School of Philosophy, Psychology and Language Sciences

Dr Michaela Dewar

Photograph of Dr Michaela Dewar
Position
Research Fellow
Email
m.dewar@ed.ac.uk
Phone
0131 650 3424
Location
F11 (7GS)
Research Interests
Amnesia, Memory, Forgetting, Consolidation, Memory Interference, Memory Improvements via short periods of wakeful resting in amnesic patients and healthy people, cognition in neurodegenerative diseases
Biography

 

Present post

  • Personal Research Fellow Human Cognitive Neuroscience, The University of Edinburgh (March 2013 - present)

Previous posts

  • Royal Society of Edinburgh and Lloyds TSB Foundation for Scotland Personal Research Fellow Human Cognitive Neuroscience, The University of Edinburgh (March 2010 - February 2013)
  • Alzheimer's Research UK Research Fellow           Human Cognitive Neuroscience, The University of Edinburgh (March 2007 - March 2010)

Publications

Papers and Book Chapters

  • Zeman, A.Z.J., Beschin, N., Dewar, M. & Della Sala, S. (2013). Imagining the present: Amnesia impairs descriptions of the present as well as of the future and the past. Cortex, 49(3), 637–645. (DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.cortex.2012.03.008)
  • Dewar, M. & Della Sala, S. Interference with memory. (2013). In H. Pashler (Ed.) The Encyclopedia of the Mind. SAGE.
  • Dewar, M., Alber, J., Butler, C., Cowan, N. & Della Sala, S. (2012). Brief wakeful resting boosts new memories over the long term. Psychological Science, 23(9), 955-960. (http://pss.sagepub.com/content/23/9/955).
  • Dewar, M., Brown, G.D.A. & Della Sala, S. (2012). Restoring primacy in amnesic free recall – Evidence for the recency theory of primacy. Cognitive Neuropsychology, 28(6), 386-396. (DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/02643294.2012.665802)
  • Dewar, M., Pesallaccia, M., Cowan, N., Provinciali, L. & Della Sala, S. (2012). Insights into spared memory capacity in amnestic MCI and Alzheimer's Disease via minimal interference. Brain and Cognition, 78, 189-199. (DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.bandc.2011.12.005)
  • Dewar, M., Cowan, N. & Della Sala, S. (2010). Forgetting due to retroactive interference in amnesia.  Findings and implications. In Della Sala (Ed.) Forgetting. Psychology Press. (Pp. 185-209). (PDF)
  • Dewar, M., Della Sala, S., Beschin, N. & Cowan, N. (2010).  Profound retroactive interference in anterograde amnesia: What interferes? Neuropsychology, 24, 357-367. (PDF)
  • Dewar, M., Fernandez-Garcia, Y., Cowan, N. & Della Sala, S. (2009). Delaying interference enhances memory consolidation in amnesic patients. Neuropsychology, 23, 627-634. (PDF)
  • Dewar, M.T., Cowan, N. & Della Sala, S. (2007). Forgetting due to retroactive interference: A fusion of Müller and Pilzecker's (1900) early insights into forgetting and recent research on anterograde amnesia. Cortex, 43, 616-634. (PDF)
  • Dewar, M.T. & Carey, D.P. (2006). Visuomotor 'immunity' to perceptual illusion: A mismatch of attentional demands cannot explain the perception-action dissociation. Neuropsychologia, 44, 1501-1508. (PDF)

Books

  • Della Sala, S. & Dewar, M. (2010). Mai fidarsi della mente. N+1 esperimenti per capire come ci inganna e perche. Laterza, Rome. (Translated title: Never trust the mind. N+1 experiments to understand how and why the brain deceives us).     http://www.amazon.co.uk/fidarsi-mente-esperimenti-capire-inganna/dp/884209739X                                                             

                                                    

  • Dewar, M., Van der Meulen, M., Della Sala, S. & Fuso, S. (2004). The lying mind. Exhibition booklet, European Science Festival, Genoa.

Published conference abstracts

  • Pesallaccia, M., Dewar, M., Cowan, N., Provinciali, L., & Della Sala, S. (2011). Minimal interference in aMCI and AD: A longitudinal Study. Journal of Alzheimer’s Disease, 23, suppl: 1.
  • Pesallaccia, M., Dewar, M., Cowan, N., Provinciali, L., & Della Sala, S. (2010). A longitudinal study on the effects of minimal interference in aMCI and AD.  Neurological Sciences, 31, suppl: S88-89.
  • Pesallaccia, M., Dewar, M., Cowan, N., Provinciali, L., & Della Sala, S. (2008). The effect of minimal retroactive interference on memory retention in amnestic Mild cognitive impairment and Alzheimer’s disease. Neurological Sciences, 29, suppl: S188.
  • Dewar, M.T., Della Sala, S. & Cowan, N. (2006). Forgetting due to retroactive interference: A fusion of Müller and Pilzecker's (1900) early insights into forgetting and recent research on anterograde amnesia (TENNET). Brain and Cognition, 60, 333-334.

Personal Research Fellowships and Awards

  • Personal Research Fellowship from the Royal Society of Edinburgh and the TSB Lloyds Foundation for Scotland ‘Improving memory in aMCI via minimal interference’, March 2010 – March 2013
  • Personal Research Fellowship from the Alzheimer’s Research Trust (now Alzheimer’s Research UK) ‘Remembering under conditions of reduced interference’, March 2007 – March 2010
  • Selected to participate in Scottish Crucible 2012
  • Selected as a member of the Royal Society of Edinburgh Young Academy of Scotland (2013)

Project Grants

  • Alzheimer’s Society grant - 'Improving memory in amnestic MCI and Alzheimer's Disease via minimal interference', co-applicant: Sergio Della Sala, Oct 2011 – Oct 2014
  • Research into Ageing grant - 'Improving memory in amnestic MCI and Alzheimer's Disease via minimal interference', co-applicant: Sergio Della Sala, Oct 2010 – Oct 2013
  • Epilepsy Research UK grant - ‘Accelerated long-term forgetting in epilepsy: The role of interference’, co-applicants: Christopher Butler, Adam Zeman and Sergio Della Sala, Oct 2010 – Oct 2013

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