Cognition and Intellectual Disabilities Lab

Welcome to the lab! We study cognitive aspects of intellectual disabilities, focusing on identifying relative strengths and weaknesses in memory, learning, and reading processes.

These are some of our current researchers:

Laura Hume Postgraduate Researcher	Marie Moore First-year PhD student Developmental Science	Huan Huan Peng Third-year PhD student Cognitive Psychology	Sarah Dunlap Fifth-year PhD student Cognitive Psychology
lehume@aol.com	moore146@bama.ua.edu	peng006@bama.ua.edu	sarahd@bama.ua.edu
Dana Weathington Senior Undergraduate Psych. Honors Program	Angie Macon Senior Undergraduate	Brandy Burchfield Junior Undergraduate	Dale Maddox Senior Undergraduate Psych. Honors Program McNair Scholars Prgrm
weath018@bama.ua.edu	macon002@bama.ua.edu	burch009@bama.ua.edu	maddo039@bama.ua.edu

In our lab we study cognitive aspects of intellectual disabilities. We are especially interested in working memory, reading, and implicit processing. Our research on working memory and reading focuses  on phonological aspects.

Working memory is the part of the memory system that is responsible for maintaining and manipulating information that is just being encountered or just being activated from long-term memory. It is limited in storage and processing resources, and when task demand exceeds resources there is a breakdown in effective information processing. Individuals with developmental disabilities are often extremely limited in working memory resources, and this may be the cause of many of their difficulties in information processing. Some of our work has been in collaboration with Beverly Roskos-Ewoldsen's Visuospatial Cognition Lab.

Individuals with Down syndrome have special difficulties with auditory or phonological working memory. They do much better with visual material than auditory material. Their difficulty with phonological  working memory is greater than that of people with other developmental disabilities. Two projects in our lab address this problem. In one project we explore avenues for improving phonological working memory in children with Down syndrome. In the other, we attempt to pinpoint the locus of the difficulty in phonological working memory in individuals with Down syndrome. We are also interested in how phonological memory relates to language abilities in young people with Down syndrome.

Phonological awareness is the awareness, retention, and manipulation of speech stimuli. As young children develop, they begin to understand that language exists in segments, such as individual words, syllables, clusters, and phonemes. They can break down language into its segments, and put segments together to form words and sentences. Phonological processing is useful for learning to read, among other things. In our lab we are interested in the degree to which phonological processing is or is not associated with intelligence. Studies of reading disability suggest at best a weak link between the two. However, one of the most difficult aspects of reading development for children with intellectual disabilities is phonological decoding, or sounding out. We have done several studies exploring links between phonological processing, working memory, and reading acquisition in children with intellectual disabilities.

Automatic or implicit processing is cognitive processing that is not intentional and uses few cognitive resources. Although much cognitive activity is effortful and deliberate (explicit), quite a bit is implicit. Several studies now have shown that differences between individuals with and without intellectual disabilities are minimal in tasks measuring automatic processing. Typically, intellectual disability is thought of as a general impairment in cognitive ability. However, it appears that automatic or implicit processing abilities are relatively preserved. In our research, we found that children and young adults with intellectual disabilities were just as good at tasks measuring implicit memory and implicit learning as their age peers without intellectual disabilities. We have recently started research on implicit learning in individuals with Down syndrome and its relation to their receptive language skills. Our work is in collaboration with Ed Merrill's Attention and Performance Lab, Mark Klinger's Unconscious Cognition Lab, Jamie DeCoster's Social Cognition Lab, and Laura Klinger's Autism Lab.

Publications and papers from our lab related to these areas of research:

• Conners, F. A., Rosenquist, C. J., Sligh, A. C., Atwell, J. A., & Kiser, T. (2006). Acquisition of phonological reading skills in children with mental retardation. Research in Developmental Disabilities, 27, 121-137.

• Roskos-Ewoldsen, B., Conners, F. A., Atwell, J. A., & Prestopnik, J. (2006). Visual imagery scanning  in young adults with  intellectual disability. American Journal on Mental Retardation, 111, 35-47.
   

• Rosenquist, C. J., Conners, F. A., & Roskos-Ewoldsen, B. (2003). Phonological and visuospatial working memory in individuals with intellectual disabilities. American Journal on Mental Retardation, 108, 403-413.

• Conners, F. A. (2003). Reading skills and cognitive abilities of individuals with mental retardation. In L. Masters-Glidden (Series Ed.), & L. Abbeduto (Volume Ed.), International review of research in mental retardation (Vol. 27, pp. 191-229), New York: Academic Press.

• Atwell, J. A., Conners, F. A., & Merrill, E. C. (2003). Implicit and explicit learning in young adults with mental retardation. American Journal on Mental Retardation, 108, 56-68.

• Conners, F. A. (2003). Phonological working memory difficulty and related interventions. In J. A. Rondal & S. Buckley (Eds.), Speech and Language intervention in Down syndrome (pp. 31-48). London: Colin Whurr.

• Sligh, A. C., & Conners, F. A. (2003). Relation of dialect to phonological processing: African American Vernacular English vs. Standard American English. Contemporary Educational psychology, 28, 205-228.

• Conners, F. A., Rosenquist, C. J., & Taylor, L. A. (2001). Memory training for children with Down syndrome. Down Syndrome Research and Practice, 7, 23-31.

• Conners, F. A., Atwell, J. A., Rosenquist, C. J., & Sligh, A. C. (2001). Cognitive abilities underlying decoding differences in children with intellectual disability. Journal of Intellectual Disabilities Research, 45, 292-299.

• Conners, F. A., Rosenquist, C. J., Atwell, J. A., & Klinger, L. G. (2000). Cognitive strengths and weaknesses associated with Prader-Willi syndrome. Education and Training in Mental Retardation and Developmental Disabilities.

• Conners, F. A., Carr, M. D., & Willis, S. (1998). Is the phonological loop responsible for intelligence-related differences in digit span? American Journal on Mental Retardation, 103, 1-11.

• Conners, F. A., Carr, M. D., Wang, A., & Wyatt, B. S. (1998). Phonological processing: A modular ability? In S. A. Soraci & W. McIlvane (Eds.), Perspectives on fundamental processes in intellectual functioning (Vol. 1, pp 265-286). Norwood, NJ: Ablex.

• Wyatt, B. S., & Conners, F. A. (1998). Implicit and explicit memory in individuals with mental retardation. American Journal on Mental Retardation, 102, 511-526. 

Most of these papers were supported by the following NICHD Grants:

• Grant 1R03HD37445 from the National Institutes of Health to the University of Alabama (F. A. Conners, P. I.) 1999-2001 "Improving working memory in children with Down syndrome."

• Grant 1R29HD29751 from the National Institutes of Health awarded to the University of Alabama (F. A. Conners, P. I.) 1994-1999 "Phonological processing and mental retardation."

Past and Present Graduate Students

• Marie Moore, MA expected 2008, reading, phonological awareness, and Down syndrome

• Sarah Dunlap, PhD expected 2008, working memory, language, and Down syndrome

• Huan Huan Peng, M.A., on leave 2006-2007, working memory and intellectual disability

• Ashok kumar Natarajan, M.A., 2005, phonological working memory

• Allison C. Sligh, M.A., 1999, Ph.D., 2004, phonological processing, intelligence and creativity

• Celia J. Rosenquist, Ph.D., 2000, working memory and intellectual disability

• Julie Atwell, M.A., 1999, implicit learning and visual processing in intellectual disability

• Lesley Hite, Ph.D., 1999, decision making under risk

• Nancy B. Marshall, Ph.D., 1998, auditory word recognition in older adults

• Beverly S. Wyatt, Ph.D., 1995, implicit processing in intellectual disability

• Tonya S. Jackson, Ph.D., 1995, cognitive problem solving strategies and intellectual disability

• Aimin Wang, M. A., 1995, phonological processing in reading Chinese

• Michael D. Carr, M. A., 1994, verbal recall

last updated 3/06/07