I am a human memory researcher interested in the influence of pre-existing knowledge on the remembering and forgetting of episodic information both at the conscious and unconscious level.  The general theme behind my research is that memory for what is new is influenced by memory for what is known.  My research is important because historically, the role of pre-existing memories has largely been ignored in memory research.  My work has largely involved the exploration of various factors of our pre-existing, semantic network (“mental lexicon”), that affect our memory for newly learned information, and how to enhance or reduce their influence in order to improve memory functioning by helping us (a) better remember important information, (b) avoid intentional and unintentional forgetting of easily forgettable information, or (c) better forget interfering information.