Lab Director
Peggy L. St. Jacques, PhD
peggy.stjacques@ualberta.ca ORCID
Dr. Peggy L. St. Jacques is an Assistant Professor and Canada Research Chair in Cognitive Neuroscience in the Department of Psychology at the University of Alberta, Edmonton, Canada. She received her Honours BSc from the University of Toronto, where she first was inspired to pursue research in autobiographical memory. During her Ph.D. at Duke University, she gained expertise in functional neuroimaging studies of autobiographical memory. Dr. St. Jacques then pursed postdoctoral training at Harvard University, where she used wearable camera technology to elicit autobiographical memories to investigate the neural mechanisms by which remembering updates memory with new information. She established her Memory for Events Lab initially at the University of Sussex in 2015, prior to moving back to Canada to join the University of Alberta in 2018. Her primary research focus is to understand the cognitive and neural mechanisms that support memory for events, including autobiographical experiences from one’s personal past and realistic experiences encoded in a more controlled setting. In particular, she is interested in how long-term representations of memory are modified via retrieval related mechanisms and the role of visual perspective. As an Indigenous scholar, Dr. St. Jacques also values equity, diversity, and inclusivity in science. One of her favourite autobiographical memories is when she visited a Balsamic Vinegar House in the Reggio Emilia area in Italy.
Graduate Students
Selen Küçüktaş, MA
Selen received her BA in Psychology from Yeditepe University, and completed an MA in Psychological Sciences at Boğaziçi University, Turkey. She has been pursuing her PhD in the ME Lab since 2019. Her main research interest is cognitive and neural mechanisms supporting the retrieval of autobiographical memories. Particularly, she focuses on the emotional aspects of events, and the impact of emotional regulation on retrieval. One of her favourite autobiographical memories is her trip to Belgrade, Serbia to attend an international Argentine tango festival.
Anna Romero, BA
Anna is a recent graduate of the University of Alberta’s Psychology Honours program. Anna completed her honours thesis here at the ME Lab with Dr. St. Jacques. She has recently accepted an offer to the MSc in Psychology at the University of Alberta, where she will be continuing her work at the Memory for Events Lab. Her main research interest is in understanding how schemas and prior knowledge inform autobiographical memory. One of her favourite autobiographical memories was seeing her grandma after not having seen her for seven years.
Júlia Feminella, BSc
Júlia received her BSc in Psychology from Universidade de Brasília. She’s currently pursuing an MSc in the lab. Her research involves how format (2D/3D) and emotional valence in virtual reality settings can affect memory. One of her favorite autobiographical memories is shooting a short film in a single afternoon along with her friends.
Lab Manager
Chloe King, BA
Chloe received her Honours BA in Psychology from the University of Alberta, where she completed her honours thesis with Dr. St. Jacques here at the ME Lab. Now she is working as a research assistant and lab manager for the ME Lab. She is interested in studying the narrative content of autobiographical memories. More specifically, she is interested in understanding how the content of our memories change and what changes as we shift visual perspective. One of her favourite memories is biking on the Island Line Rail Trail on Lake Champlain in Vermont.
Undergraduate Honours Students
Anna Cuff
Anna is pursuing an Honors BSc in Psychology. She is interested in the neural mechanisms supporting memory and the relationship between visual perspective and emotional regulation. One of her favorite autobiographical memories is her trip to Pompeii, Italy with her mom in the summer of 2018.
Undergraduate Students & Volunteers
Georgia Popowich
Georgia is pursuing a BA degree, majoring in Psychology. She is interested in the neural mechanisms of memory, as well as how emotion impacts memory encoding and recall. One of her favourite autobiographical memories is attending a Ukrainian Folk Dance Workshop in Lviv, Ukraine.
Sarah Beeby
Sarah is pursuing an Honors BSc in Psychology. She is interested in the neural mechanisms involved in memory and understanding how emotional regulation and visual perspective change the content of our memories. Her favorite personal autobiographical memory is her trip to New York City with her mom in 2019, where they attended a performance of Hamilton on Broadway.
Research Assistants
Alannah Nash
Alannah is pursuing an Honours BSc in Psychology. She is interested in memory distortion and false memory creation. One of her favourite autobiographical memories is swimming under a waterfall on Manitoulin Island.
Mae Pacificar
Mae received her Honours BSc in Psychology at the University of Alberta under the supervision of Dr. Hayward in the VASP Lab. She is currently a research assistant at the ME Lab and is interested in the role of vision and visual perspectives in autobiographical memory processes. One of her favourite autobiographical memories is seeing the first peaks of the Rocky Mountains during her first family trip to Banff as a new immigrant in Canada.