Dr. Jessica Komes (M.Sc. Psych.)
+49 (0)3641 945 940
jessica.komes [at] uni-jena.de
Research Unit Person Perception
Institute for Psychology
Friedrich Schiller University of Jena
Leutragraben 1
Jentower (18. Floor)
07743 Jena
Curriculum Vitae
Education
03/2014
10/2010
10/2008
Dr. phil; Thesis: Disentangling older adults’ difficulties in person memory: Neurophysiological studies on face and name processing, Friedrich Schiller University of Jena
Master of Science Psychology (M.Sc.) University of Erfurt, Germany Thesis: The own-age bias in face recognition memory: An ERP study in high and low performing elderly adults (in cooperation with the Friedrich Schiller University of Jena)
Bachelor (B.A.): Psychology (Major), Educational Sciences (Minor)
Positions
09/2014 –present
04/2014 – present
04/2011 – 03/2014
05/2010 – 04/2011
03/2010– 05/2010
10/2006 – 03/2010
09/2009 – 03/2010
07/2009 – 10/2009
01/2007 – 03/2009
01/2008 – 04/2008
Post-doctoral Visiting Researcher, Department of Psychology, Durham University, Durham, United Kingdom
Post-doctoral Researcher, DFG Research Unit Person Perception & Depertment of General Psychology and Cognitive Neuroscience; Friedrich Schiller University of Jena, Germany
Post-graduate Student and Research Associate, DFG Research Unit Person Perception & Depertment of General Psychology and Cognitive Neuroscience; Friedrich Schiller University of Jena, Germany
Research Assistant, Department of General Psychology and Cognitive Neuroscience & DFG Research Unit Person Perception, Friedrich Schiller University of Jena, Germany
Research Intern, Duke University; Durham, N.C./ Center for Cognitive Neuroscience/Supervisor: Roberto Cabeza (Project: Cognitive Neuroscience of Aging)
Research Assistant, Department of Developmental Psychology/ University of Erfurt, Germany
Research Assistant, Department of General Psychology/University of Erfurt, Germany
Research Intern, Max Planck Institute for Human Development, Berlin, Germany/Supervisor: Shu-Chen Li (Project: Neuromodulation of a life span cognition)
Research Assistant, Department of New Media & Educational Sciences University of Erfurt, Germany
Research Intern, School of Psychology, National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM), Mexico City, Mexico
Main research interests:
My work mainly focuses on cognitive aging in perception and memory of person-related information such as faces and names. I am especially interested in age-related changes in episodic (source) memory processes, their neural correlates and potential influences of semantic knowledge on source memory. Additionally, my work aims at investigating memory biases (particularly the own-age and own-race bias in face recognition memory) and their cognitive determinants and neural mechanisms.
Grants & Awards
- 09/2013 Travel Grant for scientific interchange with the University of Hong Kong (Prof. William Hayward) from the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD)
- 01/2013 Grindley Grant for visiting the EPS Conference in London, January, 2013 from the British Experimental Psychology
- 01/2008 DAAD Scholarship for a research internship at the School of Psychology, National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM), Mexico City, Mexico
- 08/2007 Scholarship from the Interantional Office of the University of Erfurt for university studies abroad
Publications
Papers in peer-reviewed journals
Komes, J. , Schweinberger, S.R., & Wiese, H. (in press). Preserved fine-tuning of face perception and memory: Evidence from the own-race bias in high- and low performing older adults. Frontiers in Aging Neuroscience.
Komes, J. , Schweinberger, S.R., & Wiese, H. (2014). Fluency affects source memory for familiar names in younger and older adults: Evidence from event-related potentials. NeuroImage, 92, 90-105.
Wiese, H., Komes, J., & Schweinberger, S.R. (2013). Aging faces in Aging minds: A review on the own-age bias in face recognition. Visual Cognition, 21, 1337-1363.
Komes, J. & Wiese, H. (2014). Gedächtnisfehler – Grenzen des intakten Gedächtnises (Memory errors – the boundaries of intact memory). In Bartsch, T. & Falkai, P. , Gedächtnisstörungen (Memory disorders; pp. 40-48). Berlin/Heidelberg: Springer Medizin.
Wiese, H., Komes, J., & Schweinberger, S.R. (2012). Contact affects the own-age bias and neural correlates of face memory in elderly participants. Neuropsychologia, 50,3496-3508.
Selected conference presentations
Komes, J., Schweinberger, S.R., Wiese, H. (2013). Fluency supports source memory for familiar names in younger and older adults: ERP and behavioral evidence. Poster at the annual meeting of the Cognitive Neuroscience Society (CNS), San Francisco, USA.
Brooks, J., Davis, S.W., Komes, J., Cabeza, R. (2013). Neural correlates of the own-age bias in younger and older adults. Poster at CNS, San Francisco, USA.
Komes, J. (2013). Behavioral and neural correlates of age-related changes in memory for faces and familiar names. Invited talk at the Colorado State University (Organizer: Prof. M. G. Rhodes), Colorado, USA.
Komes, J., Schweinberger, S.R., Wiese, H. (2013). Fluency supports source memory for familiar names in younger and older adults: ERP and behavioral evidence. Talk at TeaP (Conference of Experimental Psychologists), Symposium ‘Effects of Aging on Memory and Executive Functioning'(Chair: Jessica Komes), March 2013, Vienna, Austria.
Komes, J., Schweinberger, S.R., Wiese, H. (2013). How Fluency supports source memory for familiar names: ERP and behavioral evidence. Poster at the EPS Meeting, January 2013, London, UK.
Komes, J., Wolff, N. & Wiese, H. (2012). Der own-age bias im Rekognitionsgedächtnis für Gesichter: Kognitive Mechanismen und neuronale Korrelate. Talk at Psychologie und Gehirn, June 2012, Jena, Germany.
Komes, J., Wiese, H. & Schweinberger, S.R. (2012). Contact affects the own-age bias and neural correclated of face memory in elderly participants. Poster Presentation at the 12th Annual Meeting of the Vision Sciences Society (VSS), May 2012, Naples, FL, USA.
Komes, J., Wiese, H. & Schweinberger, S.R. (2012). Retrieving contextual information of familiar names: Neural correlates of person-related source memory. Talk at the 54. Tagung experimentell arbeitender Psychologen (TeaP), April 2012, Mannheim, Germany.
Dietrich, J., Kracke, B. & Komes, J. (2012). Career-related parenting behaviors and exploration in Mexican adolescents. Variable- and person-centered analysis. Talk at the 14th Meeting of the Society of Research on Adolescence (SRA), March 2012, Vancouver, Canada.
Komes, J. & Wiese, H (2011). Gibt es einen own age-bias im Rekognitionsgedächtnis für Gesichter bei älteren Probanden: Eine EKP-Studie. Talk at the 20. Fachgruppentagung Entwicklungspsychologie DGPs, September 2011, Erfurt, Germany.
Komes, J., Wiese, H. & Schweinberger, S.R. (2011). Retrieving contextual information of familiar names: Neural correlates of person-related source memory. Poster presented at the PPRU Workshop “Hot Topics in Person Perception Research in Europe and Overseas”, October 2011, Jena, Germany.
Komes, J., & Wiese, H. (2011). The own age bias in face recognition memory: An ERP study in high and low performing elderly adults. Poster presented at the 5th International Conference on Memory, August 2011, York, England.
Komes, J. & Wiese, H (2011). Der own age-bias im Rekognitionsgedächtnis für Gesichter: Eine EKP-Studie mit älteren Probanden. Talk at the 53. Tagung experimentell arbeitender Psychologen (TeaP), March 2011, Halle, Germany.
Komes, J. & Wiese, H. (2010).The own age bias in face recognition memory: An ERP study in high and low performing elderly adults. Poster presented at the PPRU Workshop “Person Perception 25 Years after Bruce and Young (1986)”, October 2010, Jena, Germany.
Ad-hoc Reviewer
- Biological Psychology
- Brain Research
- British Journal of Psychology
- Cognition
- Frontiers in Psychology
- NeuroImage
- Neuropsychologia
- Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology
Professional Societies and Activities
- Cognitive Neuroscience Society (CNS)
- Vision Science Society (VSS)
Cooperations
- Dr. Geza G. Ambrus, Jena University (Project: The role of the Val/Met BDNF polymorphism on neural correslate of autobiographical memory retrieval)
- Prof. Roberto Cabeza, Duke University (Project: Age and Aging in neural correlates of face processing)
- Prof. Gyula Kovács, Jena University (Project: fMRI adaptation effects of facial age and gender in younger and older adults)
- Dr. Nathaniel Ashby, MPI for Collective Goods/University of Sussex (Project: Neural correlates of information processing and subjective valuation of monetary gambles in younger and older adults)
- Prof. William Hayward, University of Hong Kong (Projects: Neural correlates of object processing; Neuro-cognitive mechanisms of the own-race bias)
- Prof. Dave Perrett and Dr. Audrey Henderson, University of St. Andrews (Project: Effects of aging on perceiving health and attractiveness)
Teaching & Supervision
Hauptstudium/Master
- Neuro-cognitive Aging
- Research Seminar – Neural correlates of autobiographical memory
- Memory and Memory Biases
(Co-)Supervision and Review of Final Theses (Bachelor, Diplom, PhD)
- Semantic and episodic autobiographical memory in older adults: Effects of cognitive aging and life-style differences (Masterthesis)
- Neural correlates of semantic and episodic autobiographical memory in younger and older adults (Masterthesis)
- Neuronale Korrelate der Emotionsverarbeitung bei Facialisparese/Neural correlates of facial expressions in patients with facial paralysis (Masterthesis)
- Investigating attachment-related versus unspecific stress in adult psychiatric in-patients. Evidence from psychophysiological responses. (Masterthesis)
- Neuronale Korrelate des Gedächtnises für Eigen- und Fremdgruppengesichter/Neural correlates of recognition memory for own- versus other-group faces (Bachelorthesis)
- Einfluss sozialer Gruppenzugehörigkeit auf die Gesichterwahrnehmung und das Gesichtergedächtnis/The role of social group membership on face perception and memory (Bachelorthesis)
