Dan Acheson

618 Psychology Bldg University of Wisconsin-Madison Dept of Psychology (WJ Brogden Hall) 1202 West Johnson Street Madison, WI 53706-1696 E-Mail: Phone: (608) 262-1897 Fax: (608) 262-4029

Graduate Student, Cognitive and Perceptual Sciences

ScB Cognitive Neuroscience, 2001, Brown University

Research Statement:

My research is directed at understanding the behavioral and neural mechanisms responsible for the serial ordering of verbal information in language production, comprehension and verbal working memory. To study these processes I utilize novel experimental paradigms, functional neuroimaging (fMRI) and transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS).

Much of my recent research has been directed at understanding the relationship between language production and verbal working memory processes. In a recent review article, I make the argument that many of the classic effects in verbal working memory that have been attributed to specialized memory systems may better be accounted for by the temporary activation of representations within the language production architecture. To test these ideas, I have conducted a number of behavioral studies that utilize behavioral manipulations and analysis techniques more typical of language production researchers as people perform verbal working memory tasks. Although my initial emphasis was directed at phonological encoding processes, I have recently been conducting experimentation that explores how lexical-semantic and phonological representations interact in memory and production.

The behavioral studies I have conducted are suggestive of a link between language production and verbal working memory, however, I have now begun to directly test the functional overlap between these processes in a collaboration with Dr. Brad Postle. In a recent study I have utilized functionally-guided repetitive TMS and shown that disruption of the same regions associated with phonological ordering in language production also disrupt memory maintenance processes in verbal working memory. This study is one of the first to demonstrate a direct functional link between language production and verbal working memory processes, but only scratches the surface of how TMS might be used to explore memory and language functions.

In the immediate future I would like to continue the line of behavioral experimentation I have begun here, while expanding on the use of fMRI and TMS to study language production, comprehension and memory processes. At some point I would like to extend my research to include both neuropsychological and computational approaches either directly or through collaboration. If any of this sounds interesting to you I'd be happy to discuss my thoughts, so send me an email.

Publications:

Acheson, D.J., Wells, J.B. and MacDonald, M.C. (2008). New and Updated Tests of Print Exposure and Reading Abilities in College Students. Behavior Research Methods, 40(1), 278-289.

Acheson, D.J. and MacDonald, M.C. (in press). Verbal Working Memory and Language Production: Common Approaches to the Serial Ordering of Verbal Information. Psychological Bulletin.

Wells, J.B., Christiansen, M.H., Race, D.S., Acheson, D.J. & MacDonald, M.C. (in press). Experience and Sentence Comprehension: Statistical Learning, Working Memory, and Individual Differences. Cognitive Psychology.

Acheson, D.J. and MacDonald, M.C. (submitted). Twisting Tongues and Memories: Explorations into the Relationship between Language Production and Verbal Working Memory.

Acheson, D.J. and MacDonald, M.C. (in preparation). Phonological Effects on Sentence Comprehension.

Acheson, D.J., Postle, B.R. and MacDonald, M.C. (in preparation). The Interaction of Word Concreteness and Phonological Similarity in Verbal Working Memory.

Presentations & Posters:

Acheson, D.J. and MacDonald, M.C. (2004). Phonological Interference in Working Memory and Sentence Comprehension. Poster presented at the 45th Annual Meeting of the Psychonomic Society, Minneapolis, MN.

Acheson, D.J. and MacDonald, M.C. (2005). A Role for Phonological Information in Relative Clause Processing. Poster presented at the 15th Annual CUNY Conference on Human Sentence Processing, Tucson, AZ.

Acheson, D.J. and MacDonald, M.C. (2005). A Phonological Similarity Advantage in Serial Recall. Poster presented at the 46th Annual Meeting of the Psychonomic Society, Toronto, ON

Acheson, D.J. and MacDonald, M.C. (2007). Phonological Similarity Effects in Verbal Working Memory and Language Production Tasks. Poster presented at the 48th Annual Meeting of the Psychonomic Society, Long Beach, CA.

Acheson, D.J., Hamidi, M., Binder, J.R. & Postle, B.R. (2008). Exploring the relationship between verbal working memory and langauge production using fMRI and TMS. Poster presented at the 2008 Society for Neuroscience Meeting, Washington, D.C.