Alison Preston and Lab

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Alison Preston and Lab

Led by Dr. Alison Preston, the Preston Lab studies how children, teens, and adults learn, remember, and reason. YOU can help us learn about the brain!

We're part of the Department of Psychology and the Center for Learning and Memory at UT Austin. Our lab uses a combination of behavioral and brain imaging techniques (functional magnetic resonance imaging, or fMRI) to explore how we form new memories, how we remember past experiences, and how our memory for the past influences what we learn in the present. We are also interested in how changes in brain structure and function throughout childhood and adolescence relate to the development of memory and reasoning. We are always looking for healthy volunteers ages 6-35 to participate in our research studies. If you or your child are interested in coming in to our lab to do simple computer-based tasks OR letting us take pictures of your or your child's brain using an MRI, please fill out the secure form on our website to see if you are eligible. A researcher will contact you when studies you qualify for are open for enrollment.

03/12/2026

Our lab had such a great time co-hosting a booth with the Church Lab at UT STEM Girl Day! It was a blast meeting so many curious kids and families and sharing the exciting research we’re doing on memory and brain development at UT Austin.

Did you miss our booth? You can learn more about the work we do on our website and find out how your child can participate in memory research at UT Austin.

Learn more about how to participate here: https://preston.clm.utexas.edu/participate

02/26/2026

🧠✨ The future of science starts here!

The Preston and Church Labs will have a booth at UT STEM Girl Day, a university-wide event hosted by Women in STEM at The University of Texas at Austin, with activities across campus.

Come visit our booth to:
➡️ Explore how memory works
➡️ Try out our pretend MRI machine
➡️ Meet our research team
➡️ Learn how your family can participate in real research at UT

We hope to see you there!

Learn more here: https://girlday.utexas.edu/

12/19/2025

Our Preston Lab 2025 Wrapped is here! 🎉

Hit play to see our year in review, including how many participants helped us study the developing brain, how many hours we spent in the scanner, and the movie that topped our teen participants' watch list.

Thank you to everyone who made this year possible. Our participants, our students, our collaborators. We can't wait to see what we discover together in 2026.

12/16/2025

Ever wonder why your teen can ace a test but then seem completely lost when they need to apply that knowledge somewhere new? New research from our lab may help explain why.

We scanned kids, teens, and adults in the MRI while they played a spatial memory game with friendly monsters. What we found is that the part of the brain that helps us build flexible mental maps of the world is still maturing through adolescence.

Adults in our study could navigate accurately even when the environment shifted. Kids and teens had to relearn locations after each change because their brains are still holding onto each experience separately rather than building one connected map they can use across situations.

One takeaway for parents might be: When our kids struggle to transfer learning from one situation to another, it's not laziness or carelessness. Their brains are still building the architecture for flexible thinking, and that takes time.

If you want to read more about the science, you can read the full paper here: https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2025.12.11.693744v1

12/04/2025

We love connecting with curious minds at UT Hot Science – Cool Talks, hosted by the UT Environmental Science Institute! 🔬

We always have fun sharing the wonders of science with our community & watching their interest spark!

Are you in the Austin area? Check it out: https://www.esi.utexas.edu/community-engagement/hot-science-cool-talks/

11/25/2025

In advance of Thanksgiving, we shared our gratitude for one another in lab meeting. Each lab member drew another lab member's name (gift exchange style). We wrote a message to them to read aloud about why we are grateful for them, what makes us proud of them, and all the ways they make the team stronger.

Hearing the messages was such a sweet, grounding moment. It reminded us how much we rely on one another, how much we grow because of each other, and just how awesome every member of this lab truly is.

I'm truly grateful for this team and how our support of one another makes the science we do possible 💛🧠

11/21/2025

Did you know that encouraging children & teens to manage their schedules independently has positive impacts for their memory? 📅🧠 Our new study reveals that age and independence combine to enhance memory development.

When younger children are asked to describe a typical day in their lives, they mostly describe the order of events, using words like "then" and "before."

Older children and teens talk less about order and instead describe their experiences in terms of schedules and routines.

We found that independence predicted how individuals recalled their lived experience. So children and teens who managed time more independently in their daily lives (getting themselves up, managing their own routines) used more sophisticated temporal language when recalling their experiences.

Overall, our findings suggest that independence predicts memory abilities in ways that age alone doesn't capture.

Do you study memory development? We created a survey tool to help quantify how independently children manage their time in everyday life.

Learn more and ready the full study here: https://osf.io/preprints/psyarxiv/68bqk_v1

11/19/2025

What an incredible Society for Neuroscience meeting this year! Lab members Omer, Nicole, and Owen brought their A-game to their poster sessions, drawing engaged crowds as they shared their recent work on how kids and adults remember when things happen, how memory changes impact reasoning, and how we learn context-dependent behaviors.

Beyond the science, it was wonderful to reconnect with colleagues and former students, celebrate with amazing women in neuroscience, and soak in the energy of researchers from across the field. From lively discussions on the poster floor to the obligatory photo op at the iconic SfN sign, this conference reminded us why we love what we do.

So proud of this team!

11/14/2025

The Preston Lab will be at Society for Neuroscience in San Diego! Come see what we've been working on 🧠

We'll be discussing how kids & adults remember when things happen, how changes in memory representation across the lifespan impact reasoning & how we learn that different actions have different consequences based on the setting.

Find us Monday & Wednesday 🤘

11/12/2025

🧠 Did you know that kids remember time differently than adults?

Our lab just published a new preprint review led by grad student Owen Friend with Dr. Jeni Pathman exploring how children, teens, and adults remember “when” events occurred in fundamentally different ways. These differences have real and important implications for juvenile justice. When children are witnesses in legal cases, we ask them detailed questions about when events occurred. But if we don't understand HOW kids remember time at different ages, we might misjudge their credibility when they're actually doing the best their developing brains allow.

So what are these differences?

Young children (ages 4-9) remember events like separate snapshots. They know what happened, but struggle to connect memories together in time.

Teenagers begin to recognize patterns as their brains mature, but they struggle to apply this knowledge flexibly in new situations.

By early adulthood, the brain can finally access both specific details AND general patterns about timing, depending on what's needed.

These fundamental differences show that we need developmentally appropriate approaches when asking children about WHEN something happened, so we can make sure to evaluate their memory fairly rather than through an adult lens of timestamping.

Read our full review here: https://osf.io/preprints/psyarxiv/n8m4v_v1

11/06/2025

Met a celebrity the other day! Bevo XV is the best mascot🤘🐂

10/30/2025

Big thanks to Thinkery for hosting us at their STEAM Sunday Halloween celebration! 🎃

We love connecting with families and future scientists while sharing what we do at the Preston Lab 🤘

Address

Austin, TX
78712

Telephone

(512) 232-5145

Website

http://Preston.clm.utexas.edu/

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