Suparna Rajaram
Suparna Rajaram | |
---|---|
Born | Bellary, India |
Occupation | SUNY Distinguished Professor of Psychology |
Academic background | |
Alma mater | Bangalore University, Purdue University, Rice University |
Academic work | |
Institutions | Stony Brook University |
Suparna Rajaram, SUNY Distinguished Professor of Psychology at Stony Brook University, is an Indian-born cognitive psychologist and expert on memory and amnesia.[1] Rajaram served as Chair of the Governing Board of the Psychonomic Society (2008) and as president of the Association for Psychological Science (2017-2018).[2] Along with Judith Kroll and Randi Martin, Rajaram co-founded the organization Women in Cognitive Science in 2001, with the aim of improving the visibility of contributions of women to cognitive science.[3] In 2019, she was an inaugural recipient of Psychonomic Society's Clifford T. Morgan Distinguished Leadership Award for significant contributions and sustained leadership in the discipline of cognitive psychology.[4]
Rajaram is a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the Psychonomic Society,[5] the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the American Psychological Association, the Eastern Psychological Association,[6] and the Association for Psychological Science. She is also a member of the Society of Experimental Psychologists, a prestigious honor society dedicated to psychology.[7] In 2022, Rajaram was named a Guggenheim Fellow.
Biography
Suparna Rajaram was born in
Rajaram joined the Faculty of Psychology at Stony Brook University in 1993 and was promoted to Full Professor in 2003. She served as the Associate Dean for Faculty Affairs in the College of Arts and Sciences at Stony Brook University (2012-2015). Rajaram received a FIRST Award from the National Institutes of Mental Health (NIMH). In addition to NIMH, her research has been supported by the National Science Foundation, the Russell Sage Foundation, and Google. Rajaram served as Associate Editor of Psychological Science (2007-2008), Psychological Bulletin (2003-2005), and Memory & Cognition (1998-2001).[13]
Research
Rajaram's research program encompasses studies of human amnesia and intact memory to address the cognitive and neural bases of
Rajaram has conducted numerous studies focusing on how social factors influence learning and memory. Her lab aims to understand the social transmission of memory in groups of people and in social networks, the emergence of collective memory, and how collaborative learning may help or hinder memory.[17] Her research indicates that collaboration with peers often weakens the memory performance of individuals; at the same time getting help from one's peers may help to eliminate memory errors.[18][19] Rajaram's 2014 paper on social transmission of memory, co-authored with H.Y. Choi, H.M. Blumen, and A.R. Congleton, was named "Best Paper of the Year" by European Society of Cognitive Psychology.[20] This study examined a phenomenon known as collaborative inhibition, wherein individuals contribute less to recalling information when they are part of a group than when they are recalling information on their own. This study explored how changing the membership of groups influenced individual and collective memory.[21] Rajaram and her colleagues have also studied how emotion enhances memory. They found that emotional memories are not immune to error, yet emotional memories are less likely to be distorted by social influences than nonemotional memories.[22]
Representative publications
- Rajaram, S. (1993). Remembering and knowing: Two means of access to the personal past. Memory & Cognition, 21 (1), 89–102.
- Rajaram, S. (1996). Perceptual effects on remembering: recollective processes in picture recognition memory. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition, 22 (2), 365–377.
- Rajaram, S. (1998). The effects of conceptual salience and perceptual distinctiveness on conscious recollection. Psychonomic Bulletin & Review, 5 (1), 71–78.
- Rajaram, S., & Geraci, L. (2000). Conceptual fluency selectively influences knowing. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition, 26 (4), 1070–1074.
- Rajaram, S., & Pereira-Pasarin, L. P. (2010). Collaborative memory: Cognitive research and theory. Perspectives on Psychological Science, 5 (6), 649–663.
- Rajaram, S., & Roediger, H. L. (1993). Direct comparison of four implicit memory tests. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition, 19 (4), 765–776.
References
- ^ Communications, Stony Brook Office of. "Suparna Rajaram | Experts at Stony Brook University, New York". www.stonybrook.edu. Retrieved 19 November 2018.
- ^ Rajaram, Suparna (30 April 2018). "On Spanning the Borders". APS Observer. 31 (5).
- ^ "People | Women in Cognitive Science". womenincogsci.org. Archived from the original on 15 December 2012. Retrieved 19 November 2018.
- ^ "Clifford T. Morgan Distinguished Leadership Award - Psychonomic Society". www.psychonomic.org. Retrieved 6 October 2019.
- ^ "Suparna Rajaram - Psychonomic Society". www.psychonomic.org. Retrieved 19 November 2018.
- ^ "EPA Fellows - Eastern Psychological Association". www.easternpsychological.org. Retrieved 19 November 2018.
- ^ "Suparna Rajaram Elected to Society of Experimental Psychologists | | SBU News". SBU News. 10 December 2015. Retrieved 19 November 2018.
- ^ "Suparna Rajaram, Ph.D. | Social Memory and Cognition Lab". you.stonybrook.edu. Retrieved 19 November 2018.
- ISSN 0749-596X.
- PMID 8433652.
- PMID 8345323.
- PMID 10928746.
- ^ "Suparna Rajaram - Psychonomic Society". www.psychonomic.org. Retrieved 19 November 2018.
- ^ "Suparna Rajaram - Psychonomic Society". www.psychonomic.org. Retrieved 19 November 2018.
- ^ "People | Women in Cognitive Science". womenincogsci.org. Archived from the original on 15 December 2012. Retrieved 19 November 2018.
- PMID 18419835.
- ^ "Research | Social Memory and Cognition Lab". you.stonybrook.edu. Retrieved 19 November 2018.
- S2CID 19179853.
- S2CID 20159993.
- ^ "ESCOP Journal's 'Best Paper' Shows How Collaboration Influences Memory". Association for Psychological Science. Retrieved 19 November 2018.
- S2CID 19160059.
- PMID 26907480.