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Pomona
Professor Receives $1.4 Million For Her Research on the
Impact of Aging on Language and Memory
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Pomona College Professor Deborah M. Burke has received a
five-year grant of $1.4 million from the National Institutes
of Health (NIH), to continue her research on the impact of
aging on cognitive function, particularly language and
memory. Her work was selected by the National Advisory
Council on Aging for the NIH Method to Extend Research in
Time (MERIT) Award “in recognition of [her] outstanding
record of scientific achievements and…sustained contribution
to aging research and commitment to the field.”
Burke focuses her research on cognitive problems that older
adults report as their most frequent and most annoying, for
example tip-of-the-tongue experiences and forgetting proper
names. The research is designed to identify which aspects of
cognitive functioning, especially language and memory,
decline with healthy aging and which are maintained or even
improve with aging.
“Word knowledge as measured by vocabulary tests,” Burke
explains, “generally increases during adulthood, whereas the
ability to retrieve or produce known words declines with
aging, leading to tip-of-the-tongue states. The research
investigates the basic cognitive processes that seem to be
responsible for impairments in language and memory.” Her
goal is to increase understanding of why some aspects of
cognitive functioning become impaired in old age and other
aspects do not. Another goal is to identify conditions that
exacerbate or reduce these problems.
One aspect of Burke’s work focuses on tip-of-the-tongue
(TOT) experiences, in which a person is unable to produce a
word although absolutely certain that they know it. She has
demonstrated that both spontaneous TOTs during everyday life
and TOTs induced in the laboratory become more frequent with
age, and more so for proper names than other words. She has
discovered that TOT states can be resolved by pronouncing
sounds that are components of the word. Her research has
also demonstrated a parallel age-related deficit in
retrieving the correct spelling of words. On the basis of
these findings, Burke has argued that language production is
essential to maintaining fluency in old age and urges older
adults to engage in activities that increase their
production of language such as conversation and games like
Scrabble.
Burke, a member of the Pomona College faculty since 1977, is
the W. M. Keck Distinguished Service Professor and Professor
of Psychology at the college. She teaches courses ranging
from Introduction to Cognitive Science to upper division
seminars on Language and the Brain. A four-time recipient of
the college’s Wig Award for Distinguished Teaching, she has
mentored many students who have worked with her on her
research projects. Those efforts are being recognized with
the 2004 American Psychological Association Division 20
Mentor Award, at the organization’s annual convention in
Hawaii.
After earning her Ph.D. from Columbia University in 1975,
Burke was a postdoctoral fellow at the University of
Chicago. She has been a visiting research fellow at the MRC
Applied Psychology Unit in Cambridge England and at the Max
Planck Institute in Nijmegen.
Burke has served on the editorial boards of Cognition and
Consciousness, Psychology and Aging, Developmental
Psychology, Memory, and Psychology of Women Quarterly; the
National Science Foundation Graduate Panel on Psychology;
the National Academy of Sciences Future Directions of
Cognitive Aging Committee; and the NIH grant review panel,
Integrative, Functional and Cognitive Neuroscience Study
Section. Her research has been continuously supported by the
National Institute on Aging since 1980.
Pomona College, one of the nation's premier liberal arts
colleges, offers a comprehensive program in the arts,
humanities, social sciences and natural sciences. Its
hallmarks include small classes, close relationships between
students and faculty, and a range of opportunities for
student research. For more information about the college,
visit the Pomona College Website at www.pomona.edu.
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