![]()
|
|
| Jason
M. Watson, Ph.D. |
Assistant
Professor, Department of Psychology
Principal Investigator, Cognitive Science Lab
Assistant Investigator, The Brain Institute
University of Utah |
| |
| |
 |
| As
a Cognitive Scientist, my research focuses on brain-behavior relations.
Currently, I have active lines of research in the following areas:
illusions of memory; effects of healthy aging and Alzheimer's disease
on cognitive function; functional neuroimaging of reading, remembering,
and cognitive control; and word recognition. Please see my expanded
research interests below for additional information about ongoing
experiments and methods used in my Cognitive Science Lab. |
| Contact
Information |
| |
Jason
M. Watson, Ph.D.
The University of Utah
Department of Psychology
380 South, 1530 East, Room 502
Salt Lake City, UT 84112
Email: jason.watson@psych.utah.edu
Phone: 801-581-5040
Fax: 801-581-5841
Office: Social and Behavioral Sciences Building, Room 1034 |
| |
| Education |
| |
| Ph.D. |
Washington
University (Experimental Psychology, 2001) |
| M.A. |
Washington
University (Experimental
Psychology, 2000) |
| B.A. |
University
of Arkansas (Psychology, 1995) |
|
| |
| Research
Interests |
| |
Three of the most fundamental questions in Cognitive Science are concerned
with (1) how people read words, (2) how people remember events, and
(3) how people stay "on task" by minimizing the influence of potentially
distracting information. Although there have been several important
findings in these three areas of research, there have been very few
attempts to bridge the gaps in knowledge accumulated thus far on word
recognition, memory, and cognitive control. Yet there must be a fundamental
(and perhaps synergistic) relationship among these three cognitive
processes.
The goal of my research is to bridge the scientific work conducted
thus far on reading, remembering, and cognitive control in an attempt
to gain a richer understanding of brain-behavior relations. To accomplish
this goal, I am pursuing several converging lines of research in my
Cognitive Science Lab at The University of Utah including but not
limited to: (1) behavioral studies of individual differences in cognitive
control in young adults that may mediate susceptibility to associative
memory illusions, (2) functional neuroimaging studies of individual
and age differences in reading, remembering, and cognitive control
(3) and other large scale behavioral and neuroimaging studies that
systematically compare the influence of lexical variables like frequency,
concreteness, and spelling-to-sound correspondence on reading and
memory performance.
Given the inter-disciplinary nature of Cognitive Science, in my lab,
we employ a variety of methods from Cognitive Psychology, Cognitive
Neuroscience, and Neuropsychology to gain leverage in answering empirical
questions about brain-behavior relations. For example, to investigate
reading, remembering, and cognitive control, we (1) may measure reaction
times using naming and lexical decision tasks, (2) may measure memory
using free recall and episodic recognition tasks, (3) may conduct
cross-population studies with healthy old adults or neuropsychological
participants like Alzheimer's patients, and (4) may use functional
neuroimaging techniques to determine the underlying neural correlates
of a hypothesized cognitive process.
For additional information about my research interests, ongoing research
projects, and preferred research techniques, please contact me via
email jason.watson@psych.utah.edu,
by phone (801-581-5040), or refer to my Cognitive
Science Lab website. Thank you!
|
| |
|
