Trevor Bell, M.S.
Welcome to my research page! The main goal of my line of research is to understand the complexities of how we use strategies to successfully vs. unsuccessfully remember information. I use a combination of approaches (e.g., correlational, experimental, and mixed designs) and technologies (e.g., EEG and rTMS) in my studies. Learn more about my research and areas of study below.
Educational Overview
Kansas State University
PhD in Psychological Sciences
Area: Cognitive Psychology & Human Factors
Focus: Memory
EXPECTED: May 2025
Kansas State University
M.S. in Psychological Sciences
Area: Cognitive Psychology & Human Factors
Focus: Memory
Thesis: Neural Oscillations in Memory Strategies
Completed: May 2022
Christian Brothers University
B.A. in Psychology
Completed: May 2014
Notable Awards
Naval Research Enterprise Internship Program (Summer Internship) 2022
Human Behavior & Evolution Society Student Funding Grant ($2,500) 2021
Kansas State University Psychological Sciences Outstanding Graduate Instructor Award ($500) 2021
Christian Brothers University Behavioral Sciences Faculty Award 2018
Christian Brothers University Outstanding School of Arts Graduate Student Award 2018
Publications
Research Interests
Neural Signatures of Memory
Memory failures constitute moments in time when information is lost, such as being unable to recall an address or someone’s name. Identifying mechanisms underlying memory failure is critical for prevention and treatment of these failures. Memory failures are detrimental in many everyday settings, like in classrooms, where remembering information is critical for success. This study will use EEG which can reveal fast-acting mechanisms, such as encoding failures that occur quickly and decisions to use strategies. Neural mechanisms behind strategies can illuminate more effective strategies for classroom educators, such as incorporating more interactive and imaginative techniques to support successful recall performance for all students. Incorporating better encoding strategies will promote the success of students in the classroom.
Strategic Influences on Memory
Keeping information in working memory can be a hard task. Strategies are often used to ease the demands. Not much is known about how strategies are used across tasks, if certain strategies are truly effective for all people, and how task characteristics might influence memory paradigms. My work aims to look at strategic usage across variety of working memory tasks. Do participants use effective strategies across a wide variety of tasks or is it task-dependent? Are people with higher capacity for remembering words using different strategies than those not doing so well o the task? Are there neural signatures neural signatures associated with strategies? Lastly, I investigate task demand on strategy use. If participants perceive a higher difficulty, do they change their intended strategies? If so, how does this affect their performance?
Interplay between Working Memory and Fluid Intelligence
Fluid intelligence is the ability to reason and solve new problems. Most fluid intelligence tasks require strategies to solve problems. However, strategy use often varies across participants and even within trials for a single participant. This indicates that participants switch strategies, even if they are traditionally successful. Little research has dug into what influences these strategy shifts and if strategies are always efficient for the task. My research aim to challenge traditional paradigms and manipulate aspects to see if the strategies people use change based on task demands. More importantly, if participants do switch to less effective strategies for high task demands, are they truly "less effective" or do they provide an advantage to individuals? Other questions include investigating feedback on strategy use, metacognitive ability, and even neural signatures involved in these paradigms.
*Denotes undergraduate authors
1) Wisniewski, M. G., Zakrzewski, A. C., Bell, D.R., & *Wheeler, K. (2021). EEG power spectral dynamics associated with listening in adverse conditions. Psychphysiology, 58(9), https://doi.org/10.1111/psyp.13877