- Ph.D. 2003 University of Texas, Arlington
- Experimental/Cognitive Psychology (with Human Memory, Adult Development, & Quantitative breadth areas)
- Dissertation: An Un-Inhibited View of Homograph Processing
- M.S. 2000 University of Texas, Arlington
- Experimental/Cognitive Psychology
- Thesis: The Effects of Emotional Arousal on Memory for Verbal Material
- B.A. 1995 University of Tennessee
- Psychology
- University Department Psychology
- Location 222 School of Education
- Phone Number +1 (336) 841-9246
- Email [email protected]
Courses Taught:
- Introduction to Psychology
- Statistics
- Research Methods in Psychology
- Advanced Research Methods in Psychology
- Cognitive Psychology
- Biopsychology
- Theories of Learning & Memory
- Language & Thought (Psycholinguistics)
- Cognitive Aging
Research Interests:
My main research interest is in human learning and memory. I am interested in the facilitative and inhibitory processes which underlie memory encoding and retrieval at both the theoretical level as well as the applied level. Much of my past research has focused on understanding how unwanted memories are discarded if they are not relevant to the current task. Recently, my lab has moved from focusing solely on inhibitory processes in young adults to facilitative and inhibitory processes in both young and older adults.
Current Projects
Production Effect
Words that are read aloud are remembered better than words that are read silently (known as the Production Effect (MacLeod, et al., 2010). Although a previous study has shown this say-look production effect in older adults (Lin & MacLeod, 2012), no research has examined whether older adults receive benefits from other forms of production as observed in young adults. Our first study, presented last fall at Psychonomics, showed that words written during study were recalled better than words read aloud or read silently by young, middle-age, and older adults (despite older adults recalling overall fewer words). However, when asked to recognize studied words, both words written during study and words read aloud were remembered better than words read silently (by all ages). Inconsistent with Lin and MacLeod (2012), there were no age differences. Current projects are exploring the possibility that writing creates a more distinct memory than saying a word aloud as well as investigating the differences between recall and recognition tests in the production effect.
Results from studies with young and older adults are being compared to results from Dr. Stacy Lipowski’s lab which focuses on preschool and elementary aged children.
Mental Exercise
Most research in this area has focused on the use of computer games which older adults discontinue use of after the research ceases. Our study focused on board games which are more likely to be continued and are more likely to be purchased and available at senior centers. Research shows that “exercising” working memory helps maintain abilities and can even improve them after declines begin. Pre- and post-test measures of working memory were given to a group of older adult volunteers. During the intervening 6 weeks, students, Dr. Jones, and the volunteers played several board games for 1.5 hours twice a week selected to engage all components of working memory (central executive, verbal memory, and spatial memory). Initial results showed that the more frequently participants engaged in the games, the more their post-test scores improved. Currently, a replication of this study is underway. A future project will focus on comparing the social aspects of this project to similar “games” that are more solitary to assess the social component in additional to the cognitive component.
Community Outreach
In addition to research with older adults, the lab is also focused in increasing student engagement with the older adult community. Several events have been designed for students an participants for the local senior center and various older adult living communities. For example, Q & A sessions on memory changes, nutrition related to improving memory and cognition, and use of technology.
Awards/Recognitions:
2006 Outstanding Faculty Member, High Point University, Evening Degree Program
2002 Graduate Research Award Scholarship
2002 University Scholar, University of Texas at Arlington (UTA)
2000 Graduate Research Award Scholarship
Presentations, Publications, and other Professional Activities:
Amster, H., Gorfein, D. S., Wear, K. K., & Brown, V. (2007). A comparison of word associations, associability, and rated relatedness in predicting timed relatedness judgments of polysemous and nonpolysemous words. Poster presented at the Experimental Psychology Society Annual Meeting, Edinburgh, Scotland.
Amster, H., Gorfein, D. S., & Wear, K. (2005). Bidirectional relatedness norms: Comparison with associability and latency measures. Poster presented at the Psychonomic Society Annual Meeting, Toronto, ON, Canada.
Amster, H., Hoover, M., Wear, K., & McMahon, C. (1998). Intensity and context effect recall of pleasant and unpleasant words. Abstracts of the Psychonomic Society, 3, 70.
Amster, H. & Wear, K. (2000). Emotionality of context, physical arousal and memory. Poster presented at the Cognitive Neuroscience Conference, San Francisco, CA.
Handy, J.,D. & Wear. K.K. (2008). Effect of Unpleasant and Pleasant Emotional Pictures on Recall of Peripheral Information. Poster presented at the Psychonomic Society Annual Meeting, Chicago, IL.
Wear, K. (2019). Factors Affecting Retrieval Induced Forgetting and Retrieval Induced Facilitation. Poster presented at the Psychonomic Society Annual Meeting, Montreal, Quebec, Canada.
Wear, K. (2015). Homograph Priming Effects are Independent of Environmental Context. Talk delivered at the annual meeting of the North Carolina Cognition Group, Elon, NC.
Wear, K. (2011). The fate of neutral words surrounding emotionally arousing oddballs. Poster presented at the Psychonomic Society Annual Meeting, Seattle, WA.
Wear, K. (2009). Examining the fate of inhibition in memory and the consequences for older adults. Talk delivered to Psi Chi, Meredith College, Raleigh, NC.
Wear, K. (2008). Inhibitory processes in memory. Talk delivered to High Point University faculty.
Wear, K. (2003). An uninhibited view of homograph processing. Paper presented at the Psi Chi Undergraduate Conference Arlington, TX.
Wear, K. (May, 2001). Emotionality of context, physical arousal & memory. Talk delivered to Department of Psychology, UTA.
Wear, K. (February, 1998). The effects of emotional arousal on memory for verbal materials. Talk delivered to Department of Psychology, UTA.
Wear, K., & Amster, H. (2002). Affective pleasantness and affective intensity of words enhance free recall. Poster presented at the Psychonomic Society Annual Meeting, Kansas City, MO.
Wear, K., & Amster, H. (2000). The effects of emotional arousal on memory for verbal material. Poster presented at the Cognitive Neuroscience Conference, San Francisco, CA.
Wear, K. & Gorfein, D. S. (2017). Homograph Processing: Influence of Semantic Similarity. Poster presented at the Psychonomic Society Annual Meeting, Vancouver, BC, Canada.
Wear, K. & Gorfein, D. S. (2015). Homograph Priming and Environmental Context. Poster presented at the Psychonomic Society Annual Meeting, Chicago, IL.
Wear, K., & Gorfein, D. S. (2013). Homograph priming effects are independent of environmental context. Poster presented at the Psychonomic Society Annual meeting in Toronto, ON, Canada.
Wear, K., & Gorfein, D.S. (2009). Costs and benefits association with repeated occurrences of a homograph. Paper presented at the Psychonomic Society Annual Meeting in Boston, MA.
Wear, K., Gorfein, D. S., & Amster, H. (2005). Competition doesn’t reduce the spread of priming: Further evidence. Poster presented at The Place of Inhibitory Processes in Cognition Conference Arlington, TX.
Wear, K., Gorfein, D. S., & Amster, H. (2003). Competition doesn’t reduce the spread of priming. Paper presented at the Psychonomic Society Annual Meeting Vancouver, BC, Canada.
Wear, K., Gorfein, D. S., & Amster, H. (2003). Transfer effects of homograph processing. Paper presented at the Armadillo Annual Meeting College Station, TX.
Wear, K., Gorfein, D., & Amster, H. (2002). The unselected meaning of ambiguous words: Is there evidence of suppression? Poster presented at the Psychonomic Society Annual Meeting Kansas City, MO.
Wear, K., Gorfein, D. S., & Brainerd, C. J. (2005). The effects of retrieval practice on false recall. Poster presented at the Psychonomic Society Annual Meeting Toronto, ON, Canada.
Wear Jones, K., Lipowski, S., Canda, A., Demonte, A., Ginther, J., & Riveros, S. (2022). Exploring benefits of written production in older adults. Poster presented at the Psychonomic Society Annual meeting, Boston, MA.
Wear, K., & Stambaugh, K. (2010). Costs and benefits of processing emotionally arousing stimuli on neutral items. Poster presented at the Psychonomic Society Annual Meeting, St. Louis, MO.
Weingartner, K. M., Wear, K., Gorfein, D.S., & Amster, H. (2009). A test of the utility of the associative judgment task during language processing. Paper presented at the Psychonomic Society Annual Meeting in Boston, MA.