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Faculty
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Faculty Michael Bamdad (Speech & Hearing Sciences) Steve Dopkins (Psychology): Dr. Dopkins' research explores two general questions. First, how do humans mentally represent and negotiate physical space? Second, how do humans recognize objects on the basis of previous encounters? web page Adrienne Hancock (Speech & Hearing Sciences): Dr. Hancock investigates cognitive-linguisitc function of individuals with neurological impairment (e.g., Parkinson's Disease, Traumatic Brain Injury, Stroke). Specifically, the use of distraction as a means to create more sensitive measures of mild impairments and design functional treatments. She is also studying the cognitive-linguisitic consequences of neurosurgical treatments for Parkinson's Disease (i.e., Pallidotomy and Deep Brain Stimulation). Murray Loew (Biomedical Engineering, Dept. of Electrical and Computer Engineering): Dr. Loew's research is in image analysis and medical imaging, and in the past seven years has focused on understanding and modeling the visual system with respect to decision-making and classification. John Philbeck (Psychology): Dr. Philbeck's research program investigates the psychological and neural processes underlying how we use vision to determine our location and how we remain oriented while moving about. To study these issues, he tests the perceptual abilities of people from a wide range of ages, including individuals who have suffered certain forms of brain injury. web page Larry Rothblat (Psychology): Dr. Rothblat's laboratory is using genetically engineered mice to investigate the basis of cognitive impairment in neurodegenerative (Alzheimer's and Parkinson's) and neuropsychiatric (autism and schizophrenia) disorders. Geralyn Schulz (Speech & Hearing Sciences): Speech motor control and learning in neurologic disorders; the neurophsyiological bases of speech; speech production rehabilitation following neurologic disorders Chet Sherwood (Anthropology): Dr. Chet Sherwood is a biological anthropologist interested in brain evolution, its behavioral correlates, and genetic substrates in primates and other mammals. Sarah Shomstein (Psychology): Dr. Shomstein's research is concerned with understanding the psychological and neural mechanisms underlying attentional selection, and focuses on two questions in particular. The first question concerns the representations, or units, from which selection occurs and this line of research focuses primarily on the behavioral and neural correlates of spatial and object-based selection as human observers analyze incoming information. The second question concerns the computations involved in the selection per se and this research investigates the neural source of the attentional signal and the impact this signal exerts on the neural trace of the sensory stimulus before and after it has been attentionally selected. web page Myeong-Ho Sohn (Psychology): Dr. Sohn's research focuses on brain mechanisms underlying cognitive control processes and their interface with stimulus-driven processes. He is interested in (a) how people instantiate and maintain the appropriate task set that is consistent with the current goal, (b) how people retrieve the correct memory trace while avoiding incorrect associations, and (c) how task-relevant information emerges against task-irrelevant information. web page Francys Subiaul (Speech & Hearing Sciences): Francys Subiaul specializes in the development and evolution of social learning and imitation. Subiaul's research includes work with typically-developing 2-, 3- and 4-year old human children as well as with children diagnosed with autism and other developmental disorders. He's also a Research Associate in the National Zoological Park where he conducts comparative research with gorillas and orangutans. Tadeusz Zawidzki (Philosophy): Tad Zawidzki's areas of specialty are philosophy of cognitive science and philosophy of mind. Currently, he is researching philosophical preconceptions about the nature of human social cognition. In a book titled Mind Shaping, under contract with MIT Press, he argues that the function of our interpretive practices is to shape each other's minds and behavior such that coordination and cooperation is easier. Mechanisms and practices like imitation, pedagogy, stereotype- and norm- enforcement make humans more alike and familiar to each other, thereby allowing for efficient coordination and cooperation. This is a better characterization of human social cognition and interpretive practices than the received view, according to which we are like scientists trying to infer the mental causes responsible for behavior based on observations of behavior.
This web site is maintained by John Philbeck (email: philbeck@gwu.edu. Date last modified: June 11, 2009. The views and opinions expressed on these pages are those of the author. The contents of this page have not been reviewed or approved by The George Washington University.
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