Psychology
Assistant Professor, Psychology
VOGUE
August 21, 2026
“Scent can be a powerful trigger of certain memories,” says Matthew Robison, assistant professor in the department of psychology at the University of Notre Dame. “We remember events with all their associated features, not only the sensory experience, but also the emotions we were experiencing at the time,” he explains, adding that memory is naturally associative, building connections between these sensory experiences and the people, places, and events surrounding them.
BigThink
January 29, 2026
Dr. Matthew Robison heads the lab. One fascinating facet of human cognition that he and his lab members have extensively elucidated is that people who have stable pupils tend to have higher attention control and better memory abilities. “Moment to moment, trial to trial, the people who have really consistent pupil diameters perform better on a wide variety of tasks,” he told Big Think.