Dale Dagenbach

My research looks at a number of issues in human memory and visual attention. In recent years, we’ve concentrated on looking at whether particular kinds of memory or attention training, especially ones that affect executive functioning, might be able to minimize or eliminate cognitive aging effects. Other issues that my students and I have worked on include trying to determine the contributions of a particular brain structure, the thalamus, to working memory using studies of thalamic stroke patients, and looking at the role of inhibition in cognitive control and in cognitive aging effects. Most recently, I have become interested in applications of a new approach called network science to the analysis and understanding of fMRI neuroimaging data. This work stems from a sabbatical spent at the Laboratory for Complex Brain Networks (lcbn.wakehealth.edu). My current interest here is to understand the relationship between various measures of network functioning in the brain and cognitive functioning in both normal and impaired populations.

Some Relevant Publications:

Executive Function and Cognitive Aging

• Jennings , J.M., Dagenbach, D, Engle, C.M., & Funke, L.J. (in press). Age-related changes and the attention network task: An examination of alerting, orienting, and executive function. Aging, Neuropsychology, and Cognition.
• Jennings , J.M., Webster, L.M., Kleykamp, B.A., & Dagenbach, D. (2005). Recollection training and transfer effects in older adults: Successful use of a repetition-lag procedure. Aging, Neuropsychology, and Cognition, 12, 278-289.

Inhibition and Cognitive Control

• Dagenbach, D., Carr, T.H., Menzer, D., Chalk, H.M., Duquette, P.J., Rupard, M., & Hurley, R.S.E. (in press). Adventures in Inhibition: Plausibly, but not Certifiably, Inhibitory Processes. To appear in C.M. MacLeod and D.S. Gorfein (Eds.) The place of inhibition in cognition. Washington , DC : American Psychological Association.
• Dagenbach, D., & Kubat-Silman, A. (2002). The principle of inhibition. In Kluwe, R.H, Luer, G., & Rosler, F. (Eds.), Principles of human learning and memory, Basel , SW: Birkhaeuser Publishing Ltd.
• Dagenbach, D., & Carr, T.H. (Eds.). (1994). Inhibitory processes in attention, memory, and language . San Diego , CA : Academic Press.

Thalamus and Working Memory

• Kubat-Silman, A.K., Dagenbach, D., & Absher, J.R. (2002). Patterns of impaired verbal, spatial, and object working memory after thalamic lesions. Brain and Cognition, 50, 178-193.
• Dagenbach, D., Absher, J.R., & Kubat-Silman, A.K. (2001). Human working memory impairments associated with thalamic damage. International Journal of Neuroscience, 111, 67-87.

Dale Dagenbach Vita (PDF)