Principal Investigators

• Elizabeth Ligon Bjork elbjork@psych.ucla.edu Publications Faculty Webpage

• Robert A. Bjork rabjork@psych.ucla.edu Publications Faculty Webpage

Post-Doctoral Research Associate

• Vered Halamish vhalamish@psych.ucla.edu Vered Halamish studies memory and metacognition. Her work as a post-doctoral fellow at the Bjork lab focuses on memory acquisition, and more specifically, on learning strategies that can be used to enhance subsequent memory and on the role of metacognition in regulating learning. Vered is also interested in cognitive and metacognitive processes that are involved in memory retention, an interest that was developed during her graduate studies at the University of Haifa.

Graduate Students

• Monica Birnbaum monicasb@ucla.edu Monica Birnbaum is a UCLA Cognitive Neuroscience major. She is currently studying cognitive mechanisms that underlie memory inhibition and the application of induction learning in educational and natural settings.  She also aims to study the neural substrates that underlie complex cognitive functions.

• Colin Clark ctclark@ucla.edu Website Colin Clark studies memory and metacognition, and more particularly, how what we experience impacts future behavior and thought both implicitly and explicitly. He's also interested in how psychological science can be applied to education (and vice-versa). Right now he's conducting a case study on himself of the effects of desirable difficulties on learning music (half-kidding on that one).

• Jeri Little jerilittle@ucla.edu Jeri Little is a Doctoral Candidate in Cognitive Psychology. Like other members of the Bjork Lab, Jeri studies aspects of human memory and learning. In particular, she is interested in the educational applications of memory research. She is currently investigating the use of multiple-choice tests as learning events.

• John Nestojko jnestojk@ucla.edu John’s focus as a researcher is one part applying findings in the field of memory to enhance educational practice, and one part investigations of basic human memory phenomenon. Currently, the former goal is being explored with experiments testing the idea that preparing to teach—without teaching per se—can improve processing and retention of to-be-learned information. In terms of the latter goal, the bulk of John’s research thus far—and the likely topic of his dissertation work—is on the phenomenon of retrieval-induced forgetting (RIF). His RIF work is conducted within the larger context that understanding retrieval operations is a critical insight into the human memory system, and thus deserves proper treatment.

Lab Assistant

• Michael Garcia gikeymarcia@ucla.edu Michael is a second year lab assistant to the Bjork Lab. When not busy helping the lab run smoothly, his research focuses on how retrieval processes modify our memories and the implications these processes have on educational practices. A current project of Michael’s explores the interaction between the way items are studied and how they are tested.

Cogfog Alumni