Photo of Caitlin Bowman

Caitlin Bowman

  • Assistant Professor, Psychological & Brain Sciences

Education

PhD, The Pennsylvania State University, 2015

Teaching Schedule

Course Num Title Meets
PSYCH 505-401 Cognitive Processes M 4pm-5:15pm
PSYCH 505-801 Cognitive Processes W 4pm-5:15pm

Research Interests

Professor Bowman's work focuses on two important facets of memory and how they change with advanced age: 1) the ability to remember specific past events and 2) the ability to link across related experiences to form new knowledge. While it is well established that memory specificity declines with age, less is known about how age affects the formation of new knowledge. To better understand these human memory functions, she uses a combination of behavioral tasks, computational modeling, and brain imaging techniques that include model-based fMRI and multivariate pattern analyses. Her ultimate goal is to understand the basic cognitive and neural mechanisms of memory and age-related declines in memory, and to find ways to support new learning and flexible decision-making in people across the lifespan.

Graduate Student Recruitment

Dr. Bowman will recruit a new graduate student for Fall 2025 admissions to the Neuroscience PhD program.

Selected Publications

Bowman, C.R. & Zeithamova, D. (in press). Training set coherence and set size effects on concept generalization and recognition. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning Memory & Cognition.
Ashby, S.R., Bowman, C.R., & Zeithamova, D. (in press). Perceived similarity ratings predict generalization success after traditional category learning and a new paired-associate learning task. Psychonomic Bulletin and Review.
Frank, L.E., Bowman, C.R., & Zeithamova, D. (2019). Differential functional connectivity along the long axis of the hippocampus aligns with differential role in memory specificity and generalization. Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience, 31(12), 1-18.
Bowman, C.R., Chamberlain, J.C., & Dennis, N.A. (2019). Sensory representations supporting memory specificity: Age effects on behavioral and neural discriminability. Journal of Neuroscience, 39(12), 2265-2275.
Bowman, C.R. & Zeithamova, D. (2018). Abstract memory representations in the ventromedial prefrontal cortex and hippocampus support concept generalization. Journal of Neuroscience, 38(10), 2605-2614.
Huhn, J.M., III, Bowman, C.R., Dennis, N.A. (2018). Repeated study of items with and without repeated context: aging effects on memory discriminability. Memory, 26(5), 603-609.
Bowman, C.R.*, Shalome, S.L.*, & Dennis, N.A. (2017). Modulation of target recollection and recollection rejection networks due to retrieval facilitation and interference. Learning & Memory, 24(11), 607-611.
Bowman, C.R., & Dennis, N.A. (2016). The neural basis of recollection rejection: increases in hippocampal-prefrontal connectivity in the absence of a shared recall-to reject and target recollection network. Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience, 28(8), 1194-1209.
Bowman, C.R. & Dennis, N.A. (2015). Age differences in the neural correlates of novelty processing: The effects of item-relatedness. Brain Research, 1612, 2-15.
Bowman, C.R. & Dennis, N.A. (2015) The neural correlates of correctly rejecting lures during memory retrieval: The role of item-relatedness. Experimental Brain Research, 233, 1963-1975.

UWM Land Acknowledgement: We acknowledge in Milwaukee that we are on traditional Potawatomi, Ho-Chunk and Menominee homeland along the southwest shores of Michigami, North America’s largest system of freshwater lakes, where the Milwaukee, Menominee and Kinnickinnic rivers meet and the people of Wisconsin’s sovereign Anishinaabe, Ho-Chunk, Menominee, Oneida and Mohican nations remain present.   |   To learn more, visit the Electa Quinney Institute website.