You are invited to this week’s special talk organized by the Department of Psychology.
Everyone is welcome to attend!
Dr. Çağlayan Özdemir, Ph.D. Associate Faculty in Psychology Department at University of
New Hampshire
Title of the talk: Time Traveling Back to Me: Developmental & Socio-Cognitive Approaches to Lifespan Memory Distributions
Date: 07.04.2025, Monday
Time : 12:30 PM – 13:30 PM
Room: A 130 (FEASS Building)
Abstract:
In the recent reformulation of theories attempting to provide better explanations of the
phenomena on autobiographical memories, the Episodic Simulation Theory by Schacter and his colleagues became one of the frontiers, positing that remembering the past and imagining the future share similar cognitive mechanisms. The main implication of the theory is that current cognitive mechanisms modulate both processes, which is broadly what I study in my line of work. In this talk, I will present the developmentally informed cognitive processes and their validity in empirical tests of phenomena frequently observed in lifespan memory distributions.
My line of work mainly involves investigation of the interplay between cognitive,
developmental, and social factors specifically in retention of autobiographical memories of
middle-aged and older populations. Targeting the established memory phenomena like the
reminiscence bump, vicarious memories, and cultural life scripts, I have built a line of research that puts the current theories and their predictions regarding these memory phenomena to empirical tests. In this talk, I will present our latest findings on reminiscence bumps for events people remember with embarrassment and shame along with other emotion categories, functional, temporal, and thematic similarities in vicarious memories within older parent-child dyads, how retrieval from lifespan memory distributions is structured by cultural life scripts especially in middle-aged and older adults, and what future directions hold in this line of work for me.
Short Bio:
Dr. Çağlayan Özdemir is an associate faculty in Psychology Department at University of
New Hampshire and a guest lecturer in Psychology Department at Middle East Technical
University. Özdemir’s received his Ph.D. from the University of New Hampshire, were he studied as a graduate assistant, and held a Summer Teaching Assistance Fellowship, Dissertation Year Fellowship, and Dawson Excellence in Research Award as support for his studies. Özdemir also served as a graduate lecturer at University of New Hampshire upon completing his master’s degree. Prior to going to University of New Hampshire, Özdemir completed his Bachelor’s degree in Middle East Technical University.
Özdemir’s research focuses on lifespan distribution of autobiographical memories, mechanisms that structure memory retrieval of middle-aged and older adults, and the effects of developmental, emotional, social factors modulating the cognitive factors at play of these retrieval patterns. He authored articles on these topics published in Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, Journal of Applied Research in Memory and Cognition, and Memory to this day. Özdemir is currently collaborating with researchers at University of New Hampshire, Aarhus University, and Middle East Technical University on the frontier issues of the same topics.
We hope to see you there!