve made jewelry inspired by my love of science (see neuron necklace below).
