|
Jason Watson, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor - CNS Area
Department of Psychology | The University of Utah Curriculum Vita  Cognitive Science Lab
|
 |
 |
|
 |
|
Contact Information
Jason Watson
Department of Psychology
University of Utah
380 South 1530 East, Room 502
Salt Lake City, Utah 84112 -0251
Webpage: www.psych.utah.edu/jasonwatson
Office: 1034 Social & Behavior Sciences Tower
Phone: (801) 581-5040
Email: jason.watson@psych.utah.edu
Department Fax: (801) 581-5841
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!
Education
| Ph.D. | Washington University (Experimental Psychology, 2001) |
| M.A. | Washington University (Experimental Psychology, 2000) |
| B.A. | University of Arkansas (Psychology, 1995) |
Publications
Journal Articles
Balota, D.A., Watson, J.M., Duchek, J.M., & Ferraro, F.R. (1999). Cross-modal
semantic and homograph priming in healthy young, healthy old, and in
Alzheimer’s disease individuals. Journal of the International Neuropsychological
Society, 5, 626-640. PDF
McDermott, K.B., & Watson, J.M. (2001). The rise and fall of false recall: The impact
of presentation duration. Journal of Memory and Language, 45, 160-176. PDF
Roediger, H.L., Watson, J.M., McDermott, K.B., & Gallo, D.A. (2001). Factors that
determine false recall: A multiple regression analysis. Psychonomic Bulletin &
Review, 8, 385-407. PDF
Watson, J.M., Balota, D.A., & Sergent-Marshall, S.D. (2001). Semantic,
phonological, and hybrid veridical and false memories in healthy older adults and
in individuals with dementia of the Alzheimer Type. Neuropsychology, 15, 254-
267. PDF
Baciu, M.V., Watson, J.M., McDermott, K.B., Wetzel, R.D., Attarian, H., Moran, C.J.,
& Ojemann, J.G. (2003). Functional MRI reveals an inter-hemispheric
dissociation of frontal and temporal language regions in a patient with focal
epilepsy. Epilepsy & Behavior, 4, 776-780. PDF
McDermott, K.B., Petersen, S.E, Watson, J.M., & Ojemann, J.G. (2003). A
procedure for identifying regions preferentially activated by attention to semantic
and phonological relations using functional magnetic resonance imaging.
Neuropsychologia, 41, 293-303. PDF
Watson, J.M., Balota, D.A., & Roediger, H.L. (2003). Creating false memories with
hybrid lists of semantic and phonological associates: Over-additive false
memories produced by converging associative networks. Journal of Memory and
Language, 49, 95-118. PDF
Cortese, M.J., Watson, J.M., Wang, J., & Fugett, A. (2004). Relating distinctive
orthographic and phonological processes to episodic memory performance.
Memory & Cognition, 32, 632-639. PDF
Moritz, S., Woodward, T.S., Cuttler, C., Whitman, J., & Watson, J.M. (2004). False
memories in schizophrenia. Neuropsychology, 18, 276-283. PDF
Watson, J.M., McDermott, K.B., & Balota, D.A. (2004). Attempting to avoid false
memories in the Deese/ Roediger-McDermott paradigm: Assessing the
combined influence of practice and warnings in young and old adults. Memory &
Cognition, 32, 135-141. PDF
Baciu, M.V., Watson, J.M., Maccotta, L., McDermott, K.B., Buckner, R.L., Gilliam,
F.G., & Ojemann, J.G. (2005). Evaluating functional MRI procedures for assessing
hemispheric language dominance in neurosurgical patients. Neuroradiology,
47, 835-844. PDF
Chan, J.C.K., McDermott, K.B., Watson, J.M., & Gallo, D.A. (2005). The importance
of material-processing interactions in inducing false memories. Memory &
Cognition, 33, 389-395. PDF
Watson, J.M., Bunting, M.F., Poole, B.J., & Conway, A.R.A. (2005). Individual
differences in susceptibility to false memory in the Deese-Roediger-McDermott
paradigm. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, & Cognition, 31,
76-85. PDF
Book Chapters
Balota, D.A., & Watson, J.M. (2000). Methods in cognitive psychology. In A.E.
Kazdin, (Ed.), Encyclopedia of Psychology. New York, New York: Oxford
University Press. PDF
Roediger, H.L., Balota, D.A., & Watson, J.M. (2001). Spreading activation and
arousal of false memories. In H.L. Roediger, J.S. Nairne, I. Neath, & A.M.
Surprenant (Eds.), The Nature of Remembering: Essays in Honor of Robert G.
Crowder (pp. 95-115). Washington DC: American Psychological Association. PDF
Manuscripts In Press
Cortese, M.J., Watson, J.M., Khanna, M.M., & McCallion, M. Revisiting distinctive
processes in memory. Psychonomic Bulletin & Review.
McDermott, K.B., Watson, J.M., & Ojemann, J.G. Pre-surgical language mapping.
Current Directions in Psychological Science.
My Graduate Students
Ann Lambert
Eve Miller
Janelle Seegmiller
Sommer Thorgusen
