Research Themes and Collaborations
Sleep and memory consolidation in adolescence
Adolescence is a time of profound change in many domains, including sleep. There are changes in sleep architecture, as well as the amount of sleep, due to children’s internal clock shifting forward by 2-3 hours as they enter adolescence. With Jessie Ricketts, Becky Crowley, Gareth Gaskell, and Lisa Henderson we are exploring the implications of short sleep during school nights for memory consolidation processes and educational outcomes. This work is funded by the Leverhulme Trust.
Read more about this research project in the Leverhulme Trust newletter here.
Sleep, memory consolidation, and generalisation
One of the most critical challenges in learning and memory is the extraction of context-independent general knowledge from a large amount of individual experiences and episodic memories. In collaboration with Kathy Rastle, Matt Davis, and Jo Taylor we have used language learning paradigms to uncover some of the principles that govern this type of memory formation. In short, we have argued that generalisation can be achieved using different cognitive strategies, and that memory consolidation is key to this type of learning.
We recently completed a project using learning of artificial orthographies to reveal the impact of sleep on generalisation. This project was a collaboration with Kathy Rastle.
This line of research has been funded by the ESRC and the British Academy.
Read more about this research:
Tamminen, J., Newbury, C. R., Crowley, R., Vinals, L., Cevoli, B., & Rastle, K. (2020). Generalisation in language learning can withstand total sleep deprivation. Neurobiology of Learning and Memory, 173.
Tamminen, J., & Davis, M. H., & Rastle, K. (2015). From specific examples to general knowledge in language learning. Cognitive Psychology, 79, 1-39.
Tamminen, J., & Davis, M. H., Merkx, M., & Rastle, K. (2012). The role of memory consolidation in generalisation of new linguistic information. Cognition, 125, 107-112.
Impact of sleep on memory encoding ability
Sleep is not only important for the consolidation information encoded during the previous day, but may also play a key role in preparing the brain for new learning. With Jessica Dyson and Jessie Ricketts we explored the role of sleep and the relevant neural mechanisms in restoring the brain’s ability to learn new words. This work was funded by a doctoral studentship awarded to Jessica by the Waterloo Foundation and Royal Holloway.
Read more about this research:
March, J. A., Ricketts, J., & Tamminen, J. (2023). Is word learning capacity restored after a daytime nap? Cortex, 159, 142-166.
Sleep, memory consolidation, and lexical integration
How does the mind integrate newly acquired information with the rich stores of knowledge we already possess? After all, a piece of new information is only useful if you understand how it relates to everything else you already know about the world. We have addressed this problem by looking at how newly learned words begin to engage with existing familiar words, both in terms of their phonology and of their meaning. The emergence of such interactions is diagnostic of new connections having been made between new and old knowledge. Our collaborators in this body of work include Gareth Gaskell, Penny Lewis, Matt Lambon Ralph, Jessica Payne, and Robert Stickgold. This work has been funded by the ESRC.
Read more about this research:
Tamminen, J., Lambon Ralph, M. A., & Lewis, P. A. (2013). The role of sleep spindles and slow oscillations in integrating new information in semantic memory. Journal of Neuroscience, 33, 15376-15381.
Tamminen, J., Payne, J. D., Stickgold, R., Wamsley, E. J., & Gaskell, M. G. (2010). Sleep spindle activity is associated with integration of new memories and existing knowledge. Journal of Neuroscience, 30, 14356-14360.
Sleep and eyewitness memory
With David Morgan and Laura Mickes, we investigated the impact of sleep on eyewitness memory. This line of research included experiments using eyewitness identification paradigms, as well as experiments focusing on eyewitnesses’ susceptibility to misinformation about the crime they witnessed before sleeping. This work was funded by a Royal Holloway doctoral studentship awarded to David.
Read more about this research:
Morgan, D. P., Tamminen, J., Seale-Carlisle, T. M., & Mickes, L. (2019). The impact of sleep on eyewitness identifications. Royal Society Open Science, 6, 170501.
Impact of music on memory
Music has been shown to facilitate memory in both healthy populations and in patients suffering from various forms of dementia. In collaboration with Victoria Williamson at the Music Department at University of Sheffield, we have worked towards understanding how music affects word learning, and specifically how it helps to integrate newly learned words in the existing mental lexicon. This work has been funded by the British Academy and the Experimental Psychology Society.
Read more about this research:
Tamminen, J., Rastle, K., Darby, J., Lucas, R., & Williamson, V. J. (2017). The impact of music on learning and consolidation of novel words. Memory, 25, 107-121.