Jakke Tamminen

Visit the Sleep, Learning, & Memory Lab website for more details about my research.

My current research

My main interest in is the impact of sleep and memory consolidation on learning. I currently , work on projects examining the role of sleep on transforming episodic memory into generalised, semantic memory, using sleep methods such as polysomnography and also fMRI to investigate the neural correlates of generalisation and consolidation. I also supervise a PhD project looking at the impact of sleep on eyewitness memory.

I also run student projects looking at issues surrounding memory consolidation and false memory formation. I have most recently started looking into the role of memory (re)consolidation in the testing effect.

I recently completed a project in collaboration with Vicky Williamson (Sheffield) in which we sought to find out how music affects word learning, integration of novel words in the mental lexicon, and memory consolidation. This work was funded by the British Academy and the EPS.

Past research projects

For the past few years I have explored the role of offline memory consolidation in word learning. I am particularly interested in finding out how and when new words become integrated in the mental lexicon (with Gareth Gaskell at York). I have also attempted to isolate the role sleep plays in this process of memory consolidation, by identifying the neural events during sleep that are associated with word learning (with Penny Lewis and Matt Lambon Ralph at Manchester, Jessica Payne and Robert Stickgold at Harvard, and Gaskell). I have also been involved in work looking at the interaction of word recognition and attention (with Sandie Cleland at Aberdeen, and Philip Quinlan and Gaskell at York).

My research in the media

My work has been featured in BBC Radio 4's Today programme, in the London Evening Standard, in the Daily Telegraph, in The Conversation, in the Independent, in the Daily Mail, in the Harvard Crimson, and a number of science news blogs and web sites.