Ph.D., M.A. Student
Brenda joined the lab in 2011 as an M.A. student. Her main research interest focuses on age-related changes in attention and memory. In her dissertation, she examined age differences in associative memory, which is our ability to remember associations between pieces of information (e.g., a name and a face). Specifically, she investigated whether age-related declines in attentional resources (i.e., “mental energy”) contribute to older adults’ poorer associative memory.
She is also interested in studying cultural differences in how people attend to and remember information, as well as how these differences may change as people get older. She has been involved in a few cross-cultural projects since 2011, examining both behavioural and ERP data. For two of these projects, she collaborated with researchers at the Chinese Academy of Sciences in Beijing, China. In another area of research, she investigated the relationship between social engagement and cognitive functions in Chinese elderly immigrants living in Canada.
Degrees
Ph.D., Psychological Science, Ryerson University, 2017
M.A., Psychological Science, Ryerson University, 2013
Honours B.Sc., Specialist in Psychology and its Applications, University of Toronto, 2010