Bachelor Thesis (Psychology)

Investigating Neural Correlates of Long-Term Memory Based Attentional Guidance

Prospective supervisor: Ruhi Bhanap

This bachelor thesis is about investigating how visual attention is guided by different memory systems—working memory (WM) and long-term memory (LTM)—and their underlying neural mechanisms. Attention enables selective focus on relevant information while ignoring distractions. WM supports the maintenance of task-relevant information, whereas LTM stores knowledge and experiences over time.Although both systems influence attention, previous research has primarily focused on WM-based attentional guidance, leaving LTM-based processes less understood. WM-based attention directs focus to features actively maintained in memory (e.g., searching for a red mug), while LTM-based attention relies on prior learning and semantic associations (e.g., expecting coffee near a kettle).Because LTM-based guidance is a result of learning history, semantic knowledge and WM offloading, it is harder to isolate experimentally. The thesis aims to clarify the neural correlates of LTM-based attentional guidance, either by conducting a systematic literature review of relevant studies or by including data collection in an EEG or behavioral experiment comparing WM- and LTM-based attentional processes.

Master Thesis (CAN)

Task Relevant Interaction of Working and Long-Term Memory

Prospective supervisor: Ruhi Bhanap

This master’s thesis investigates the interaction between working memory (WM) and long-term memory (LTM), as well as their underlying neural mechanisms. WM supports the maintenance and manipulation of task-relevant information, whereas LTM stores knowledge and experiences over extended periods.Previous research has extensively examined how these two memory systems interact. For example, LTM can support WM when its capacity is exceeded, and information can be offloaded from WM to LTM to free up resources for other tasks. In this thesis, we aim to explore a different aspect of the WM–LTM relationship: how the nature of a task influences the contribution of LTM to WM. Specifically, we will investigate whether tasks that require more precise representations rely less on LTM, whereas tasks that involve more abstract/semantic representations recruit LTM to a greater extent.

Orientation Judgments in 180° Space — Cardinal Biases and Semantic Modulation

Prospective supervisor: Fabio Bauer

Object orientation can be represented in a full 360° directional space — capturing an object’s canonical upright — or in a reduced 180° space encoding only the axis of elongation irrespective of pointing direction. While human orientation judgments in memory tasks exhibit well-documented cardinal biases (repulsion or attraction toward horizontal and vertical axes), it remains unclear how these biases manifest in axial 180° judgments of real-world objects, and to what extent they are additionally modulated by the objects’ semantic orientation. This thesis will address these questions using behavioral orientation judgments in a working memory task with stimuli from the Bank of Standardized Stimuli (BOSS), balanced across horizontally and vertically elongated objects. Participants will align a probe element to the perceived principal axis of briefly presented objects across the full rotation space, enabling quantification of cardinal bias patterns using circular statistics. Critically, the design will disentangle perceptual sensitivity from response biases introduced by each object’s canonical semantic orientation in 360° space.