Kristy Hamilton will be joining the UCSB Department of Communication as an Assistant Professor as of July, 2020, after completing her PH.D. at University of Illinois, She uses experimental methods from cognitive psychology to understand the inherent qualities or liabilities of human memory and cognition in a digital environment. Her research and theoretical interests are driven by a goal of understanding how to help people become more effective and efficient thinkers in a digital landscape. Her current research program investigates three interrelated characteristics of sophisticated thinkers in our digital landscape. Those are: 1) understanding how various cognitive strategies made possible by digital media influence short- and long- term communicative and cognitive goals, 2) knowing how media users monitor and control the state of information available “in the head” and information out in the world in pursuit of their various goals, and 3) understanding how certain characteristics of technology can impair these monitoring and control processes. She has published in journals such as Computers in Human Behavior, Journal of Applied Research in Memory and Cognition, Applied Cognitive Psychology, and New Media & Society.
Her current personal website is https://kristyahamilton.web.illinois.edu/