Position Title
Assistant Professor
Kirsten Adam is an Assistant Professor in the Psychology Department and the Center for Mind and Brain. Her work uses neural methods (EEG, fMRI) and behavior to characterize fundamental constraints on visual attention and working memory. Dr. Adam earned a B.S. in Biological Sciences at the University of Notre Dame, an M.S. in Cognitive Neuroscience at the University of Oregon, and a Ph.D. in Cognitive Psychology at the University of Chicago. Following her Ph.D., Dr. Adam spent 5 years as a postdoctoral research fellow at the University of California San Diego.
Research Focus
The visual world around us is beautiful and complex, but our brains have a limited processing capacity. To achieve our goals, we need to select only a subset of information to pay attention to and remember. My lab uses cognitive neuroscience methods (EEG, fMRI) and innovative behavioral measures to address central questions about how we succeed (and fail) at deploying our limited attentional resources. For example, how do we successfully ignore irrelevant information that competes for our limited attention? How can we best detect (and correct) failures of attention that cascade into failures of memory?
- Ph.D., Cognition, University of Chicago
- M.S.., Cognitive Neuroscience, University of Oregon
- B.S., Biological Sciences, University of Notre Dame
- NSF CAREER Award, 2026
- Glushko Dissertation Prize, Cognitive Science Society, 2019
- Attention
- Working Memory
- Cognitive Neuroscience
- Kozlova, O., Adam, K.C.S., & Fukuda, K. (2025). Prospective and retrospective awareness of moment-to-moment fluctuations in visual working memory performance. Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, 154(12), 3307-3330. https://doi.org/10.1037/xge0001850
- Adam, K.C.S., Klatt, L.I., Miller, J.A., Rösner, M., Fukuda, K., & Kiyonaga, A. (2025). Beyond routine maintenance: Current trends in working memory research. Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience, 37(6), 1035-1052. https://doi.org/10.1162/jocn_a_02298
- Adam, K.C.S., Yang, Z., & Serences, J.T. (2024). First encounters: Estimating the initial magnitude of attentional capture. Visual Cognition, 32(9-10), 822-844. https://doi.org/10.1080/13506285.2024.2315806
- Adam, K.C.S., Zhao, C., & Vogel, E.K. (2024). Behavioral signatures of the rapid recruitment of long-term memory to overcome working memory capacity limits. Memory & Cognition, 52, 1816-1832. https://doi.org/10.3758/s13421-024-01566-z
- Adam, K.C.S. & Serences, J.T. (2021). History modulates early sensory processing of salient distractors. Journal of Neuroscience, 41(38), 8007-8022. https://doi.org/10.1523/JNEUROSCI.3099-20.2021
- Adam, K.C.S., Vogel, E.K. & Awh, E. (2020). Multivariate analysis reveals a generalizable human electrophysiological signature of working memory load. Psychophysiology, 57(12), e13691. https://doi.org/10.1111/psyp.13691
- Adam, K.C.S. Vogel, E.K., & Awh, E. (2017). Clear evidence for item limits in visual working memory. Cognitive Psychology, 97, 79-97. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cogpsych.2017.07.001 29
- Adam, K.C.S.*, Mance, I.*, Fukuda, K., & Vogel, E. K. (2015). The contribution of attentional lapses to individual differences in visual working memory capacity. Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience, 27(8), 1601–1616. https://doi.org/10.1162/jocn_a_00811