The Learning and Development Lab explores how children and adults learn and remember, focusing on the cognitive and neural mechanisms that support learning across time and development. Unlike traditional approaches that focus on stable “traits” or average behavior, we emphasize the dynamic nature of cognition and development—how moment-to-moment brain and attentional states and different early life experiences shape learning and memory outcomes.
Research Themes
Dynamic Cognitive States: Beyond Averages
Most research on memory performance averages across trials or individuals, assuming that “poor” performers simply have less ability. We challenge this static approach: We track fluctuations in attentional and brain states, and ask how transient shifts in attentional states across time impact what we learn and later remember. By monitoring these changes across time, we see that lapses, shifts in conflict, and reward can alter what gets remembered. This dynamic, state-based approach reveals subtle modulators of memory that are hidden when using traditional averages. We also uncover how memory dynamically interacts with other cognitive processes, such as attention, conflict monitoring, and decision-making, and how these interactions are further shaped by neuromodulators that regulate brain states over time.
Key Publications
Biba, T., Decker, A., Herrmann, B., Fukuda, K., Katz, C., Valiante, T., Duncan, K. Memory’s pulse: episodic memory formation is theta rhythmic. [preprint] Under Review at Nature Human Behaviour
Treves, I. N., Marusak, H. A., Decker, A., Kucyi, A., Hubbard, N. A., Bauer, C. C. C., Leonard, J., Grotzinger, H., Giebler, M. A., Torres, Y. C., Imhof, A., Romeo, R., Calhoun, V. D., & Gabrieli, J. D.E. (2024). Dynamic functional connectivity correlates of trait mindfulness in early adolescence. Biological Psychiatry Global Open Science [paper]
Decker, A. L., Duncan, K.+, & Finn, A. S.+ (2023). Fluctuations in Sustained Attention Explain Moment-to-Moment Shifts in Children’s Memory Formation. Psychological Science [paper] [code & data]
Decker, A.+, Dubois, M.+, Duncan, K.+, & Finn, A. S.+ (2023). Pay attention and you might miss it: Greater learning during attentional lapses. Psychonomic Bulletin & Review [paper] [code & data]
Decker, A., & Duncan, K. (2020). Acetylcholine and the complex interdependence of memory and attention. Current Opinion in Behavioral Sciences [paper]
Decker, A., Finn, A.+, & Duncan, K.+ (2020). Errors lead to transient impairments in memory formation. Cognition [paper]
Developmental Differences: Uncovering How Children Learn Differently
Our research asks how children learn differently from adults, focusing on the gradual development of learning systems like the hippocampus and prefrontal cortices. While much of developmental research compares what children lack relative to adults, we also investigate what children do differently—sometimes outperforming adults and sometimes not—as their brains and knowledge bases grow. So far, we have focused on how children’s unique ways of focusing attention and interacting with the world fundamentally shape what ‘gets in’ and therefore how they learn. We are also interested in how learning systems develop differently across neurodevelopmental disorders, potentially leading to advantages in some situations and disadvantages in others.
Key Publications
Decker, A. L., Duncan, K.+, & Finn, A. S.+ (2023). Fluctuations in Sustained Attention Explain Moment-to-Moment Shifts in Children’s Memory Formation. Psychological Science [paper] [code & data]
Decker A., Tandoc, M., Cho, H., Rebello, G., Mabbott, D., Duncan, K.+, Finn, A.S.+ Children’s Darting (Not Diffuse) Attentional Spotlight Reduces Memory Selectivity for Relevant Content [preprint] [data & code]. Under Review at Developmental Science.
Brain Plasticity and Early Life Experience
Children’s brains are remarkably plastic, rapidly adapting to their environments. We ask how different early life experiences, such as stress or early brain injury, shape brain development and, ultimately, learning and memory. Using neuroimaging, we investigate how environmental differences lead to diverse developmental trajectories and influence life outcomes like academic achievement.
Key Publications
Hurtado, H.+, Hansen, M.+, Strack, J.+, Vainik, U., Decker, A. L., Khundrakpam, B., Duncan, K., Finn, A. S., Mabbott, D. J., & Merz, E. C. (2024). Polygenic risk for depression and anterior and posterior hippocampal volume in children and adolescents. Journal of Affective Disorders [paper]
Decker, A., Duncan, K.+, Finn, A. S.+, & Mabbott, D. J.+ (2020). Children’s family income is associated with cognitive function and volume of anterior not posterior hippocampus. Nature Communications [paper] [code & data]
Decker, A. L., Leonard, J., Romeo, R., Itiat, J., et al. (2025). Exploration is associated with socioeconomic disparities in learning and academic achievement in adolescence. Nature Communications.
Decker, A. L., Meisler, S. L., Hubbard, N. A., Bauer, C. C. C., Leonard, J., Grotzinger, H., Giebler, M. A., Torres, Y. C., Imhof, A., Romeo, R., & Gabrieli, J. D. E. (2024). Striatal and Behavioral Responses to Reward Vary by Socioeconomic Status in Adolescents. Journal of Neuroscience [paper] [code & data]
Sekeres, M. J., Riggs, L., Decker, A., Medeiros, C. B. de, Bacopulos, A., Skocic, J., … Frankland, P. W. (2018). Impaired recent, but preserved remote, autobiographical memory in pediatric brain tumor patients. Journal of Neuroscience [paper]
Decker, A., Szulc, K. U., Bouffet, E., Laughlin, S., Chakravarty, M. M., Skocic, J., Mabbott, D. J. (2017). Smaller hippocampal subfield volumes predict verbal associative memory in pediatric brain tumor survivors. Hippocampus [paper]
Interested in joining the lab? Come join our projects focusing on the following themes:
Learning as a dynamic and interactive cognitive processe
Differences in learning systems across development and developmental disorders
Effects of stress, reward, and environmental predictability on cognitive development
Translating basic science into applied interventions to boost attention, learning, and memory