People
Principal Investigator | Brennan R. Payne, PhD | ✉| CV | Psych@Utah | Neuro@Utah |
Brennan directs the LaMA Lab. He is an Associate Professor in the Cognition and Neural Science Program in the Department of Psychology at the University of Utah. He holds additional appointments with the Interdepartmental Neuroscience Program, the Department of Communication Sciences and Disorders, and the Center on Aging. Brennan received his M.S. (2012) and Ph.D (2014) from the University of Illinois. From 2014-2017, he was a postdoctoral research fellow at the Beckman Institute at the University of Illinois. He received a Rising Star award from the Association for Psychological Science in 2017, an Early Career Award from the American Psychological Association (Division 3: Society for Experimental Psychology and Cognitive Science) in 2017, an Early Career Research Award from the National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders in 2021, and the Superior Researcher Award from the University of Utah's College of Social and Behavioral Sciences in 2023.
Dr. Payne's research is focused on understanding the cognitive and neural mechanisms underlying language comprehension and memory across the adult lifespan. He adopts an interdisciplinary approach to this work, merging theoretical models from the cognitive sciences, gerontology, neuroscience, linguistics, and quantitative and experimental psychology. He also adopts a multi-method approach to his work, including the use of experimental, correlational, and longitudinal approaches with measures of brain activity (e.g., event-related brain potentials, transcranial magnetic stimulation), human performance (eye-tracking, reaction time, memory performance), and physiology (e.g., pupillary responses). His work has been generously funded by the National Institutes of Health, the National Science Foundation, Google, CaptionCall, the Utah Center on Aging, the Psychonomic Society, and the University of Utah Office of the Vice President of Research.
Brennan directs the LaMA Lab. He is an Associate Professor in the Cognition and Neural Science Program in the Department of Psychology at the University of Utah. He holds additional appointments with the Interdepartmental Neuroscience Program, the Department of Communication Sciences and Disorders, and the Center on Aging. Brennan received his M.S. (2012) and Ph.D (2014) from the University of Illinois. From 2014-2017, he was a postdoctoral research fellow at the Beckman Institute at the University of Illinois. He received a Rising Star award from the Association for Psychological Science in 2017, an Early Career Award from the American Psychological Association (Division 3: Society for Experimental Psychology and Cognitive Science) in 2017, an Early Career Research Award from the National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders in 2021, and the Superior Researcher Award from the University of Utah's College of Social and Behavioral Sciences in 2023.
Dr. Payne's research is focused on understanding the cognitive and neural mechanisms underlying language comprehension and memory across the adult lifespan. He adopts an interdisciplinary approach to this work, merging theoretical models from the cognitive sciences, gerontology, neuroscience, linguistics, and quantitative and experimental psychology. He also adopts a multi-method approach to his work, including the use of experimental, correlational, and longitudinal approaches with measures of brain activity (e.g., event-related brain potentials, transcranial magnetic stimulation), human performance (eye-tracking, reaction time, memory performance), and physiology (e.g., pupillary responses). His work has been generously funded by the National Institutes of Health, the National Science Foundation, Google, CaptionCall, the Utah Center on Aging, the Psychonomic Society, and the University of Utah Office of the Vice President of Research.
Postdoctoral Research Fellows
Jack Silcox, Ph.D | CV | Jack is a Postdoctoral Research Fellow in the Language and Memory Aging Laboratory. He received his Ph.D. (2023) and M.S. (2020) in Cognition and Neural Science at the University of Utah, his M.S. in Applied Statistics from Loyola University Chicago (2018) and his B.S. in Neuroscience from Brigham Young University (2016). Dr. Silcox was the recipient of the University of Utah's inaugural "Excellence in Innovation Award" 2023 for his work in the LaMA lab on the cognitive and neural bases of speech comprehension in age-related sensorineural hearing loss. Jack's most recent research focuses on how speech comprehension changes in perceptually challenging scenarios (e.g., when listening to speech with background noise or while driving a car). His research employs techniques including EEG, pupillometry, and TMS.
Graduate Students
Jack Silcox, Ph.D | CV | Jack is a Postdoctoral Research Fellow in the Language and Memory Aging Laboratory. He received his Ph.D. (2023) and M.S. (2020) in Cognition and Neural Science at the University of Utah, his M.S. in Applied Statistics from Loyola University Chicago (2018) and his B.S. in Neuroscience from Brigham Young University (2016). Dr. Silcox was the recipient of the University of Utah's inaugural "Excellence in Innovation Award" 2023 for his work in the LaMA lab on the cognitive and neural bases of speech comprehension in age-related sensorineural hearing loss. Jack's most recent research focuses on how speech comprehension changes in perceptually challenging scenarios (e.g., when listening to speech with background noise or while driving a car). His research employs techniques including EEG, pupillometry, and TMS.
Graduate Students
Clara Lopes, M.S., B.S., B.A. | Clara is a PhD student in the Cognition and Neural Science Program at the University of Utah. She received her M.S., in Cognition and Neural Sciences in 2022, her B.S. in Communication Sciences and Disorders from the Idaho State University in 2014, and her B.A. in Medical Anthropology from San Francisco State University in 2012. Clara also completed graduate training in Speech Language Pathology at Rocky Mountain University and the University of Utah. Clara's current research focuses on interactions between visual attention and emotional processing in reading.
Allyson Copeland, B.S., B.A. | Allyson is a PhD student in the Cognition and Neural Science Program at the University of Utah and an NSF Graduate Research Fellow. She received her B.S. in Psychological Science (with a cognitive concentration) and her B.A. in Philosophy from Western Kentucky University in 2021. Her current research focuses on co-registration of eye movements with cognitive event-related brain potentials in natural reading.
Sarah Woods, B.S., B.A. | Sarah is a PhD student in the Cognition and Neural Science Program at the University of Utah and a 2023 NIH/NIDCD Diversity Scholar. She received her B.S. in Psychology and her B.A. in French from Southwestern University in 2021. Sarah's current research focuses on developing novel electrophysiological markers of listening effort in older adults with hearing loss.
Lab Manager
Interested in joining the lab? Contact Brennan Payne for information about opportunities, including:
1. Undergraduate research assistant, Human Factors Certificate, or Honors/UROP Student
2. PhD student in the Cognition and Neural Sciences PhD program
3. Postdoctoral research associate
Collaborators
Kara Federmeier, University of Illinois
Elizabeth A.L. Stine-Morrow, University of Illinois
Patrick Hill, Washington University in St. Louis
Elizabeth Schotter, University of South Florida
Brian Mickey, University of Utah
Sarah Hargus Ferguson, University of Utah
Nate Ward, Tufts University
Erika Hussey, US Army Natick Soldier Systems
Monika Lohani, University of Utah
- Karen Bennett, B.S. | Karen received her B.S. in Psychology in 2021 from the University of Utah. She currently is project manager for our NIDCD grant on listening effort and sensorineural hearing loss.
- Lydia Kallhoff | Speech-Language Pathology PhD student
- McKenzie Price | Julian Poletti | Arsen Arutyunyan | Brooke Scheve | Dayttn Bartschi | Idah Mbithi (NSF visiting student) | Melisa Sierra (NSF visiting student) | Shu Yang | Lucas Viele | Cora Lanphear | Ava Bartlett | Petr Horgos | Carina Glasgow
- Sara LoTemplio | PhD student (2017-2022). Now Assistant Professor (TT) at Colorado State University
- Hannah Crandell | Lab Manager (2018-2021). Now PhD student at University of Central Florida
- Mark Rasmussen | AuD Capstone. Now Assistant Professor in Communication Sciences and Disorders at UUtah
- Ali Bergmark | UROP and Human Factors Certificate. Now PhD student at UConn
- Brittany Carpenter | AuD Research Capstone Student. Now Audiologist at Kaiser Permanente Hearing Center
- Nicole Parente | AuD Research Capstone Student. Now Audiologist at VA Puget Sound Health Care
- Hope Caviness | SPUR program visiting student (Baylor University, Audiology). Now M.S. student at ASU (SLP)
- Avery Wall | SPUR program visiting student (Psychology, UNC-Chapel Hill). Now Data Scientist at Instructure.
- Ryan Murdock | Cognition and Neural Science M.S. Student. Now Machine Learning Engineer at Adobe
- Mariah Erickson | Psychology B.S. honors student and UROP awardee. Now Psychiatric staff at HMHI
- Jessica Stoker | Research Assistant and UROP awardee, Now PhD Student at Idaho State
- Irene Kim| Research Assistant and Lab Manager (2017-2018). Now PhD student at Yonsei University
- Shaylie Platten | Psychology B.S. student
- Andre Stensaas | Psychology B.S. student
- Alden Lee | Psychology B.S. student
- Haily Latimer | Human factors student
- Mary Yoo | Research Assistant
- Jordan Anderson | Research Assistant
- Billy Finlay | Research Assistant and SPUR awardee
- Wardah Ishak | Research Assistant
- Daniel Sinclear | Research Assistant
- Vanessa Srivastava | Research Assistant and UROP awardee
Interested in joining the lab? Contact Brennan Payne for information about opportunities, including:
1. Undergraduate research assistant, Human Factors Certificate, or Honors/UROP Student
2. PhD student in the Cognition and Neural Sciences PhD program
3. Postdoctoral research associate
Collaborators
Kara Federmeier, University of Illinois
Elizabeth A.L. Stine-Morrow, University of Illinois
Patrick Hill, Washington University in St. Louis
Elizabeth Schotter, University of South Florida
Brian Mickey, University of Utah
Sarah Hargus Ferguson, University of Utah
Nate Ward, Tufts University
Erika Hussey, US Army Natick Soldier Systems
Monika Lohani, University of Utah