Manasi Jayakumar

Biography

I am a cognitive psychologist and neuroscientist. I graduated with a Ph.D. in psychology from Columbia University. My dissertation research examined the impact of spontaneous attentional fluctuations on episodic memory. Broadly, I am interested in how our internal cognitive states during an experience can influence memory organization and retrieval, and how these processes differ between individuals. To address these questions, I use lab-based and online behavioral studies, eye-tracking, pupillometry, and computational modeling methods.

I have an undergraduate degree in biotechnology engineering, during which time I had a chance encounter with research on patient H.M. that ignited my curiosity about the cognitive neuroscience of memory. I then pursued a master’s degree in applied cognition and neuroscience at the University of Texas at Dallas, followed by a two-year stint as a lab manager and research coordinator at Stanford University, before pursuing my PhD.