For more information on Dr. Bluck, visit her profile.
Burcu completed her Bachelor's degree in psychology and her
Master's degree in developmental psychology at Koc
University, Istanbul. The
bi-directional relationship between self and autobiographical memory has
inspired both her
undergraduate and graduate work to date. Her
Master's thesis demonstrated the lifespan distribution of
adults'
autobiographical memories and focused on the reminiscence
bump. She also investigated the phenomenological
characteristics of memories and examined unique events, first-time events
and significant life transitions. She presented
her thesis findings at
conferences such as the 4th International Conference on Memory in Sydney and the
47th Annual
Meeting of the Psychonomic Society in Texas. She is currently a
second year graduate student pursuing her Doctorate
degree in developmental
psychology. Her research interests include the development of self, personality
and auto-
biographical memory in relation to each other. As an international
student she is also interested in cultural differences
in the nature and
functions of these concepts. Her current research project is on Turkish
individuals’ earliest childhood
memories examining differences between these
memories and newest memories in terms of functions and pheno-
menological
characteristics such as vividness.
Jacqueline Baron is
pursuing her Doctorate degree in Developmental Psychology. Broadly, her research
interests include
lifespan development with an emphasis on adult development
and aging. In particular, Jacqueline has interest in studying
the functions
of autobiographical memory and the characteristics of memory stories in everyday
life. Jacqueline was
awarded a three year funded pre-doctoral fellowship
from the National Institute on Aging and a master's proposal award
from the
American Psychological Association (Division 20). Ms. Baron completed her
Master's thesis, which focused on
the characteristics of a 'good' memory
story, and was granted her Master of Science degree in the spring of 2005. A
part
of her Master’s has been recently accepted for publication at the
International Journal of Behavioral Development. She
also has the
distinguished honor of being on both the National Chancellor's List and the
National Dean's List. Ms. Baron
has taught a guided autobiography group
sponsored by the Center for Gerontological Studies and loves working with
older adults in the community. She received the Leighton E. Cluff Award for
aging research in spring 2007 and Gerber
Developmental Research Award in
spring 2008. Her work is regularly presented at national conferences.
Jacqueline's
interest in the lab was sparked by her close relationship to
her late grandmother and while working in the elderly
community. Before
being admitted to graduate school, Jacqueline graduated summa cum laude from the
University of
Florida with a Bachelor of Science degree in
Psychology.
Bethany Fisackerly is a senior about to complete her Bachelor of
Science in Psychology. Among her many various
activities she is a volunteer
with the Shands Child Life Department and hopes to potentially utilize her
experiences in
the Life Story lab by exploring how autobiographical memory
might be used to improve patients' hospital experiences.
Bethany will
be spending the Summer of 2009 as an undergraduate advisor and research
assistant at Furman University.
She is currently exploring graduate
options in both Clinical and Developmental PhD programs as well as Masters
programs for Child Life Therapy.
Kimberly Gold recently graduated magna cum laude form the
University of Florida with a B.S. in Psychology. She is
currently taking
classes as a post-baccalaureate student and working as as research assistant.
Kim plans to apply to
Ph.D. programs for fall 2009 in the field of
criminology.
Erin Smith is a first year Master’s student in Family, Youth and
Community Sciences with a focus in gerontology. Erin's
interest in
gerontology is the result of her volunteer experiences with the Foster
Grandparent Program, Haven Hospice,
and her academic experiences as an
undergraduate with a minor in gerontology. Her goal is to study aging and its
effects
on individuals, families and friends. She is interested in
autobiographical memory research as she feels that it will serve
as a great
way to better understand the people she may come into contact with as a
researcher.