PSYCHOLOGY

Dr. Lori E. James came to UCCS from the University of California, Los Angeles, where she was in a post-doctoral research position from 1997-2001. Dr. James earned her Ph.D. and M.A. in Cognitive Psychology from the Claremont Graduate School in Claremont, CA. She obtained her B.A. in 1991 from the University of California, Los Angeles. Dr. James teaches undergraduate courses in cognitive psychology and research methodology, and graduate courses in cognitive psychology and aging.

Dr. James' primary research areas are memory, language, and age-related changes in these abilities. Her program of research has two goals: elucidating the mechanisms involved in memory and language function, and identifying areas of improvement, stability and decline in cognitive performance in older adulthood. Dr. James' current projects include tests of memory for proper names, age-related differences in the perception versus production of language, comparisons of young and older adults' communication abilities, and tests of the ability to detect and describe errors across adulthood.

Research areas: Cognitive Psychology; Language; Memory; Cognitive Aging

Representative publications:

Fogler, K.A., & James, L.E. (2007). Charlie Brown versus Snow White: The effects of descriptiveness on young and older adults’ retrieval of proper names. Journal of Gerontology: Psychological Sciences, 62B, P201-P207.

James, L.E., & Fogler, K.A. (2007). Meeting Mr. Davis vs. meeting Mr. Davin: The effects of name frequency on learning proper names in young and older adults. Memory, 15, 366-374.

James, L.E., & MacKay, D.M. (2007). New age-linked asymmetries: How aging impacts familiar versus novel language processed on the input versus output side. Psychology and Aging, 22, 94-103.

James, L.E. (2006). Specific effects of aging on proper name retrieval: Now you see them, now you don’t. Journal of Gerontology: Psychological Sciences, 61B, P180-P183.