Dr. Katherine White is currently Professor of Psychology and Director of the Cognition and Aging Lab. Dr. White′s research program broadly investigates cognitive processes in young and older adults, with specific emphasis on factors that influence spoken and written word retrieval. Her long-term research objectives are to (1) enhance our theoretical understanding of how people retrieve and produce language, and (2) investigate the linguistic (e.g., semantic, phonological), cognitive (e.g., attention), and non-cognitive (e.g., emotion) factors that influence the retrieval and production process. Furthermore, her research seeks to identify how different aspects of language, attention, and memory are affected by healthy aging.
Learn about Dr. White's research
Selected Publications (asterisks indicate student co-authors)
Abrams, L., *Cote, B. P., *Najas, M. J., *Gsibat, A. H., & White, K. K. (2024). Do pictures emotional valence and arousal affect younger and older adults' narratives? Psychology & Aging, 39(3), 299-312. doi: 10.1037/pag0000808
Abrams, L., & White, K. K. (2023). Healthy aging and communication: The complexities of, um, fluent speech production. In J. Guendouzi, F. Loncke, & M. J. Williams (Eds.), The Routledge international handbook of psycholinguistic and cognitive processes (2nd ed., pp. 49-60). Taylor and Francis.
White, K. K., & Abrams, L. (2021). What makes a tumor worse: Taboo context affects how emotional distractors influence picture naming. Language, Cognition, & Neuroscience, 36, 1123-1134. doi.org/10.1080/23273798.2021.1909741
White, K. K., Abrams, L., *Hsi, L. R., & *Watkins, E. C. (2018). Are precues effective in proactively controlling taboo interference during speech production? Cognition and Emotion, 32, 1625-1636. doi: 10.1080/02699931.2018.1433637
White, K. K., Abrams, L., *Koehler, S. M., & *Collins, R. J. (2017). Lions, tigers, and bears, Oh Sh!t: Semantics versus tabooness in speech production. Psychonomic Bulletin & Review, 24, 489-495. doi: 10.3758/s13423-016-1084-8
White, K. K., Abrams, L., *LaBat, L. R., & *Rhynes, A. M. (2016). Competing influences of emotion and phonology during picture-word interference. Language, Cognition, & Neuroscience, 31, 265-283. doi: 10.1080/23273798.2015.1101144
