Suparna Rajaram

Suparna Rajaram was born in Bellary, India.{{Cite web|url=https://you.stonybrook.edu/rajarammemorylab2/suparna-rajaram/|title=Suparna Rajaram, Ph.D. {{!}} Social Memory and Cognition Lab|website=you.stonybrook.edu|language=en-US|access-date=2018-11-19}} She received a B.A. in psychology, Economics, and English Literature (1984) and a M.A. in psychology (1986) from Mt. Carmel College of Bangalore University. She moved to the United States to pursue a M.S. in Cognitive Psychology at Purdue University, and completed her degree in 1988 under the supervision of James H. Neely.{{Cite journal|date=1992-04-01|title=Dissociative masked repetition priming and word frequency effects in lexical decision and episodic recognition tasks|journal=Journal of Memory and Language|language=en|volume=31|issue=2|pages=152–182|doi=10.1016/0749-596X(92)90009-M|issn=0749-596X|last1=Rajaram|first1=Suparna|last2=Neely|first2=James H.}} Rajaram continued her education at Rice University, where she obtained her PhD in Cognitive Psychology in 1991 under the supervision of Henry L. Roediger, III.{{Cite journal|last=Rajaram|first=Suparna|date=1993|title=Remembering and knowing: Two means of access to the personal past|journal=Memory & Cognition|language=en|volume=21|issue=1|pages=89–102|doi=10.3758/bf03211168|pmid=8433652|issn=0090-502X|doi-access=free}} While at Rice, Rajaram collaborated with Roediger on research comparing assessments of implicit memory.{{Cite journal|last1=Rajaram|first1=Suparna|last2=Roediger|first2=Henry L.|date=1993|title=Direct comparison of four implicit memory tests.|journal=Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition|language=en|volume=19|issue=4|pages=765–776|doi=10.1037/0278-7393.19.4.765|pmid=8345323|issn=1939-1285}} From 1991 to 1993, Rajaram was a post-doctoral research fellow at Temple University School of Medicine, where she conducted research on amnesia with H. Branch Coslett.{{Cite journal|last1=Rajaram|first1=Suparna|last2=Coslett|first2=H. Branch|date=2000|title=Acquisition and transfer of new verbal information in amnesia: Retrieval and neuroanatomical constraints.|journal=Neuropsychology|language=en|volume=14|issue=3|pages=427–455|doi=10.1037/0894-4105.14.3.427|pmid=10928746|issn=1931-1559}}

Rajaram joined the Faculty of Psychology at Stony Brook University in 1993 and was promoted to Full Professor in 2003. She served as the Associate Dean for Faculty Affairs in the College of Arts and Sciences at Stony Brook University (2012–2015). Rajaram received a FIRST Award from the National Institutes of Mental Health (NIMH). In addition to NIMH, her research has been supported by the National Science Foundation, the Russell Sage Foundation, and Google. Rajaram served as Associate Editor of Psychological Science (2007–2008), Psychological Bulletin (2003–2005), and Memory & Cognition (1998–2001).{{Cite web|url=https://www.psychonomic.org/page/Rajaram/2018keynote|title=Suparna Rajaram - Psychonomic Society|website=www.psychonomic.org|language=en|access-date=2018-11-19}}

Rajaram's research program encompasses studies of human amnesia and intact memory to address the cognitive and neural bases of memory functions, such as the distinction between explicit memory and implicit memory.{{Cite web|url=https://www.psychonomic.org/page/Rajaram/2018keynote|title=Suparna Rajaram - Psychonomic Society|website=www.psychonomic.org|language=en|access-date=2018-11-19}}{{Cite web|url=http://womenincogsci.org/people|title=People {{!}} Women in Cognitive Science|website=womenincogsci.org|language=en|access-date=2018-11-19|archive-date=15 December 2012|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121215050146/http://womenincogsci.org/people|url-status=dead}} Her lab has examined differences in the effects of repeated testing and repeated studying on learning, and how repetition impacts learning of new information in amnesia. In one of her studies, her team examined how repetition of information confers advantages in knowing versus remembering information in individuals with amnesia.{{Cite journal|last1=Verfaellie|first1=Mieke|last2=Rajaram|first2=Suparna|last3=Fossum|first3=Karen|last4=Williams|first4=Lisa|date=2008|title=Not all repetition is alike: Different benefits of repetition in amnesia and normal memory|journal=Journal of the International Neuropsychological Society|language=en|volume=14|issue=3|pages=365–372|doi=10.1017/S1355617708080612|pmid=18419835|pmc=2396955|issn=1469-7661|doi-access=free}} They found that repetition helped people with amnesia gain a sense of familiarity with material (i.e., knowing), whereas for individuals with normal memory, repetition enhanced both familiarity and recollection (i.e., knowing and remembering).{{citation needed|date=March 2023}}

Rajaram has conducted numerous studies focusing on how social factors influence learning and memory. Her lab aims to understand the social transmission of memory in groups of people and in social networks, the emergence of collective memory, and how collaborative learning may help or hinder memory.{{Cite web|url=https://you.stonybrook.edu/rajarammemorylab2/research/|title=Research {{!}} Social Memory and Cognition Lab|website=you.stonybrook.edu|language=en-US|access-date=2018-11-19}} Her research indicates that collaboration with peers often weakens the memory performance of individuals; at the same time getting help from one's peers may help to eliminate memory errors.{{Cite journal|last=Rajaram|first=Suparna|date=2011|title=Collaboration Both Hurts and Helps Memory|journal=Current Directions in Psychological Science|language=en|volume=20|issue=2|pages=76–81|doi=10.1177/0963721411403251|s2cid=19179853|issn=0963-7214}}{{Cite journal|last1=Rajaram|first1=Suparna|last2=Pereira-Pasarin|first2=Luciane P.|date=2010|title=Collaborative Memory: Cognitive Research and Theory|journal=Perspectives on Psychological Science|language=en|volume=5|issue=6|pages=649–663|doi=10.1177/1745691610388763|pmid=26161882|s2cid=20159993|issn=1745-6916}} Rajaram's 2014 paper on social transmission of memory, co-authored with H.Y. Choi, H.M. Blumen, and A.R. Congleton, was named "Best Paper of the Year" by European Society of Cognitive Psychology.{{Cite news|url=https://www.psychologicalscience.org/publications/observer/editors/escop-journals-best-paper-shows-how-collaboration-influences-memory.html|title=ESCOP Journal's 'Best Paper' Shows How Collaboration Influences Memory|work=Association for Psychological Science|access-date=2018-11-19|language=en-US}} This study examined a phenomenon known as collaborative inhibition, wherein individuals contribute less to recalling information when they are part of a group than when they are recalling information on their own. This study explored how changing the membership of groups influenced individual and collective memory.{{Cite journal|last1=Choi|first1=Hae-Yoon|last2=Blumen|first2=Helena M.|last3=Congleton|first3=Adam R.|last4=Rajaram|first4=Suparna|date=2013-12-03|title=The role of group configuration in the social transmission of memory: Evidence from identical and reconfigured groups|journal=Journal of Cognitive Psychology|language=en|volume=26|issue=1|pages=65–80|doi=10.1080/20445911.2013.862536|s2cid=19160059|issn=2044-5911}} Rajaram and her colleagues have also studied how emotion enhances memory. They found that emotional memories are not immune to error, yet emotional memories are less likely to be distorted by social influences than nonemotional memories.{{Cite journal|last1=Kensinger|first1=Elizabeth A.|last2=Choi|first2=Hae-Yoon|last3=Murray|first3=Brendan D.|last4=Rajaram|first4=Suparna|date=2016-02-23|title=How social interactions affect emotional memory accuracy: Evidence from collaborative retrieval and social contagion paradigms|journal=Memory & Cognition|language=en|volume=44|issue=5|pages=706–716|doi=10.3758/s13421-016-0597-8|issn=0090-502X|pmc=4942488|pmid=26907480}}

• Rajaram, S. (1993). Remembering and knowing: Two means of access to the personal past. Memory & Cognition, 21 (1), 89–102.
• Rajaram, S. (1996). Perceptual effects on remembering: recollective processes in picture recognition memory. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition, 22 (2), 365–377.
• Rajaram, S. (1998). The effects of conceptual salience and perceptual distinctiveness on conscious recollection. Psychonomic Bulletin & Review, 5 (1), 71–78.
• Rajaram, S., & Geraci, L. (2000). Conceptual fluency selectively influences knowing. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition, 26 (4), 1070–1074.
• Rajaram, S., & Pereira-Pasarin, L. P. (2010). Collaborative memory: Cognitive research and theory. Perspectives on Psychological Science, 5 (6), 649–663.
• Rajaram, S., & Roediger, H. L. (1993). Direct comparison of four implicit memory tests. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition, 19 (4), 765–776.

{{Reflist}}

• [https://www.stonybrook.edu/commcms/psychology/faculty/faculty_profiles/srajaram.php Faculty profile]
• [https://you.stonybrook.edu/rajarammemorylab2/ Memory lab website]
• [http://womenincogsci.org/ Women in Cognitive Science]

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{{DEFAULTSORT:Rajaram, Suparna}}

Category:American women psychologists

Category:Indian cognitive scientists

Category:21st-century American psychologists

Category:Fellows of the American Association for the Advancement of Science

Category:Fellows of the American Psychological Association

Category:Stony Brook University faculty

Category:Mount Carmel College, Bangalore alumni

Category:Purdue University alumni

Category:Rice University alumni

Category:Temple University alumni

Category:Living people

Category:People from Ballari

Category:Year of birth missing (living people)

Category:American women academics

Category:21st-century American women