The lab explores how we learn and remember, focusing on the cognitive mechanisms that support learning across time and development. Unlike traditional approaches that focus on average behavior, we emphasize the dynamic nature of cognition—how moment-to-moment brain and attentional states or external factors like reward shape learning 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 they impact what we learn and later remember. This dynamic, state-based approach reveals subtle modulators of memory that are hidden when using traditional averages. We are recruiting graduate students to help us build this line of research in the lab, focusing on fluctuations in attention, arousal and curiosity and its impact on learning.

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

A second line of research focuses on how children learn differently from adults. In this work, we focus on differences in learning systems themselves, as well the slow development of other systems that support learning, like arousal, curiosity and reward states and attention. We are particularly interested in how states like curiosity, exploration and arousal differ in children and adults to drive differences in learning. We are interested in characterizing what children do differently—sometimes outperforming adults and sometimes not—as their brains and knowledge bases grow. We are recruiting graduate students to help us build this line of research in the lab.

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

A third line of research focuses on how children’s cognitive abilities adapt to their early environment. For example, we have asked how adverse life experiences shape how children attend, learn, and decide. We also examine how adaptations in cognitive processes due to the environment relate to diverse developmental trajectories and influence important 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:

Attention, learning, and decision-making as dynamic and interactive cognitive processes

Differences in attention and learning systems across development and in developmental disorders

Translating basic science into applied interventions to boost attention, learning, and memory