Lab Members
Lab Director:
Dr. Heather D. Lucas, Ph.D.
I am an Assistant Professor in the Department of Psychology at Louisiana State University. I am also the director of the Brain and Memory Lab, an executive committee member for LSU’s Multidisciplinary Initiative for Neuroscience Discovery (MIND), and the faculty advisor for Synapse LSU.
My research examines the cognitive neuroscience of learning and memory, with a primary focus on episodic memory. I have a particular interest in how people manage the limits of their own memory systems by making decisions about when and how to interact with information— for example, by deciding what information to prioritize, how best to learn it, and when to rely on heuristics and intuitions. I approach this topic by using a number of converging methods, including EEG/ERPs, eye tracking, and the study of populations who experience memory challenge, including older adults, survivors of traumatic brain injury, and neurodivergent populations. I am also interested in how neural, cognitive, and social factors combine to impact the way individuals approach tasks involving learning and memory.
I am the co-PI of an NSF-funded project aimed to understand and improve spatial reasoning abilities in undergraduates who are interested in pursuring STEM careers.
I completed my undergraduate studies at Duke University, majoring in Psychology and English with a minor in Computer Science. I received my PhD from Northwestern University in the Department of Psychology (Brain, Behavior, and Cognition Program), where I worked in the laboratory of Ken Paller. I then completed a Beckman Institute Postdoctoral Fellowship at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, working primarily in the laboratories of Neal Cohen and Kara Federmeier. I joined the faculty at LSU in the fall of 2017.
Graduate Students:
Chloe A. Kindell
You can visit Chloe's personal website and art portfolio here.
Chloe has been a doctoral student in the BAM Lab since 2021. She received her Bachelor's of Arts in Psychology from Florida Southern College in December of 2019, with a minor in Studio Art. She is broadly interested in studying the neural and cognitive processes that relate to memory using eye tracking methodologies. An artist in her free time, she is also interested in science communications and illustration.
Mackenzie Williams
Mackenzie will be joining the BAM Lab in the fall 2025 semester. She is from Shreveport, Louisiana and received her B.A. in Psychology from Centenary College of Louisiana. Mackenzie's research interests include the neural and cognitive components of memory and language. Her undergraduate honors thesis focused on semantic and pragmatic expectations and memory. After graduating, she worked on research projects centered around Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s disease at the LSU Health Shreveport Center for Brain Health. In her free time, she enjoys reading, spending time in nature, and thrift shopping.
Undergraduate Research Assistants:
Meghan Garcelon
Meghan is a senior undergraduate at LSU studying Psychology with a concentration in
Cognitive Neuroscience. Meghan is broadly interested in declarative memory, but specifically
interested in concept learning, semantic memory, and how episodic and semantic memory
interact during encoding and retrieval. After graduation, Meghan plans to pursue a
graduate degree in Cognitive Neuroscience and to continue researching semantic memory.
J'Lynera Green
J’Lynera Green is a senior undergraduate at LSU majoring in Psychology with a concentration in Cognitive Neuroscience. Her research interests center on clinical investigations of brain-behavior relationships. After graduation, she plans to pursue a Ph.D. in Behavioral Neuroscience.
Lauren O'Callaghan
Lauren is a sophomore undergraduate at LSU and a recipient of the Presidential Future Leaders in Research Science (PFLR) Scholarship.
Former Graduate Students:
Dr. Brianna E. Cairney, Ph.D.
Bri received her PhD in 2024. She is currently a Hilibrand Postdoctoral Fellow in the McPartland Lab at the Yale Child Study Center.
Dr. Felicia M. Chaisson, Ph.D.
Felicia received her PhD in 2024. She is currently a Research Scientist at the Behavioral Technology Laboratory at Pennington Biomedical Research Center.
Former Undergraduate Students:
Laurel Walther (2023 - 2025 Honors Thesis Student, LSU Distinguished Undergraduate Researcher, and Paul C Young Awardee)
Alena Knieper (2023 - 2024 Research Assistant)
Andew Leaber (2024 Research Assistant)
Z Rigamer (2021 – 2023 Honors Thesis Student)
Adrienne Wyble (2020 – 2023 LSU Distinguished Undergraduate Researcher)
Ethan Rogers (2022 - 2023 LSU Explorers Research Program)
Benjamin Klein (2021 - 2022 LSU Presidential Future Leaders in Research Scholar)
Amber Alford (2019 - 2021 McNair Scholar and Discover Grant Recipient)
Kara Hobbs (2020 - 2021 Honors Thesis Student)
Brooke Montgomery (2021 Research Assistant)
Matthew Willis (2021 Research Assistant)
Stan West (2017 - 2020 LSU ASPIRE Student)
Cristen Cooper (2018 - 2020 Research Assistant)
Cody Capps (2019 - 2020 Research Assistant)
Collean Hebert (2018 - 2019 Research Assistant)
Rebecca Wallace (2018 - 2019 Honors Thesis Student)
Blake Roussel (2018 Research Assistant)