Vana Webster

Throughout our day-to-day life we often share our memories with others. We know such sharing is important for wellbeing. It is unclear, however, how this frequent social interaction may help keep our memory healthy, especially as we age. As part of a broader research program that aims to explore when and how remembering with others can protect and support memory, Ms Webster's project explores the conditions in which we remember better together. In particular, she is interested in how closeness to others in a group may affect how well we remember together. Closeness might be especially important when we are experiencing memory difficulties, as we might be more willing to both accept and ask for help when remembering. 

Closeness may also be associated with how well we can coordinate our remembering so we do not disrupt each other’s recall and so we have an opportunity to contribute our own perspectives and experiences. To examine these possibilities she will explore closeness across different age groups, with different relationships, and across memory tasks of varied difficulty. By better understanding the predictors of successful memory sharing, she can inform the development of ecologically valid interventions aiming to support memory as we age.

Ms Webster is a PhD at the ARC Centre of Excellence in Cognition and its Disorders (CCD), at Macquarie University in Sydney.