Kelly Bennion

Assistant Professor | Psychology and Child Development Department

Areas of Expertise

Emotional Memory
Effects of Sleep on Stress and Memory

Contact Information

Pronouns: she/her/hers
805.756.2674
Email
Website

Biography

Kelly Bennion in an assistant professor in the Psychology and Child Development Department. She is interested in the effects of several real-life variables — emotion, stress, motivation, physiological arousal — on memory, as well as understanding how sleep affects memory. As research shows that sleep selectively enhances memory for certain experiences over others, Bennion’s research seeks to explain the factors that may promote successful memory using a combination of behavioral, eye tracking, polysomnography (a type of sleep study), and neuroimaging approaches. 

Education

• Ph.D., Boston College, Psychology (concentration in Cognitive Neuroscience)
• M.A., Boston College, Psychology (concentration in Cognitive Neuroscience)
• Ed.M., Harvard Graduate School of Education, Mind, Brain and Education
• B.A., Middlebury College, Psychology and Spanish

Research Interests

• Factors that promote successful memory
• Effects of real-life variables on memory
• How sleep affects memory