title

I am interested in how the “attention system” works in healthy aging and in early stage Alzheimer’s disease. At any point in time, we are bombarded with all sorts of stimulation and information. Our cognitive system has to be able to sort through this information and select what is most relevant to attend to for a given task. Consider everyday examples where this attentional selection is important – being able to concentrate when you are driving, being able to track a conversation in a busy restaurant, being able to listen to a television program when there are distracting noises outside, being able to read a book when someone else is having a conversation in the room. Our lab is interested in studying how our attentional system works to allow us to do these things – and how breakdowns in this system may be a potential early marker for Alzheimer’s disease. In addition, we are interested in whether one’s personality characteristics play a role in attention and brain function and how changes in personality may serve as a non-cognitive risk factor for the onset of Alzheimer’s disease.

  • University of Missouri-St. Louis
    B.A Psychology

  • University of South Carolina
    Ph.D. Experimental Psychology
  • Psych 100B Introduction to Psychology

  • Psych 301 Experimental Psychology

  • Psych 321 Developmental Psychology

  • MBB 120A Introduction to the Study of Mind-Brain

I like to run, cook, travel, and read mystery novels. I am also a loyal (but not always happy) fan of the St. Louis Cardinals and Rams.

  • Tse, C.S, Balota, D.A., Moynan, S.C., Duchek, J.M., & Jacoby, L.L. (2008). The utility of placing recollection in opposition to familiarity in early discrimination of healthy aging and very mild dementia of the Alzheimer’s type. Neuropsychology, in press.

  • Duchek, J.M.. Balota, D.A., Storandt, M, & Larsen, R.. (2007). The power of personality in discriminating between healthy aging and early stage Alzheimer's disease. Journal of Gerontology: Psychological Sciences, 62B, 353-361.

  • Balota, D.A., Duchek, J.M., & Logan, J.M. (2007). Is expanded retrieval practice a superior form of spaced retrieval? A critical review of the extant literature. In J. Nairne (Ed.), The Foundations of Remembering: Essays in Honor of Henry L. Roediger III, (pp. 83-106), Psychology Press, New York.

  • Duchek, J.M., Balota, D.A., & Cortese, M. (2006). Prospective memory and Apolipoprotein E in healthy aging and early stage Alzheimer’s disease. Neuropsychology, 20, 633-644.
 
© 2007 Washington University in St. Louis | One Brookings Drive, St. Louis, MO 63130-4899