Caitlin Bowman
- Associate Professor, Psychological & Brain Sciences
Education
PhD, The Pennsylvania State University, 2015
Teaching Schedule
| Course Num | Title |
|---|---|
| PSYCH 505-401 | Cognitive Processes |
| PSYCH 505-801 | Cognitive Processes |
| PSYCH 754-001 | Proseminar in Neuroscience |
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 2027 admissions to the Neuroscience PhD program.
Selected Publications
Zeithamova, D., Houser, T., & Bowman, C.R. (2026) Evaluating Cognitive Models with Permutation Testing: A Case Study of Prototype and Exemplar Categorization. Advances in Methods and Practices in Psychological Science, 9(2), 25152459261430729. https://doi.org/10.1177/25152459261430729
Valdez, M.R., Obarski, S.A., & Bowman, C.R. (2026) Study choices and inference in an acquired equivalence task. Cognition, 269, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cognition.2025.106401.
Bowman, C.R. & Zeithamova, D. (2026) Ventromedial prefrontal cortex supports prototype representations in healthy older adults. Neurobiology of Aging, 162, 66-80. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neurobiolaging.2026.02.006
Charles, C.I., & Bowman, C.R. (2025). Age-related differences in associative inference are larger than differences in direct associative memory. Psychology and Aging, 40(5), 524-536. https://doi.org/10.1037/pag0000890
Kimura, K., Valdez, M.R., & Bowman, C.R. (2026) The influence of older age, individual differences in cognitive abilities, and state of mind on learning novel categories. Psychological Research, 90, https://doi.org/10.1007/s00426-026-02334-1
Valdez, M.R, Kimura, K., & Bowman, C.R. (2026) Age-related differences in the stability of categorization performance and prototype versus exemplar strategy use. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory & Cognition, 52(8), 1379-1401.https://psycnet.apa.org/doi/10.1037/xlm0001542
Bowman, C.R., Charles, C.I., & Birr, S.M. (2026) Adult lifespan effects on functional specialization along the hippocampal long axis. Frontiers in Cognition, 5:1767179. https://doi.org/10.3389/fcogn.2026.1767179.
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.