Researcher Summary
My research focuses on selective attention, working memory, and cognitive control as these are the building blocks of all cognitively complex behaviour and thought. In particular, I investigate the nature of the representations and psychological processes underlying the smooth interaction between attention, memory, and action. These issues are addressed within a framework of information processing involving inhibitory control in attention and memory.
The major approach I use to address these issues is to study the behavior (for example, response latencies and accuracies) of participants in carefully constructed cognitive paradigms. Along with studying normal young adults, my current research is designed to investigate potential individual differences between persons of different age groups, from young children to elderly adults. Its purpose is to clarify the psychological processes underlying selective attention and working memory, and to explore how the aging process affects them.
A final thread to my research involves the study of bilingual language representation and processing. By examining patterns of within- versus between- language priming in bilingual individuals, one can make inferences about the nature of the processing mechanisms necessary for coordinating two languages and how the two languages might be organized in memory.
