W. M. Keck Distinguished Service Professor, Professor of Psychology Education: B.A., Barnard College; Ph.D., Columbia University Expertise: Aging and Cognition; Memory; Language and Memory; Word Finding Failures (tip of the tongue); Emotion and Cognition

With Pomona Since: 1977
Campus Phone: (909) 607-2440
Lab Phone: (909) 607-2227
Email: Deborah_Burke@pomona.edu
Home page URL: http://psych.pomona.edu/cogaging

RESEARCH INTERESTS:
My research is on the cognitive and neural processes involved in language, and on how these processes change with aging. My current research focuses on failures of language production, such as tip of the tongue experiences, and on how emotion affects language and memory in young and older adults.

 

RECENT COURSES:
PSYC51 PO Intro to Psychology
LGCS011 PO Intro to Cognitive Science
LGCS162 PO Memory & Language w/Laboratory
PSYC180J PO Seminar on Language, Memory and the Brain

 

SELECTED PUBLICATIONS
With Shafto, M.A., Stamatakis, E.A., Tam, P.P., & Tyler, L.K. (2007). Atrophy in insula predicts increased word-finding failures with aging. Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience, 19, 2060-2070.

With Shafto, M.A. (2008). Language and aging. In F.I.M. Craik & T.A. Salthouse (Eds.), The handbook of aging and cognition (pp.373-443). New York: Psychology Press.

With Osborne, G. (2007). Aging and inhibition deficits: Where are the effects? In D. Gorfein & C. MacLeod (Eds.), On the place of inhibitory processes in cognition (pp. 163-183) Washington, DC: American Psychological Association Press.

With J. Locantore, A. Austin & B. Chae, "Cherry Pit Primes Brad Pitt: Homophone Priming Effects on Young and Older Adults’ Production of Proper Names," Psychological Science, 15, p.164-170, 2004

With E. Cross, "Do alternative names block young and older adults’ retrieval of proper names?" Brain and Language, 89, p.174-181, 2004

With M. Shafto, "Aging and Language Production," Current Directions in Psychological Science, 13, p. 21-24, 2004

With L.E. James, "Phonological Priming Effects on Word Retrieval and Tip-of-the-Tongue Experiences in Young and Older Adults," Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory and Cognition, 26: 1378-1391, 2001

 

SELECTED AWARDS AND HONORS

• National Institutes of Health, MERIT Research Grant, 1999-2004 and
  2004-2009
• National Institutes of Health, Research Grant, "Memory and Language in Old Age," 1980-1999
• American Psychological Association Division 20, Mentor Award, 2004
  Pomona College,
• Wig Distinguished Professorship Award for Excellence in Teaching, 1981, 1984, 1990, 1996 and 2008
• William M. Keck Distinguished Service Professor, 1995
• Fellow, American Psychological Society
• Clare Hall College, University of Cambridge, Fellow, 2003