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Jennifer Talarico

Professor, Psychology, Lafayette College

I am a cognitive psychologist who studies how individuals remember personally-experienced events (i.e., autobiographical memory). I have studied how memories for emotional events are similar to and different from other, non-emotional events. For example, collaborators and I have shown that memories for hearing about the September 11th terrorist attacks are no more accurate than everyday memories, even though people think that they are. We have also shown that angry memories are more likely to include central details than are fearful or happy memories. My collaborators and I have also examined how we assess memories of the past, showing that the belief that the event occurred (to you, in the past), the sense of recollection (i.e., re-experiencing the past in the present), and the belief that the details of the event that you are re-experiencing are an accurate reflection of the event itself are all separable components of remembering.

Experience

  • –present
    Associate Professor, Psychology, Lafayette College