Prof. Dr. Sami Gülgöz
Since the beginning of this century, my main area of research has been autobiographical memory. Before that, I worked in the area of text comprehension and memory but eventually I became more intrigued with different aspects of autobiographical memory. My research led me into different directions depending upon the context, therefore, I have publications and talks on personality, scientific publications, and improvement of cognitive skills, among other topics. My choice of this lifestyle (I call it a lifestyle, not a career, nor a profession, nor a job) occurred when I discovered the gratification and enjoyment I was getting from teaching and doing research, the topic of research was less of an issue.
At this point in my life, I am somewhat more focused, with memory research taking the center stage, a chain of working memory projects alongside many autobiographical memory studies. Besides research and teaching, another source of great satisfaction for me is my work with Educational Volunteers’ Foundation of Turkey (Türkiye Eğitim Gönüllüleri Vakfı) where I aim to contribute to the welfare of the country by supporting children’s education.
For more information, please click here to visit my ORCID profile
Dr. Berivan Ece
My major research interests center on different aspects of autobiographical
memory. I am particularly interested in the pattern of lifespan retrieval of personal past experiences. Why don’t we remember early childhood memories from the first few years of life (childhood amnesia) or why do adults over 50 years old tend to remember disproportionately more events from the period between 10 and 30 years old (reminiscence bump)? These were the main questions I have focused in my research on lifespan autobiographical retrieval. For earliest childhood memories, I am primarily concerned with their consistency over time regarding their content, dating, and event characteristics. My research line on the reminiscence bump, on the other hand, basically focuses on the factors leading to the emergence of the bump and the effect of blocking the retrieval of typical life events on the presence of the bump.
Life scripts, which consist of events that are typical in an expected life course of a hypothetical person, were an important aspect of my research on the reminiscence bump. These scripts evoked my interest both script formation and memory processes for repeated events. The major question was the effect of repetition on remembering our autobiographical memories in addition to the comparison of frequently repeated life events and relatively rare or one time important life events in terms of their memory processes. Recently, I am interested in the cognitive correlates of accurate eyewitness testimony and line-up identification. Several studies have displayed the critical role of individual differences in cognitive processes like perception, attention, and memory in terms of their impact on the accuracy of eyewitness testimonies and line-up identifications. My research, however, focuses on the fate of that impact over time. More specifically, whether these individual differences still make a difference when all witnesses are questioned after a certain time period.