Kelly Bennion

Kelly Bennion serves as an Associate Professor in the Psychology and Child Development Department at California Polytechnic State University. Her research examines how real-life variables—such as emotion, stress, physiological arousal, and sleep—affect memory encoding and consolidation using behavioral experiments, eye tracking, polysomnography, and neuroimaging. She investigates how sleep selectively enhances memories for emotionally salient or future-relevant information in ecologically valid contexts. (78 words)

Her educational background includes:

• Ph.D. and M.A. in Psychology (Cognitive Neuroscience concentration) from Boston College
• Ed.M. in Mind, Brain, and Education from Harvard Graduate School of Education
• B.A. in Psychology and Spanish (summa cum laude, Phi Beta Kappa) from Middlebury College

Dr. Bennion's work focuses on memory prioritization mechanisms during sleep-wake cycles, particularly how emotional arousal and physiological stress modulate consolidation. She explores real-world applications including educational strategies and mental health interventions, emphasizing the interaction between cortisol levels and sleep-dependent memory processing. Her multi-method approach bridges laboratory findings with naturalistic memory phenomena. (92 words)

Analysis of her 2020-2025 publications reveals three dominant research streams: (1) sleep's role in enhancing emotional and future-relevant memories through selective consolidation, (2) cross-episode memory integration via semantic relatedness and surprise mechanisms, and (3) interdisciplinary extensions into public health (postpartum interventions) and environmental toxicology (bisphenol A effects). Her methodology increasingly combines behavioral metrics with physiological monitoring to capture memory dynamics in complex scenarios. (68 words)

Dr. Bennion actively mentors undergraduate researchers, evidenced by student co-authorships on publications including Jackson (2019) on school shooter perceptions. While specific grant details aren't provided, her sophisticated research infrastructure implies substantial external funding. She teaches core psychology courses including Research Methods, Biopsychology, and Memory, emphasizing hands-on methodology training. Her laboratory maintains advanced capabilities for sleep monitoring, eye tracking, and neuroimaging to investigate memory consolidation across physiological states. (76 words)