Education

Ph.D. (2002) Psychology Brain, Behavior and Cognition Washington University

Research Interests

My early research examined neural mechanisms of sensory-based recollections. I have also become interested in understanding how memory operates under varying demands on attention, and how we arrive at decisions that are based on our memories and perceptions. The lab has been studying perceptual decision making in order to identify neural signals related to different stages of the decision process. We have recently been building from our early research in this area to study how memory, attention, and decision-making abilities change in healthy aging. We use psychophysical, modeling, and brain imaging approaches to study these topics. Recently, our research has been funded by the Alzheimer’s Association, the National Institute of Mental Health, and the National Science Foundation.

Selected Publications

• Tremel, J. J. and Wheeler, M. E. (2015). Content-specific evidence accumulation in inferior temporal cortex during perceptual decision-making. NeuroImage, 109, 35-49. 
• Wheeler, M. E., Woo, S. G., Ansel, T., Collier, A. L., Tremel, J. J., Velanova, K., Ploran, E. J., and Yang, T. (2015). The strength of gradually accruing probabilistic evidence modulates brain activity during a categorical decision. Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience, 27, 705-719.
• Wilckens, K. A. *, Woo, S. G., Kirk, A., Erickson, K. I., and Wheeler, M. E. (2014). The role of sleep continuity and total sleep time in executive function across the adult lifespan. Psychology and Aging, 29(3), 658-665.
• Dunovan, K. E. *, Tremel, J. J., and Wheeler, M. E. (2014). Prior probability and feature predictability interactively bias perceptual decisions. Neuropsychologia, 61, 210-221.
• Wilckens, K. A. *, Woo, S. G., Erickson, K. I., and Wheeler, M. E. (2014). Sleep continuity and total sleep time are associated with task-switching and preparation in young and older adults. Journal of Sleep Research, 23, 508-516.
• Gallo, D. A. and Wheeler, M. E. (2013). Episodic Memory. In D. Reisberg (Ed.), Oxford Handbook of Cognitive Psychology. Oxford University Press, New York.