Ruth Ann Atchley

Related Links
Cognitive Psychology Program

Research Interests
I am engaged in both psychophysiological and behavioral research designed to test neurolinguistic theories of language comprehension. More specifically, my work addresses issues of word comprehension, discourse comprehension, individual differences in language processing, and verbal creativity. Clinical extensions of my research include the study of language processing in individuals with ongoing or remitted Clinical Depression and the study of adults with a history of Developmental Language Disability. I am able to use data from these patient populations as a tool for understanding the representation of phonology, semantics, and emotional information in the lexicon of the two cerebral hemispheres.

Selected Publications
Atchley, R.A., & Kwasny, K. (2003). Using event related potentials to examine hemispheric differences in semantic processing. Brain and Cognition, 53, 133-138.

Atchley, R. A., Ilardi, S. S., & Enloe, A., (2003). Hemispheric asymmetry in the lexical processing of emotion: The effect of current and past depression. Brain and Language, 84(1), 105-119

Atchley, R.A., Story, J., Buchanan, L., (2001). Exploring the contribution of the cerebral hemispheres to language comprehension deficits in adults with developmental language disorder. Brain and Cognition. 46,16-20.

Banich, M. T., Milham, M., Atchley, R. A., et al. (2000). Prefrontal regions play a predominant role in imposing and attentional ìsetî: Evidence from fMRI. Cognitive Brain Research, 10,1-9.

Atchley, R.A., Burgess, C., & Keeney, M. (1999). The effect of timecourse and context on the facilitation of semantic features in the cerebral hemispheres. Neuropsychology, 13, 389-403.