Cognitive Psychology Program

Office: Fraser 536
Email: sbunnell@ku.edu

Research Interests: I conduct research with Dr. Andrea Greenhoot in the Child Memory Lab. We are currently investigating the underlying cognitive processes associated with autobiographical memory deficits (e.g., overgeneral memory production), with a particular emphasis on the role of chronic stress on memory function.

Email: vivienky@ku.edu

Research Interests: I work with Dr. Micheal Vitevitch in the Spoken Language Laboratory. My research interests are in spoken word recognition and speech production. I study the representation of words in the mental lexicon and how it influences the retrieval of these words during the perception and production of spoken language. I use several research methodologies including experimental tasks and computational modeling.

Office: Fraser 528
Email: mchan5@ku.edu

Research Interests: I work with Dr. Paul Atchley in the Visual Information Processing Laboratory. My current research focuses on the effects of verbal tasks (cellphone conversations) on vigilance task. In a more practical sense, the question would be “does talking on the cell phone help keep me awake when I drive under monotonous conditions”.

Office: Fraser 539
Email: lareun@ku.edu

Research Interests: I'm interested in visual word recognition processes, especially in the interaction between orthography and morphology.

Office: Fraser 536
Email: jeffdressel@ku.edu

Website: www.people.ku.edu/~jwhite-d

Research Interests: I began my studies at Eastern Illinois University, working in a psychophysics lab.  I came to KU in 2002, and have been working with Dr. Paul Atchley to research performance of dual-tasks, especially as applied to cellular phone use while driving.  I've accepted a faculty position at Texas Tech University, and will begin in Fall 2008.

Office: Fraser 528
Phone: 864-XXXX
Email:fittsy@ku.edu

Research Interests: My research interests are generally focused on how emotion impacts higher cognitive abilities, such as attention and decision-making. The topic of my current research deals with negative affect and sentence processing and is in the final stages of completion.

Office: Fraser 536
Email: mslinzi@ku.edu
 

Research Interests: I'm a second year student working in the Attention and Emotion Lab (AEL) where we are examining the lateralization of attentional processes in semantics, as in semantic priming. Research tools of the AEL are principally that of event-related potentials (ERPs), a brainwave technique, and functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), a brain scanner technique.

Research Interests: In conjunction with the University of Southern Mississippi, I am currently directing research using event related potentials to investigate communication processing in Atlantic bottlenose dolphins. I am interested in facilitating the expanded use of neurophysiological and quantitative methods in comparative communication research in general.  My previous experience includes participating in research affiliated with USM on problem solving and artificial communication development in Atlantic bottlenose dolphins and investigating changes in the neurological processing of semantics in humans for my masters project at KU.

Office: Fraser 528
Email: bokhok@ku.edu
 

Research Interests: Visual processing and attentions

Office: Fraser 536
Email: aminda@ku.edu
 

Research Interests: I work in the Attention and Emotion Lab, where I use event-related potential (ERP) and functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) methodologies to study the effects of individuals' anxiety and stress levels, as-well-as the valence and arousal levels of stimuli, on cognitive processing, specifically attention and executive control.

Research Interests: My main research interests include Alzheimer's disease and language development across the lifespan. 

Office: Fraser 528
Email: jgsfla@ku.edu
 

Research Interests: My research interests include the investigation as to what role do reading goals have in discourse processing and comprehension.  My past research has studied their effects along with organizational signals on comprehension, and I am currently investigating how readings goals might relate to working memory span in influencing comprehension and recall.  In addition, I am interested in studying the individual differences related to discourse processing, especially in regards to working memory span.

Office: Fraser 528 and 3080 Dole
Email: ralynns@ku.edu
 

Research Interests: I work with Susan Kemper in the Language Across the Lifespan Lab. I am also associated with the Gerontology Center at KU and am completing a graduate certificate in Gerontology. I have been focusing on the effects of doing two things at once on communication in young and older adults (both healthy aging and with various forms of dementia).  My thesis compared young and older adults' performance on a digital pursuit rotor task while they were engaged in various dual-task speaking conditions. 

Office: Fraser 536 and G004 SmithWest at KU Med Center
Email: tschmeid@ku.edu
 

Research Interests: I currently work at KU Medical Center on a collaboration with the Dietetics/ Nutrition Department where we are investigating the effects of DHA, a long-chain polyunsaturated fatty acid, on cognitive development.  My research interests are in the area of cognitive development, particularly attention.

Office: Fraser 536
Email: kmy@ku.edu
 

Research Interests: The three main areas of cognitive psychology of interest to me are cognitive neuroscience, laterality, and attention.  More specifically, I am interested in how the two cerebral hemispheres process information within the context of attentional biases and manipulations.  I use several techniques such as event-related potentials (ERPs) and divided visual field (DVF) paradigms to study these topics.