The ACME Lab is recruiting!

The ACME Lab is recruiting!

We are seeking enthusiastic PhD students to join the lab. Interested? Please consider applying for the UCLA Psychology Graduate Program this fall. You may also email Dr. Clewett to discuss your research interests and the possibility of working together.
Memory for time and events

Memory for time and events

As time unfolds, even the simplest change in the world, such as crossing through a doorway, can lead individuals to perceive a 'boundary' between adjacent events. Interestingly, these context shifts also have reliable consequences for how memories become organized later on. Our research demonstrates that fluctuations in arousal states across time may be the key to understanding how the brain creates new 'episodes' in episodic memory.
Norepinephrine amplifies selectivity in attention and memory under arousal

Norepinephrine amplifies selectivity in attention and memory under arousal

Eyewitnesses to a crime often remember the perpetrator's weapon at the expense of remembering the perpetrator's face. How do we explain these types of attention- and memory-narrowing effects that occur under emotional circumstances? Our work suggests that a surge in arousal triggers the release of norepinephrine, a stress hormone, across most of the brain. This neuromodulator, in turn, interacts with local brain activity to enhance processing of important information while also suppressing processing of more mundane or distracting information.
Emotion and neuromodulators determine what we recollect

Emotion and neuromodulators determine what we recollect

It often feels as if we are 're-living' past experiences when they are called to mind. This seems to be especially true for emotional events, which tend to become our most vivid and enduring memories. But which details of those experiences give rise to this rich sense of recollection? In collaboration with Dr. Vishnu Murty, we propose that a balance between noradrenergic and dopaminergic activity may determine which information is re-experienced when we retrieve emotional or motivationally-significant memories.