Education
- University of Guelph, Guelph, ON, September 2018 – June 2022
- Doctor of Philosophy, Neuroscience and Applied Cognitive Science stream with a Collaborative Neuroscience option.
- Thesis: Completed at the Visual Cognitive Neuroscience Lab under the supervision of Dr. Naseem Al-Aidroos. Topic: Attentional control setting representations and the memory systems that support them.
- Practicum: Completed at the Memory and Perception Lab at the University of Toronto under the supervision of Dr. Morgan Barense. Topic: can we use attentional control settings to answer questions about reconsolidation?
University of Guelph, Guelph, ON, September 2016 – August 2018
- Master of Science, Neuroscience and Applied Cognitive Science stream with a Collaborative Neuroscience option.
- Thesis: Completed at the Visual Cognitive Neuroscience Lab under the supervision of Dr. Naseem Al-Aidroos. Topic: No role for activated long-term memory in attentional control settings.
- Practicum: Completed at the Guelph Memory and Cognition Lab under the supervision of Dr. Chris Fiacconi. Topic: the impact of context on attentional control settings.
Wilfrid Laurier University, Waterloo, ON, September 2011 – April 2015
- Bachelor of Arts, Honours Psychology Research Specialist with minors in Biology and French.
- Graduated “With High Distinction”, with a GPA of 11.78 / 12.0.
- Thesis: Completed at the Cognitive Neuroscience of Cognition Lab under the supervision of Dr. Jeffery Jones. Topic: Vocal motor control and musical context.
Publications
- Plater, L., Giammarco, M., Joubran, S., & Al-Aidroos, N. (Submitted). Control over capture within 170 ms by long-term memory control settings: Evidence from the N2pc. Journal of Experimental Psychology:
Human Perception and Performance. - Plater, L., Valecha, A., Gupta, R., Pratt, J., & Al-Aidroos, N. (In prep). Attentional control settings and emotion.
- Plater, L., Nyman, S., Joubran, S., & Al-Aidroos, N. (2022). Repetition enhances the effects of activated long-term memory. Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology. https://doi.org/10.1177/17470218221095755
- Plater, L., Dube, B., Giammarco, M., Donaldson, K., Miller, K., & Al-Aidroos, N. (2022). Revisiting the role of visual working memory in attentional control settings. Visual Cognition.
https://doi.org/10.1080/13506285.2022.2044949 - Giammarco, M., Plater, L., Hryciw, J., & Al-Aidroos, N. (2021). Getting it right from the start: Attentional control settings without a history of target selection. Attention,
Perception, & Psychophysics, 83, 133-141. https://doi.org/10.3758/s13414-020-02193-x - Plater, L., Giammarco, M., Fiacconi, C., & Al-Aidroos, N. (2020). No role for activated long-term memory in attentional control settings. Journal of Experimental Psychology: General. 149(2), 209-221. https://doi.org/10.1037/xge0000642
- Segal, D., Plater, L., Fiacconi, C., & Al-Aidroos, N. (2019). The flexibility of episodic long-term memory-
guided attention and the impact of reinstating context. Studies by Undergraduate Researchers at
Guelph, 11. https://doi.org/10.21083/surg.v11i0.5357
Conference Talks
- Plater, L., Valecha, A., Gupta, R., & Al-Aidroos, N. (June 2021). The interaction of attentional control settings and emotion. Presented at the 30th annual meeting of the Canadian Society for Brain, Behaviour, and Cognitive Science (virtual). *See the YouTube talk here!
- Plater, L., Dube, B., Giammarco, M., Donaldson, M., Miller, K., & Al-Aidroos, N. (June 2021). Attentional
control settings and visual working memory. Presented at the 2nd annual Virtual Working Memory
Symposium (virtual). *See the YouTube talk here! - Plater, L., Gupta, R., & Al-Aidroos, N. (May 2021). The interaction between attention and emotion. Presented at the 14th annual meeting of Neuroscience Research Day, University of Guelph, ON (virtual).
- Plater, L. & Al-Aidroos, N. (April 2021). Where’s Waldo? How attention and memory work together to find what we are searching for. Presented at the 2nd annual Interdisciplinary Psychology Graduate Symposium, Guelph, ON (virtual).
- Plater, L. & Al-Aidroos, N. (August 2020). Where’s Waldo? How attention and memory work together to find what we are searching for. Presented at the 1st Graduate Students’ Association’s Virtual Graduate Student Conference, University of Guelph, ON (virtual). *Won second place presentation award.
- Plater, L., Dube, B., Giammarco, M., Donaldson, K., Miller, K., & Al-Aidroos, N. (July 2020). Visual working memory can maintain only one attentional control setting. Presented at the 13th annual meeting of Neuroscience Research Day, University of Guelph, ON (virtual).
- Plater, L. (April 2019). What to do if p > 0.05; A Bayesian statistics workshop. Presented at the 1st annual Interdisciplinary Psychology Graduate Symposium, Guelph, ON.
- Plater, L. & Al-Aidroos, N. (July 2018). Controlling capture: No role for activated long-term memory. Presented at the 22nd annual meeting of the Canadian Society for Brain, Behaviour and Cognitive Science, St. John’s, NL.
Conference Posters
- Plater, L., Al-Aidroos, N., & Barense, M. (November 2021). An online attention task may be useful to answer questions about long-term memory reconsolidation. Presented at the 29th annual meeting of Object, Perception, visual Attention, and visual Memory (virtual).
- Joubran, S., Szostok, L., Plater, L., & Al-Aidroos, N. (November 2021). Testing the attentional dwelling account: Latent capture or oculomotor capture? Presented at the 29th annual meeting of Object,
Perception, visual Attention, and visual Memory (virtual). - Plater, L., Moya, A., Joubran, S., & Al-Aidroos, N. (May 2021). Visual working memory and long-term memory attentional control settings; Can we maintain both simultaneously? Presented at the 21st annual meeting of the Vision Sciences Society (virtual). *See the YouTube walk-through here!
- Moya, A., Plater, L., & Al-Aidroos, N. (May 2021). Observers can simultaneously use visual working memory and long-term memory to guide attention. Presented at the 14th annual meeting of Neuroscience Research Day, University of Guelph, ON (virtual).
- Plater, L., Rachael V., & Al-Aidroos, N. (November 2020). Maintaining a large long-term memory attentional control set comes with a cost. Presented at the 28th annual meeting of Object, Perception, visual Attention, and visual Memory (virtual).
- Plater, L., Dube, B., Giammarco, M., Donaldson, K., Miller, K., & Al-Aidroos, N. (June 2020). Goals matter: Only searched-for visual working memory representations form an attentional control set. Presented at the 20th annual meeting of the Vision Sciences Society (virtual).
- Plater, L., Segal, D., Fiacconi, C., & Al-Aidroos, N. (November 2019). Context does not enhance memory-guided attentional capture. Presented at the 27th annual meeting of Object Perception, visual Attention, and visual Memory (OPAM), Montréal, QC.
- Plater, L., Giammarco, M., Fiacconi, C., & Al-Aidroos, N. (June 2019). Attentional control settings are not accomplished through activated long-term memory. Presented at the 23rd annual meeting of the Canadian Society for Brain, Behaviour and Cognitive Science, Waterloo, ON.
- Plater, L., Valecha, A., Gupta, R., Pratt, J., & Al-Aidroos, N. (May 2019). Smile and the world watches: Capture by happy gaze cues outside an attentional control set. Presented at the 19th annual meeting of the Vision Sciences Society, St. Pete Beach, FL.
- Plater, L., Nyman, S., & Al-Aidroos, N. (May 2019). Long-term memory activation: Discrete or continuous? Presented at the 12th annual meeting of Neuroscience Research Day, Guelph, ON.
- Plater, L., Wiens, K., Nyman, S., Valecha, A., & Al-Aidroos, N. (November 2018). Long-term memory consolidation shares cognitive resources with working memory. Presented at the 59th annual meeting of the Psychonomic Society, New Orleans, LA.
- Plater, L. & Al-Aidroos, N. (May 2018). Representation in activated long-term memory is not sufficient to induce an attentional control setting. Presented at the 18th annual meeting of the Vision Sciences Society, St. Pete Beach, FL.
- Plater, L. & Al-Aidroos, N. (February 2018). Representation in activated long-term memory is not sufficient to induce an attentional control setting. Presented at the 27th annual meeting of the Lake Ontario Visionary Establishment, Niagara Falls, ON.
- Plater, L., Infante, E., & Al-Aidroos, N. (November 2017). Executive function may be required for long-term memory consolidation. Presented at the 58th annual meeting of the Psychonomic Society, Vancouver, BC.
- Plater, L., Giammarco, M., & Al-Aidroos, N. (May 2017). Attentional control settings are stored in activated long-term memory. Presented at the 17th annual meeting of the Vision Sciences Society, St. Pete Beach, FL.
- Plater, L., Giammarco, M., & Al-Aidroos, N. (May 2017). Attentional control settings are stored in activated long-term memory. Presented at the 10th annual meeting of Neuroscience Research Day, Guelph, ON.
- Plater, L., Zaki-Azat, J., Scheerer, N. E., & Jones, J. A. (November 2016). Vocal control when singing a single note is not the same as when singing a musical phrase. Presented at the 57th annual meeting of the Psychonomic Society, Boston, MA.
- Plater, L., Zaki-Azat, J., Scheerer, N. E., & Jones, J. A. (May 2015).Music on the brain: Does musical context influence vocal control? Presented at the 35th annual meeting of the Southern Ontario Neuroscience Association, Hamilton, ON.
- Plater, L. & Jones, J. A. (March 2015). Music on the brain: Does musical context influence vocal control?Presented at the Wilfrid Laurier University Department of Psychology Honours Thesis Poster Conference, Waterloo, ON.
Teaching
- PSYC*3270, Cognitive Neuroscience, Fall 2020 (153 students)
- PSYC*3270, Cognitive Neuroscience, Fall 2019 (160 students)
Graduate Teaching Assistantships
- PSYC*2650, Cognitive Psychology with Dr. Naseem Al-Aidroos, January 2022 – April 2022
- PSYC*3270, Cognitive Neuroscience with Dr. Naseem Al-Aidroos, September 2021 – December 2021
- PSYC*4750, Seminar in Motivation & Emotion with Elizabeth Clancy, January 2021 – April 2021
- PSYC*6810, Neuropsychology with Dr. Kristen Kaploun (graduate course), January 2020 – April 2020
- PSYC*1010, Making Sense of Data in Psychological Research with Dr. Lana Trick, January 2019 – April 2019
- PSYC*3290, Conducting Statistical Analyses in Psychology with Dr. Chris Fiacconi (seminar placement), September 2018-December 2018
- PSYC*2360, Psychological Methods and Statistics with Dr. Carol-Anne Hendry (seminar placement), January 2018 – April 2018
- PSYC*1500, Foundational Skills for Psychology with Dr. Paula Barata (seminar placement), January 2018 – April 2018
- PSYC*6940 Discrete Variable Research Design and Statistics with Dr. Naseem Al-Aidroos (graduate course), September 2017 – December 2017
- PSYC*1010 Making Sense of Data in Psychological Research with Dr. Harvey Marmurek, September 2017 – December 2017
- PSYC*2740 Personality with Dr. Stephen Lewis, January 2017 – April 2017
- PSYC*2390 Principles of Sensation and Perception with Dr. Lana Trick, September 2016 – December 2016
ResEarch
- Graduate student researcher, cognitive neuroscience, at University of Guelph under the supervision of Dr. Al-Aidroos; September 2016 – present
- Research Assistant, Cognition, at Wilfrid Laurier University under the supervision of Dr. Hockley; August 2015 – February 2016
- Programmed an EyeTracker experiment using EyeLink II
- Research Assistant, Cognitive Neuroscience, at Wilfrid Laurier University under the supervision of Dr. Jones; May 2014 – August 2014
- Funded by NSERC (USRA) and the Faculty of Science Students’ Association “Type A” scholarship
- Administrative duties: conducted literature searches, obtained ethics approval, created questionnaires for new experiments, edited papers
- Research Assistant, Social Psychology, at Wilfrid Laurier University under the supervision of Dr. Sadler; April 2014 – September 2014; July 2013 – September 2013; November 2012 – February 2013
- Three work terms; two for coding videos on dominance / friendliness, one for data analysis using SPSS
- Research Assistant, Cognitive Neuroscience, at Wilfrid Laurier University under the supervision of Dr. Jones; May 2013 – August 2013
- Funded by NSERC (USRA)
- Analysed vocal data using SPSS, PRAAT, Audacity, and MatLab
- Conducted electroencephalography (EEG) studies, cleaned EEG equipment
OTHER CONFERENCE / EVENT PARTICIPATION
- Mental Wellness Workshop, attendee (virtual – March 2021)
- Visual Working Memory Symposium, attendee (virtual – May 2020)
- International Women’s Day Symposium, attendee (University of Guelph, Guelph, ON – March 2020)
- Graduate Student Mental Health Conference, attendee (University of Guelph, Guelph, ON – January 2019)
- Mental Health Conference, attendee (University of Guelph, Guelph, ON – March 2018)
- Graduate Student Mental Health Conference, attendee (University of Guelph, Guelph, ON – January 2018)
- Mental Wellness Workshop, attendee (University of Guelph, Guelph, ON – May 2017)
- Suicide Awareness and Prevention Banquet, attendee (University of Guelph, Guelph, ON – March 2017)
- PS499 thesis proposal presentation, invited presenter (Wilfrid Laurier University, Waterloo, ON – November 2015)
- CASE ASAP District 2 Leadership Conference, attendee (Ithaca College, Ithaca, NY – February 2015)
- Laurier Leadership Summit, attendee (Wilfrid Laurier University, Waterloo, ON – January 2015)
- Canadian Society for Brain, Behaviour, and Cognitive Science 24th annual meeting, attendee (Ryerson University, Toronto, ON – June 2014)
- Brain Awareness Week, attendee (Wilfrid Laurier University, Waterloo, ON – March 2014)
- CASE ASAP District 2 Leadership Conference, attendee (Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Troy, NY – March 2013)
- Laurier Leadership Summit, speaker and attendee (Wilfrid Laurier University, Waterloo, ON – January 2013)
- Laurier Leadership Summit, attendee (Wilfrid Laurier University, Waterloo, ON – January 2012)
Volunteering / Clubs and Associations
Graduate Involvement
- Psychology Graduate Student Association, September 2016 – present
- Executive Member
- The PGSA hosts various social events for graduate students in the Psychology Department to increase collaboration and social support
- I personally spearheaded the PGSA’s funding application (through the Student Life Enhancement Fund) for this year’s events, and secured $1000 for student initiatives
- Graduate Representative (M.Sc.) for the NACS Program, May 2017 – May 2020
- I attended meetings with the NACS faculty to represent students within our program, and I disseminated information from these meetings back to the students
- Graduate Student Association, May 2017 – April 2020
- Vice President External
- I worked with and for the graduate students to make sure they were represented on and off campus. As VP External, I co-chaired the Transit Committee and maintained connections with senior administration at the University of Guelph, the City of Guelph, and the Canadian Federation of Students
- Graduate Student Association, September 2016 – April 2017
- Board of Directors; I was one of two Psychology General Directors
- Code of Ethical Conduct Committee Advisory Committee member
- Academic Policy and Procedures Sub-committee member (a branch of the Advisory Committee on Student Mental Health and Wellness)
Awards & Recognitions
Graduate Awards
- Graduate Students’ Association’s Virtual Graduate Student Conference 2nd place presentation award, August 2020
- Alexander Graham Bell Canada Graduate Scholarship (NSERC’s CGS-D), September 2018 – August 2021
- Awarded to top-ranked students who demonstrate high levels of academic achievement and research potential.
- Dean’s Tri-Council Top-Up, September 2018 – August 2021
- Awarded to students who secure Tri-Council funding
- [declined] Queen Elizabeth II Graduate Scholarship in Science and Technology (QEII-GSST), September 2018 – August 2019
- Queen Elizabeth II Graduate Scholarship in Science and Technology (QEII-GSST), September 2017 – August 2018
- Awarded to students who demonstrate academic excellence, this is a specialized Ontario Graduate Student award; the university was allocated 134 Canadian OGS awards this year.
- Alexander Graham Bell Canada Graduate Scholarship (NSERC’s CGS-M), September 2016 – August 2017
- Awarded to students who demonstrate high levels of academic achievement and research potential; the university was allocated 19 NSERC CGS-M awards this year.
- Dean’s Tri-Council Top-Up, September 2016 – August 2017
- Awarded to students who secure Tri-Council funding
- [declined; Wilfrid Laurier University] Alexander Graham Bell Canada Graduate Scholarship (NSERC’s CGS-M), September 2016 – August 2017
Undergraduate Awards
- Canadian Psychological Association’s Certificate of Academic Excellence, November 2015
- Up to 5 awards presented per year per school; nominated based on excellence in thesis work
- Dean’s Honour Roll / Entrance Scholarship, 2011 – 2015
- GPA of 10.0 / 12.0 or higher
- Queen Elizabeth II (Aiming for the Top) Scholarship, 2011 – 2015
- One of the highest high-school GPAs, ongoing high average
- Department of Psychology Scholarship Fund, January 2015
- Outstanding academic achievement; highest GPA in the department by end of 3rd year
- Michael Levesque Memorial Award for Psychology Research Specialist Program, January 2015
- One of the highest cumulative GPAs in required Psychology courses, and intent to pursue graduate studies
- Student Alumni Association’s Member of the Month Award, January 2015
- Dedication and volunteerism with the Student Alumni Association
- NSERC Undergraduate Student Research Award, May – August 2014
- 1 of 3 for the Psychology department. Allowed me to work in the Centre for Cognitive Neuroscience under the supervision of Dr. Jeffery Jones
- Faculty of Science Students’ Association “Type A” Scholarship, May – August 2014
- Allowed me to work in the Centre for Cognitive Neuroscience under the supervision of Dr. Jeffery Jones
- Laurier Student Alumni Prize, July 2014
- Involvement with the Student Alumni Association / Laurier Student Alumni
- John Gellner Award, June 2014
- Significant contribution to the Student Alumni Association
- Tom Berczi Campus Citizenship Award, March 2014
- 1 of 6 (I was granted the award for the Faculty of Science). Good academic standing, significant volunteerism
- Executive of the Year, Peer Help Line Internal, March 2014
- Student Union’s year-end award based on dedication to a service on campus
- NSERC Undergraduate Student Research Award, May – August 2013
- 1 of 9 for the Psychology department. Allowed me to work in the Centre for Cognitive Neuroscience under the supervision of Dr. Jeffery Jones
- Academic Achievement Award, King Street Residence, April 2012
- 1 of 2. Academic prowess and time management abilities