Almut Hupbach

I am Cognitive Psychologist with a keen interest in understanding how memory works.

My research focuses on understanding the dynamic nature of long-term memory. This basic quality of long-term memory plays out on a continuum stretching between the need to conserve and the need to reform: Whereas relatively stable and fixed core knowledge is essential for successful everyday functioning, the ability to forget unnecessary or outdated information and to update memories in the light of new relevant information is of equal, if not greater importance. To date there is no unifying theoretical account that explains how humans update aspects of their memory while at the same time maintaining a stable core set of knowledge, or mnemonic representations. Indeed, understanding these dynamics constitutes one of the current challenges in cognitive psychology and neuroscience.