Elkan Akyurek

Retrieval accuracy for practiced associations (RP+), for associations that were not practiced, but were in the same event (RP-), and for associations and events that were not practiced at all (NRP). Retrieval was higher in the RP+ and RP- conditions than in the NRP condition, and RP+ and RP- did not differ from each other.

We observed holistic retrieval: Retrieving one element from an episodic event causes incidental retrieval of associated elements. Practiced (RP+) and not-practiced associations from the same events (RP-) were recalled equally well, over associations from events that were not practiced at all (NRP).

We have a new preprint out, in which @zehan-camilla.bsky.social, me, and Mark Nieuwenstein studied retrieval in episodic memory! Full read here:
doi.org/10.31234/osf...

Impulse perturbation can help with that, but it does require *many* trials per experiment.

I am happy to be attending #CNS2026 with the Yale Wu Tsai Institute travel award to present this paper👇🏻 as a poster - it’ll be on Monday from 2:30-4:30pm (session E), come check it out!

I am glad to attend #CNS2026 in beautiful Vancouver🇨🇦! I will present my work on action planning in visual working memory. In this project, we focus on the factors leading motor planning such as selective attention, affordances and task requirements. Meet me at the Poster Session B (B38)!

We are looking for a new colleague!🧠🇨🇭🦩
A new post doc position is available in our lab - check the link for more details!

www.unige.ch/fapse/womcog...

Some cool work by the indomitable @nursenaataseven.bsky.social Check it out👇

Are you interested in psychological experiments, but feel a little unsure about programming. Try OpenSesame. Not only has it a user-friendly GUI, it is also connected to SigmundAI, an AI assistant that can basically make the experiment for you! Super cool stuff by @cogsci.nl

🚨 Job alert🚨 My former lab in Germany led by Daniel Schneider is recruiting a postdoc. Daniel’s research sits at the intersection of memory and attention, and the ideal candidate will have expertise in EEG and/or fMRI.
👉Job ad in English: www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/br2vg... 1/n

🎉 My first first-author paper was just accepted in JEP:HPP! We asked what “active” vs “passive” WM states do - do they protect against interference? Across 4 behavioural experiments we find no reliable protection. Updated preprint here: doi.org/10.1101/2024.02.05.578913 @elkanakyurek.bsky.social

Cool work! I would personally think that post-target intrusions are likely caused by temporal integration, rather than 'sluggish' attentional processes. :)

Have you ever wanted to study individual differences in attention only to be frustrated by prohibitive low reliability?

If so, what a coincidence!

Let me introduce you to the first study from the newly formed Sheffield PandA lab:

Using RSVPs to measure the speed of attention: rdcu.be/e0t0A

1/

New preprint on how working memory (WM) supports event segmentation. Using load-sensitive EEG markers, we test whether WM accumulates information within events or instead reactivates prior event information at boundaries. osf.io/preprints/ps...

Our new preprint is out!

Using a continuous-report paradigm, we show that divided attention reliably disrupts long-term memory retrieval by reducing accessibility—not precision.

Two experiments + mixture modeling + TCC.

Link: osf.io/preprints/ps...

Hoger onderwijs hoopt met nieuwe staking druk te leggen op de formatie Het hoger onderwijs staakt op 9 december opnieuw tegen de bezuinigingen. Onder andere WOinActie, studentenvakbonden, FNV en de Algemene Onderwijsbond (AOb) hopen zo druk te leggen op de formatie.

9 december! Zegt het voort!
ukrant.nl/hoger-onderw...

Postdoc Position: Neural Circuitry Underlying Working Memory | Radboud University Do you want to work as a Postdoc Position: Neural Circuitry Underlying Working Memory at the Faculty of Social Sciences? Check our vacancy!

🚨🧠🚨 POSTDOC POSITION 🚨🧠🚨 in my lab: www.ru.nl/en/working-a... Connectivity in Working Memory. Deadline 12 Nov! Apply via website; please repost.

Decoding working memory contents from induced alpha power. Decoding is largely successful during the short (1 second) delay, for both prioritized and deprioritized items. However, in the long (3 seconds) delay, deprioritized items eventually return to baseline.

Decoding working memory contents from induced alpha power was largely successful in the short delay (left), but importantly, deprioritized items eventually vanished completely in the long delay (right). Work lead by Yuanyuan Weng and in collaboration with Jelmer Borst. 3/3 #neuroskyence #cogpsyc

Decoding working memory contents from raw voltage. Across both short (1 second) and long (3 second) retention delays, decoding returns to baseline. In the long delay, just prior to the onset of the memory probe, decoding re-emerges, likely in anticipation of the response.

Our task included a longer-than-usual delay period of 3 seconds, where working memory maintenance should have stabilized. Voltage decoding dropped to zero even in the short delay (left panel), and re-emerged only just before the probe in the long delay (right panel), presumably in anticipation. 2/3

Sustained alpha oscillations serve attentional prioritization in working memory, not maintenance Recent theory on the neural basis of working memory (WM) has attributed an important role to "activity-silent" mechanisms, suggesting that sustained neural activity might not be essential in the reten...

New preprint!

Working memory contents can be decoded from alpha band power. But does working memory maintenance really depend on these oscillations?

We say no, because we found that alpha power decoding only works for prioritized items, not deprioritized ones. 1/3

www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

Job alert!🚨
Join us @uab.cat to investigate human memory representations with intracranial recordings, eye-tracking, immersive VR and deep learning. This is a fully funded, four-year PhD position at the Prediction and Memory Lab.
Feel free to reach out if you have any questions!

We’re looking for a postdoc to join our Max Planck group in Germany some time in 2026. If you have computational and/or neuroimaging expertise, and are interested in questions intersecting perception and cognition, please reach out! I’ll also be happy to chat at the #Bernsteinconference this week.

Open postdoc position👈
We have an open position, starting early 2026, to work on an exciting project aiming at better understanding the role of thalamo-cortical brain oscillations in perception with a comparative, cross-species (animal-human) component based on electrophysiology (incl. scalp EEG).

Komende maandag (22 sep) geven @irisgroen.bsky.social, @theodanes.bsky.social, Jackie Higgins, Yaïr Pinto en ik een lezing bij @sggroningen.bsky.social. Een spannende avond vol mooie verhalen en wetenschap! 🌿🦇🤖🌍 Kom ook! @rug-gmw.bsky.social #groningen #wetenschap 👇

Registration for the 20th NVP Dutch Society for Brain and Cognition Winter Conference is open! ✅ You can register and submit your abstract here: www.conftool.pro/nvp2025/. 📅 Early bird registration until Oct 1. ✨For more information: www.societyforbrainandcognition.nl/conference-nvp

🚨WHOHOO!! I am happy to share that I received the #ERCStG for my project PRECHRON: The Prefrontal Chronometer for Organizing Working Memory.

I am going to study #neuraloscillations during #workingmemory at the @rug.nl @rug-gmw.bsky.social

#brainstimulation #TMS #EEG

Felt bad about not posting a reminder about this (my excuse is that I was on vacation), but we received no fewer than 221 applications so far! Very happy to see so much interest, and if you're one of the applicants--it may take us a bit of time to go over all of these... 📄📄🙂

Postdoc position open in our #workingmemory lab! See here for more info: www.unige.ch/fapse/womcog...

Jelmer Borst and I are looking for a PhD candidate to build an EEG-based model of human working memory! This is a really cool project that I've wanted to kick off for a while, and I can't wait to see it happen. Please share and I'm happy to answer any Qs about the project!
www.rug.nl/about-ug/wor...

What we stand to lose when foreign students are seen as a threat International students enrich university communities and strengthen civic life. We must defend their place in global education.

Totally agree: What we stand to lose when foreign students are seen as a threat (although I am biased, because I was one of those...) www.nature.com/articles/d41...

PhD position — Rademaker lab

Curious about the visual human brain, a vibrant and collaborative lab, and pursuing a PhD in the heart of Europe? My lab is recruiting for a 3-year PhD position. More details: www.rademakerlab.com/job-add