Research Interests
Spatial Cognition; Navigation; Functional Neuroimaging; Multi-voxel Pattern Analysis
Education
Johns Hopkins University, M.A. and Ph.D. in Psychology, 2006-2011
University of Virginia, B.A. in Cognitive Science, 2002-2006
Publications
Marchette, S.A., Vass, L.K., Ryan, J., & Epstein, R.A., (2015). Outside looking in: Landmark generalization in the human navigational system. The Journal of Neuroscience, 35, 14896-14908.
Marchette, S.A., Walsh, M.K., Shelton, A.L., & Flombaum, J.I. (2015). The relationship between precision and spatial working memory span. Spatial Cognition & Computation, 15(4), 308-328.
Marchette, S.A., Vass, L.K., Ryan, J., & Epstein, R.A. (2014). Anchoring the neural compass: Coding of local spatial reference frames in human medial parietal lobe. Nature Neuroscience, 17, 1598-1606.
Furman, A.J., Clements-Stephens, A.M., Marchette, S.A., Shelton, A.L. (2014). Persistent and stable biases in spatial learning mechanisms predict navigational style. Cognitive, Affective, & Behavioral Neuroscience, 14.4, 1375-1391.
Shelton, A. L., Marchette, S. A., & Furman, A. J. (2013). A Mechanistic Approach to Individual Differences in Spatial Learning, Memory, and Navigation. In B. H. Ross (Ed.), The Psychology of Learning and Motivation. Elsevier Inc.: Academic Press, 223–260.
Yerramsetti, A, Marchette, S.A., & Shelton, A.L. (2013). Accessibility versus accuracy in retrieving spatial memory: Evidence for suboptimal assumed headings. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, & Cognition, 39, 1106-1114.
Marchette, S.A., Bakker, A., & Shelton, A.L. (2011). Cognitive mappers to creatures of habit: Differential engagement of place and response learning mechanisms predicts human navigational behavior. Journal of Neuroscience, 31, 15264-15268.
Walsh, M., Montojo, C.A., Sheu, Y-S, Marchette, S.A., Harrison, D.M., Newsome, S.D., Zhou, F., Shelton, A.L., & Courtney, S.M. (2011). Object working memory performance depends on microstructure of the frontal-occipital fasciculus. Brain Connectivity, 1(4), 317-329.
Marchette, S.A., Yerramsetti, A., Burns, T., & Shelton, A.L. (2011). Spatial memory in the real world: Long-term representations of everyday environments. Memory & Cognition, 39, 1401-1408.
Marchette, S.A. & Shelton, A.L. (2010). Object properties and frame of reference in spatial memory representations. Spatial Cognition & Computation, 10(1), 1-27.
Shelton, A.L., & Marchette, S.A. (2010). Where do you think you are? Effects of conceptual current position on spatial memory performance. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, & Cognition, 36(3), 686-98.
George, S., Evans, D., & Marchette, S.A. (2003). A biological programming model for self-healing. Proceedings of the 2003 ACM workshop on Survivable and self-regenerative systems: in association with 10th ACM Conference on Computer and Communications Security, 72-81.
Submitted Manuscripts
Marchette, S.A., Vass, L.K., Ryan, J. & Epstein, R.A. (submitted). Outside looking in: Landmark generalization in the human navigational system.
Conference Presentations
Paul, N.C., Marchette, S.A., & Epstein, R.A. (2015). Anchoring the internal compass: The role of geometry and egocentric experience. Poster presented at Vision Sciences Society, St. Pete’s Beach, FL.
Marchette, S.A., Vass, L.K., Ryan, J. & Epstein, R.A. (2014). Anchoring the neural compass: Coding of local spatial reference frames in human medial parietal cortex. Talk presented at the 44th Annual Meeting of the Society for Neuroscience, Washington D.C.
Marchette, S.A., Vass, L.K., Ryan, J., & Epstein, R.A. (2013). For familiar landmarks, parahippocampal cortex represents place identity, not just perceptual features. Talk presented at Vision Sciences Society, St. Pete’s Beach, FL.
Marchette, S.A., Ryan, J. & Epstein, R.A. (2013). Navigation ability predicts the spatial organization of free recall. Poster presented at the 54th Annual Meeting of the Psychonomic Society, Toronto, Ontario.
Marchette, S.A., Vass, L.K., Ryan, J., & Epstein, R.A. (2013). Outside looking in: Searching for abstract representations of “place” in scene-selective cortex. Poster presented at Vision Sciences Society, Naples, FL.
Marchette, S.A., Morgan, L.K., Stigliani, A., & Epstein, R.A. (2012). Local coding of directions in hierarchical spaces. Poster presented at the 53rd Annual Meeting of the Psychonomic Society, Minneapolis, MN.
Marchette, S.A., Yerramsetti, A., & Shelton, A.L. (2011). Humans assume predictable “default” headings when recalling familiar spaces. Poster presented at the 52nd Annual Meeting of the Psychonomic Society, Seattle, WA.
Shelton, A.L., Marchette, S.A., Furman, A.J., Bakker, A., Clark, S.R., Lachewitz, J. (2011). Shifting spatial learning strategies: Place and response mechanisms for different navigational priorities. Poster presented at the 18th Annual Meeting of the Cognitive Neuroscience Society, San Francisco, CA.
Marchette, S.A., Yerramsetti, A., Burns, T., & Shelton, A.L. (2010, November). Spatial memory in the real world: Long-term representations of everyday environments. Poster presented at the 51st Annual Meeting of the Psychonomic Society, St. Louis, MO.
Marchette, S.A., Bakker, A., Lachewitz, J., Clark, S., & Shelton, A.L. (2010, August). Spatial learning mechanisms that underlie encoding strategies, memory performance, and navigational preferences. Poster presented at Spatial Cognition 2010, Mt. Hood, OR.
Marchette, S.A., Marchette, D.J., Ma, Z., Cardinal-Stakenas, A., Shelton, A.L., & Priebe, C.E. (2009, August). Combining distance and angle judgments for inference from spatial memory. Paper presentation at the 57th Annual Meeting of the International Statistics Institute, Durban, South Africa.
Shelton, A.L., & Marchette, S.A. (2008, November). Bridging human and animal models of spatial learning: place and response mechanisms. Paper presentation at the 38th Annual Meeting of the Society for Neuroscience, Washington, DC.
Marchette, S.A., & Shelton, A.L. (2008, November). What can pointing errors really tell us about spatial representation? Poster presented at the 49th Annual Meeting of the Psychonomic Society, Chicago, IL.
Marchette, S.A., & Shelton, A.L., (2007, November). Influence of object orientation on reference frames in spatial representation. Poster presented at the 15th Annual Meeting of Object, Perception, Attention, and Memory, Long Beach, CA.
Shelton, A.L., Marchette, S.A., & Yamamoto, N. (2007, November). Place and response mechanisms in human environmental learning. Paper presentation at the 48th Annual Meeting of the Psychonomic Society, Long Beach, CA.
Shelton, A.L., Yamamoto, N., & Marchette, S.A. (2007, August). Spatial representation at the intersection of perception, attention, reasoning, and memory. Paper presentation at the 13th Meeting of the Cognitive Science Association for Interdisciplinary Learning, Hood River, OR.
Invited Talks
Marchette, S.A. (2014, January). Mental cartography: How the human brain codes spaces and places. Center for Cognitive Neuroscience Seminar, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA.
Marchette, S.A. (2010, October). Explicit and implicit mechanisms for spatial learning and navigation. Research in Spatial Cognition Spatial Cognition Seminar, Temple University, Philadelphia, PA.
Mentorship
Dissertation Committee Member
Steven M. Weisberg, Where am I? Individual differences in memory, navigation ability, and navigation strategy, 2014, Department of Psychology, Temple University
Independent Study Mentor
Nicole Paul, Honors Student at the University of Pennsylvania, Psychology, 2014-2016
Nicole presented a poster on her Honors Project at the annual meeting of the Vision Sciences Society under my mentorship.
Simin Xi, Honors Student at the University of Pennsylvania, Psychology, 2014-2015
Ashok Yerramsetti, Honors Student at the John Hopkins University, Psychology, 2009-2011.
Ashok published a first author paper on his Honors Project under my guidance. Ashok won the Provost Undergraduate Research Award for this work in Spring 2010.
Joseph Schwartz, student in the Baltimore Polytech High School Ingenuity Project, 2007-2009.
Professional Affiliations
Society for Neuroscience; Vision Sciences Society; Cognitive Neuroscience Society; Postdoctoral Member of the Psychonomic Society; Spatial Learning and Intelligence Center (SILC) Network
Ad Hoc Reviewer for:
Applied Cognitive Psychology; Behavioral Research Methods; Cerebral Cortex; Cognition; Cognitive; Neuropsychology; Cognitive Processing; Current Biology; Frontiers in Cognition; Human Brain Mapping; Journal of Cognitive Psychology; Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception & Performance; Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, & Cognition; Journal of Neurophysiology; Journal of Neuroscience; Psychological Science; Psychonomic Bulletin & Review; Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology; Spatial Cognition & Computation
Teaching Experience
Guest lecture in Cognitive Neuroscience at the University of Pennsylvania, Introduction to Cognitive Neuroscience, March 2014.
Guest lecture titled Distortions in Memory of Space & Time, Harvard University, Intuitive Math in the Everyday Mind, April 2013.
Brain Awareness Week presentations to local Baltimore high schools, Spring 2007-2010.
Teaching Assistant: Introduction to Cognitive Psychology, Spring 2010.
Co-Instructor: Structural Equation Modeling Seminar, Johns Hopkins University, Spring 2009
Discussant: Free Will & Determinism, Johns Hopkins University, Winter 2008 & 2009
Guest Lecture: Foundations of Mind, Spring 2008.
Graduate Instructor: Organized section discussions in Foundations of Mind, Spring 2008.
Graduate Instructor: Lectured on statistics and experiment design in Laboratory in the Analysis of Psychological Data, Fall 2007.
Teaching Assistant: Cognitive Neuropsychology of Memory, Spring 2007.