A specific aim of my research is to examine how attention and memory interact as well as how this interaction changes in older adults.   Right now I am investigating the relative influence of attentional and mnemonic factors on perseveration,  which is the tendency to keep (inappropriately) responding to a no-longer present stimulus.
    Another research interest is in the individual differences in visuo-spatial cognition which characterize older adult cognition, since individual trajectories vary considerably.   People who are aging typically can experience a wide range of changes in cognitive ability ranging from acquisition of wisdom and increases in verbal and emotional ability, to an increase in memory lapses and cognitive decline and impairment.   Visuo-spatial abilities in particular demonstrate a lot variance in how much change over time different people show, and discovering why people experience the trajectories they do is an emerging theme in my research. 

How do we perceive the color symmetry present in a tiger's face or butterfly's wings?   We appear to selectively attend to one color at a time and inspect the shape formed by each color individually.  Response times for symmetric figures are significantly longer than for asymmetric figures, suggesting that once an asymmetry is detected we stop checking for symmetry. 

Morales, D.A. and Pashler, H. E. (1999). No role for colour in symmetry perception. Nature, May, 399 (6732), 115-116.

How do we remember visual information such as color and shape without verbal techniques? 
How do we maintain or rehearse  color information in active memory?  Do we use the same cortical regions for color perception and color memory?  
Does the same control mechanism that resolves interference in color memory also help maintain color memories in active consciousness?  

 

Axial view (so, you are looking down onto the top of the head) of functional activity for seeing colors versus fixation in posterior ventral occipital-temporal cortex.

Switching attention between color, shape, and numerosity

As people age they tend to perseverate more often and show more difficulty when trying to switch task set.   If asked to sort playing cards by color and then asked to sort by face versus number for example, they tend to return to sorting by the previous rule more often than education matched, younger  observers.  The tendency to perseverate increases when people are diagnosed  with Mild Cognitive Impairment, a condition that is probably prodromal to Alzheimer's Disease. 

Methodology and quantitative analysis

When asking a question in cognitive neuroscience, how does one determine what method to use?   Which potential method will yield the most information?  Which method will share the the fewest assumptions with the research that has already been done?    Which methods are cited more often, or are published in high-profile journals? 

Fellows, L.K., Heberlein, A.S., Morales, D.A., Shivde, G., Waller, S., and Wu, D.H.  (2005).  Method matters:  An empirical study of impact in cognitive neuroscience.  Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience, June, 17(6), 850-858.