Elizabeth M. Siefert

Arousal state modulates human hippocampal ripples

Mon, 21 Sep 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Memory reactivation during sleep does not act holisitically on object memory

Wed, 12 Jun 2024 00:00:00 +0000

Pupil size tracks cue-trace interactions during episodic memory retrieval

Sat, 12 Aug 2023 00:00:00 +0000

Patterns across video game players in character preferences

Mon, 02 Jan 2023 00:00:00 +0000

My brain in the palm of my hand

Thu, 15 Dec 2022 00:00:00 +0000

Memory errors in behavior, brains, and machines

Sat, 10 Dec 2022 00:00:00 +0000

My Role: As part of my PhD work I designed and programmed the experiments, helped secure grant funding, created the stimuli, collected online data online, wrangled/analyzed data in R, and developed neuroimaging analysis pipelines.

Summary: Information differs in how generalizable or specific it is across experiences. For example, as we encounter birds we can learn that there are shared features that link them together (birds can fly and lay eggs). But we can also learn that there are unique features that set them apart (flamingos are pink and have long legs). We tested whether or not people misremember information differently depending on whether or not it is shared or unique.

In short, to do this, we developed online memory games where participants memorized the colors of cartoon satellite categories. We then tested how people’s memory for colors were distorted based on whether or not that satellite part was shared or unique across satellites. We used color because it gives us a tightly-controlled and accessible way to measure how memories are being distorted. We hypothesized that if a part was shared across satellites people might misremember its color as being more similar to the color of the other satellites, a kind of with this blending of colors reflecting a memory error.

In humans, we find that memory biases are strongest for information that is shared across experiences (shared features). In a neural network model trained on the same satellites, we find a strikingly similar effect where the model’s internal hidden layer representations are also distorting shared features the most.

This shows that both humans and neural network models—both of which are remarkable at learning patterns—show memory errors that emerge from learning these patterns. This makes sense! If we learn that certain things in the world are related, in our mind we might represent those things similarly, making it more likely we will mix up the details . I have recently run research to look at these errors but in human brain by having people play the same memory games, but while lying inside an MRI scanner.

I was fortunate to have the opportunity to present this work as a talk at Neuroscience '22 in San Diego, one of the biggest science conferences in the world.

I also presented a neuroimaging (fMRI) version of this research at an international conference, Cognitive Neuroscience Society, in Toronto, Canada.

Impacts of indoor air quality on cognitive performance

Sun, 27 Nov 2022 00:00:00 +0000

My Role: I developed, programmed, and administered 6 cognitive tasks that provide different snapshots of human cognition (e.g. attention, memory, decision-making, etc.). I worked closely with engineers and chemists to design these experiments according to their constraints while also advocating to them for human/user psychology (and how cognition works more broadly).

Summary: Poor air quality is related to many health issues. But usually air quality has been studied outdoors and these harmful effects emerge across years. Because we spend so much time inside (such as at work), we were interested in how everyday exposure to air pollutants indoors negatively impact cognitive performance in real-time.

With a cross-functional team of engineers, chemists, psychologists, and neuroscientists, we conducted systematic literature reviews and also collected in-lab experimental evidence to test how indoor air quality impacts cognition. In lab, we carefully manipulated air quality while participants were performing different cognitive tasks that I designed. We found evidence that both CO2 and lemon essential oils (from a diffuser) have detrimental effects on decision-making. Our work has been cited by engineers, psychologists, educators, and architects. As it shows why ventilation is critical for building design, such as in workplaces, schools, and this is something studied too in high-stakes environment (like submarines and spaceships), as decision-making may otherwise be impaired.

I also presented earlier versions of this work at a XSEED conference (Toronto, Canada), a conference meant for students to present work that tackles complex, multidisciplinary challenges.

When is the best time to learn?

Thu, 27 Oct 2022 00:00:00 +0000

My role: As part of my Master’s thesis, I wrangled, analyzed, and visualized data from 7 experiments. I also wrote up the paper and made the figures.

Summary: It is one thing to remember information. But it is another to take what you learn and transfer it to new scenarios, such as applying a math concept to solve a new problem or improvising in live jazz. Because of known differences in brain activity throughout the day, I was interested in how time of day affects this ability to learn and generalize information. Across 7 experiments, I brought in 331 undergraduates into the lab either in the morning (8am) or evening (8pm) and had them learn new concepts, in which they had to later generalize what they learned to new scenarios. I found that people generalized much better in the morning than in the evening. This is consistent with neuroscientific findings showing that the brains has reduced inhibitory control in the morning. I speculate that this state of low inhibition can help people flexibly transfer what they learn to new scenarios (generalize) because of more spreading activation across memories, facilitating the ability to connect the dots and see new patterns.

Welcome to Wowchemy, the website builder for Hugo

Sun, 13 Dec 2020 00:00:00 +0000

import libr
print('hello')

Overview

The Wowchemy website builder for Hugo, along with its starter templates, is designed for professional creators, educators, and teams/organizations - although it can be used to create any kind of site
The template can be modified and customised to suit your needs. It’s a good platform for anyone looking to take control of their data and online identity whilst having the convenience to start off with a no-code solution (write in Markdown and customize with YAML parameters) and having flexibility to later add even deeper personalization with HTML and CSS
You can work with all your favourite tools and apps with hundreds of plugins and integrations to speed up your workflows, interact with your readers, and much more

Get Started

👉 Create a new site
📚 Personalize your site
💬 Chat with the Wowchemy community or Hugo community
🐦 Twitter: @wowchemy @GeorgeCushen #MadeWithWowchemy
💡 Request a feature or report a bug for Wowchemy
⬆️ Updating Wowchemy? View the Update Tutorial and Release Notes

Crowd-funded open-source software

To help us develop this template and software sustainably under the MIT license, we ask all individuals and businesses that use it to help support its ongoing maintenance and development via sponsorship.

As a token of appreciation for sponsoring, you can unlock these awesome rewards and extra features 🦄✨

Ecosystem

Hugo Academic CLI: Automatically import publications from BibTeX

Inspiration

Check out the latest demo of what you’ll get in less than 10 minutes, or view the showcase of personal, project, and business sites.

Features

Page builder - Create anything with widgets and elements
Edit any type of content - Blog posts, publications, talks, slides, projects, and more!
Create content in Markdown, Jupyter, or RStudio
Plugin System - Fully customizable color and font themes
Display Code and Math - Code highlighting and LaTeX math supported
Integrations - Google Analytics, Disqus commenting, Maps, Contact Forms, and more!
Beautiful Site - Simple and refreshing one page design
Industry-Leading SEO - Help get your website found on search engines and social media
Media Galleries - Display your images and videos with captions in a customizable gallery
Mobile Friendly - Look amazing on every screen with a mobile friendly version of your site
Multi-language - 34+ language packs including English, 中文, and Português
Multi-user - Each author gets their own profile page
Privacy Pack - Assists with GDPR
Stand Out - Bring your site to life with animation, parallax backgrounds, and scroll effects
One-Click Deployment - No servers. No databases. Only files.

Themes

Wowchemy and its templates come with automatic day (light) and night (dark) mode built-in. Alternatively, visitors can choose their preferred mode - click the moon icon in the top right of the Demo to see it in action! Day/night mode can also be disabled by the site admin in params.toml.

Choose a stunning theme and font for your site. Themes are fully customizable.

License

Released under the MIT license.

Writing technical content in Markdown

Fri, 12 Jul 2019 00:00:00 +0000

Wowchemy is designed to give technical content creators a seamless experience. You can focus on the content and Wowchemy handles the rest.

Highlight your code snippets, take notes on math classes, and draw diagrams from textual representation.

On this page, you’ll find some examples of the types of technical content that can be rendered with Wowchemy.

Examples

Code

Wowchemy supports a Markdown extension for highlighting code syntax. You can customize the styles under the syntax_highlighter option in your config/_default/params.yaml file.

```python
import pandas as pd
data = pd.read_csv("data.csv")
data.head()
```

renders as

import pandas as pd
data = pd.read_csv("data.csv")
data.head()

Mindmaps

Wowchemy supports a Markdown extension for mindmaps.

Simply insert a Markdown markmap code block and optionally set the height of the mindmap as shown in the example below.

A simple mindmap defined as a Markdown list:


```markmap {height="200px"}
- Hugo Modules
- wowchemy
- wowchemy-plugins-netlify
- wowchemy-plugins-netlify-cms
- wowchemy-plugins-reveal
```

renders as

- Hugo Modules
- wowchemy
- wowchemy-plugins-netlify
- wowchemy-plugins-netlify-cms
- wowchemy-plugins-reveal

A more advanced mindmap with formatting, code blocks, and math:


```markmap
- Mindmaps
- Links
- [Wowchemy Docs](https://wowchemy.com/docs/)
- [Discord Community](https://discord.gg/z8wNYzb)
- [GitHub](https://github.com/wowchemy/wowchemy-hugo-themes)
- Features
- Markdown formatting
- **inline** ~~text~~ *styles*
- multiline
text
- `inline code`
-
```js
console.log('hello');
console.log('code block');
```
- Math: $x = {-b \pm \sqrt{b^2-4ac} \over 2a}$
```

renders as

- Mindmaps
- Links
- [Wowchemy Docs](https://wowchemy.com/docs/)
- [Discord Community](https://discord.gg/z8wNYzb)
- [GitHub](https://github.com/wowchemy/wowchemy-hugo-themes)
- Features
- Markdown formatting
- **inline** ~~text~~ *styles*
- multiline
text
- `inline code`
-
```js
console.log('hello');
console.log('code block');
```
- Math: $x = {-b \pm \sqrt{b^2-4ac} \over 2a}$

Charts

Wowchemy supports the popular Plotly format for interactive charts.

Save your Plotly JSON in your page folder, for example line-chart.json, and then add the {{< chart data="line-chart" >}} shortcode where you would like the chart to appear.

Demo:

You might also find the Plotly JSON Editor useful.

Math

Wowchemy supports a Markdown extension for $\LaTeX$ math. You can enable this feature by toggling the math option in your config/_default/params.yaml file.

To render inline or block math, wrap your LaTeX math with {{< math >}}$...${{< /math >}} or {{< math >}}$$...$${{< /math >}}, respectively. (We wrap the LaTeX math in the Wowchemy math shortcode to prevent Hugo rendering our math as Markdown. The math shortcode is new in v5.5-dev.)

Example math block:

{{< math >}}
$$
\gamma_{n} = \frac{ \left | \left (\mathbf x_{n} - \mathbf x_{n-1} \right )^T \left [\nabla F (\mathbf x_{n}) - \nabla F (\mathbf x_{n-1}) \right ] \right |}{\left \|\nabla F(\mathbf{x}_{n}) - \nabla F(\mathbf{x}_{n-1}) \right \|^2}
$$
{{< /math >}}

renders as

$$\gamma_{n} = \frac{ \left | \left (\mathbf x_{n} - \mathbf x_{n-1} \right )^T \left [\nabla F (\mathbf x_{n}) - \nabla F (\mathbf x_{n-1}) \right ] \right |}{\left \|\nabla F(\mathbf{x}_{n}) - \nabla F(\mathbf{x}_{n-1}) \right \|^2}$$

Example inline math {{< math >}}$\nabla F(\mathbf{x}_{n})${{< /math >}} renders as $\nabla F(\mathbf{x}_{n})$.

Example multi-line math using the math linebreak (\\):

{{< math >}}
$$f(k;p_{0}^{*}) = \begin{cases}p_{0}^{*} & \text{if }k=1, \\
1-p_{0}^{*} & \text{if }k=0.\end{cases}$$
{{< /math >}}

renders as

$$ f(k;p_{0}^{*}) = \begin{cases}p_{0}^{*} & \text{if }k=1, \\ 1-p_{0}^{*} & \text{if }k=0.\end{cases} $$

Diagrams

Wowchemy supports a Markdown extension for diagrams. You can enable this feature by toggling the diagram option in your config/_default/params.toml file or by adding diagram: true to your page front matter.

An example flowchart:

```mermaid
graph TD
A[Hard] -->|Text| B(Round)
B --> C{Decision}
C -->|One| D[Result 1]
C -->|Two| E[Result 2]
```

renders as

graph TD A[Hard] -->|Text| B(Round) B --> C{Decision} C -->|One| D[Result 1] C -->|Two| E[Result 2]

An example sequence diagram:

```mermaid
sequenceDiagram
Alice->>John: Hello John, how are you?
loop Healthcheck
John->>John: Fight against hypochondria
end
Note right of John: Rational thoughts!
John-->>Alice: Great!
John->>Bob: How about you?
Bob-->>John: Jolly good!
```

renders as

sequenceDiagram Alice->>John: Hello John, how are you? loop Healthcheck John->>John: Fight against hypochondria end Note right of John: Rational thoughts! John-->>Alice: Great! John->>Bob: How about you? Bob-->>John: Jolly good!

An example Gantt diagram:

```mermaid
gantt
section Section
Completed :done, des1, 2014-01-06,2014-01-08
Active :active, des2, 2014-01-07, 3d
Parallel 1 : des3, after des1, 1d
Parallel 2 : des4, after des1, 1d
Parallel 3 : des5, after des3, 1d
Parallel 4 : des6, after des4, 1d
```

renders as

gantt section Section Completed :done, des1, 2014-01-06,2014-01-08 Active :active, des2, 2014-01-07, 3d Parallel 1 : des3, after des1, 1d Parallel 2 : des4, after des1, 1d Parallel 3 : des5, after des3, 1d Parallel 4 : des6, after des4, 1d

An example class diagram:

```mermaid
classDiagram
Class01 <|-- AveryLongClass : Cool
Class03 *-- Class04
Class05 o-- Class06
Class07 .. Class08
Class09 --> C2 : Where am i?
Class09 --* C3
Class09 --|> Class07
Class07 : equals()
Class07 : Object[] elementData
Class01 : size()
Class01 : int chimp
Class01 : int gorilla
Class08 <--> C2: Cool label
```

renders as

classDiagram Class01 <|-- AveryLongClass : Cool Class03 *-- Class04 Class05 o-- Class06 Class07 .. Class08 Class09 --> C2 : Where am i? Class09 --* C3 Class09 --|> Class07 Class07 : equals() Class07 : Object[] elementData Class01 : size() Class01 : int chimp Class01 : int gorilla Class08 <--> C2: Cool label

An example state diagram:

```mermaid
stateDiagram
[*] --> Still
Still --> [*]
Still --> Moving
Moving --> Still
Moving --> Crash
Crash --> [*]
```

renders as

stateDiagram [*] --> Still Still --> [*] Still --> Moving Moving --> Still Moving --> Crash Crash --> [*]

Todo lists

You can even write your todo lists in Markdown too:

- [x] Write math example
 - [x] Write diagram example
- [ ] Do something else

renders as

Write math example
- Write diagram example
Do something else

Tables

Save your spreadsheet as a CSV file in your page’s folder and then render it by adding the Table shortcode to your page:

{{< table path="results.csv" header="true" caption="Table 1: My results" >}}

renders as

Table 1: My results
customer_id	score
1	0
2	0.5
3	1

Callouts

Academic supports a shortcode for callouts, also referred to as asides, hints, or alerts. By wrapping a paragraph in {{% callout note %}} ... {{% /callout %}}, it will render as an aside.

{{% callout note %}}
A Markdown aside is useful for displaying notices, hints, or definitions to your readers.
{{% /callout %}}

renders as

A Markdown aside is useful for displaying notices, hints, or definitions to your readers.

Spoilers

Add a spoiler to a page to reveal text, such as an answer to a question, after a button is clicked.

{{< spoiler text="Click to view the spoiler" >}}
You found me!
{{< /spoiler >}}

renders as

Click to view the spoiler

You found me!

Icons

Academic enables you to use a wide range of icons from Font Awesome and Academicons in addition to emojis.

Here are some examples using the icon shortcode to render icons:

{{< icon name="terminal" pack="fas" >}} Terminal
{{< icon name="python" pack="fab" >}} Python
{{< icon name="r-project" pack="fab" >}} R

renders as

Terminal
Python
R

Display Jupyter Notebooks with Academic

Tue, 05 Feb 2019 00:00:00 +0000

from IPython.core.display import Image
Image('https://www.python.org/static/community_logos/python-logo-master-v3-TM-flattened.png')

print("Welcome to Academic!")

Welcome to Academic!

Install Python and JupyterLab

Install Anaconda which includes Python 3 and JupyterLab.

Alternatively, install JupyterLab with pip3 install jupyterlab.

Create or upload a Jupyter notebook

Run the following commands in your Terminal, substituting <MY-WEBSITE-FOLDER> and <SHORT-POST-TITLE> with the file path to your Academic website folder and a short title for your blog post (use hyphens instead of spaces), respectively:

mkdir -p <MY-WEBSITE-FOLDER>/content/post/<SHORT-POST-TITLE>/
cd <MY-WEBSITE-FOLDER>/content/post/<SHORT-POST-TITLE>/
jupyter lab index.ipynb

The jupyter command above will launch the JupyterLab editor, allowing us to add Academic metadata and write the content.

Edit your post metadata

The first cell of your Jupter notebook will contain your post metadata (front matter).

In Jupter, choose Markdown as the type of the first cell and wrap your Academic metadata in three dashes, indicating that it is YAML front matter:

---
title: My post's title
date: 2019-09-01

# Put any other Academic metadata here...
---

Edit the metadata of your post, using the documentation as a guide to the available options.

To set a featured image, place an image named featured into your post’s folder.

For other tips, such as using math, see the guide on writing content with Academic.

Convert notebook to Markdown

jupyter nbconvert index.ipynb --to markdown --NbConvertApp.output_files_dir=.

Example

This post was created with Jupyter. The orginal files can be found at https://github.com/gcushen/hugo-academic/tree/master/exampleSite/content/post/jupyter

Slides

Tue, 05 Feb 2019 00:00:00 +0000

Create slides in Markdown with Wowchemy

Wowchemy | Documentation

Features

Efficiently write slides in Markdown
3-in-1: Create, Present, and Publish your slides
Supports speaker notes
Mobile friendly slides

Controls

Next: Right Arrow or Space
Previous: Left Arrow
Start: Home
Finish: End
Overview: Esc
Speaker notes: S
Fullscreen: F
Zoom: Alt + Click
PDF Export

Code Highlighting

Inline code: variable

Code block:

porridge = "blueberry"
if porridge == "blueberry":
 print("Eating...")

Math

In-line math: $x + y = z$

Block math:

$$ f\left( x \right) = ;\frac{{2\left( {x + 4} \right)\left( {x - 4} \right)}}{{\left( {x + 4} \right)\left( {x + 1} \right)}} $$

Fragments

Make content appear incrementally

{{% fragment %}} One {{% /fragment %}}
{{% fragment %}} **Two** {{% /fragment %}}
{{% fragment %}} Three {{% /fragment %}}

Press Space to play!

One Two Three

A fragment can accept two optional parameters:

class: use a custom style (requires definition in custom CSS)
weight: sets the order in which a fragment appears

Speaker Notes

Add speaker notes to your presentation

{{% speaker_note %}}

- Only the speaker can read these notes
- Press `S` key to view
 {{% /speaker_note %}}

Press the S key to view the speaker notes!

Themes

black: Black background, white text, blue links (default)
white: White background, black text, blue links
league: Gray background, white text, blue links
beige: Beige background, dark text, brown links
sky: Blue background, thin dark text, blue links

night: Black background, thick white text, orange links
serif: Cappuccino background, gray text, brown links
simple: White background, black text, blue links
solarized: Cream-colored background, dark green text, blue links

Custom Slide

Customize the slide style and background

{{< slide background-image="/media/boards.jpg" >}}
{{< slide background-color="#0000FF" >}}
{{< slide class="my-style" >}}

Custom CSS Example

Let’s make headers navy colored.

Create assets/css/reveal_custom.css with:

.reveal section h1,
.reveal section h2,
.reveal section h3 {
 color: navy;
}

Questions?

Ask

Documentation

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Elizabeth M. Siefert

Arousal state modulates human hippocampal ripples

Memory reactivation during sleep does not act holisitically on object memory

Pupil size tracks cue-trace interactions during episodic memory retrieval

Patterns across video game players in character preferences

My brain in the palm of my hand

Memory errors in behavior, brains, and machines

Impacts of indoor air quality on cognitive performance

When is the best time to learn?

Welcome to Wowchemy, the website builder for Hugo

Overview

Get Started

Crowd-funded open-source software

❤️ Click here to become a sponsor and help support Wowchemy’s future ❤️

Ecosystem

Inspiration

Features

Themes

License

Writing technical content in Markdown

Examples

Code

Mindmaps

Charts

Math

Diagrams

Todo lists

Tables

Callouts

Spoilers

Icons

Did you find this page helpful? Consider sharing it 🙌

Display Jupyter Notebooks with Academic

Install Python and JupyterLab

Create or upload a Jupyter notebook

Edit your post metadata

Convert notebook to Markdown

Example

Slides

Create slides in Markdown with Wowchemy

Features

Controls

Code Highlighting

Math

Fragments

Speaker Notes

Themes

Custom Slide

Custom CSS Example

Questions?