Associate Professor in Cognition & Perception and Educational Psychology
Ph.D. Carnegie Mellon University
Area: Cognition and Cognitive Neuroscience, Combined Program in Education and Psychology

Contact Information

Email: priti@umich.edu
Psychology Office: 2004 East Hall
Psychology Phone: 734-615-3745

Research and Teaching Interests

As a cognitive and educational psychologist, my primary goal is to understand how to overcome limitations in the performance of complex cognitive tasks. In particular, I investigate cognitive tasks that require managing multiple goals, integrating different sources of information, and forming coherent, memorable representations. My research has two foci. In one line of research, I have examined the comprehension of visual displays used in a wide variety of contexts, including elementary science and math education and scientific research. My second line of research focuses on understanding two basic mechanisms that support complex cognition, working memory and executive functions, and the degree to which they can be improved.

Representative Publications

• Minear, M. and Shah, P. (2006). Sources of working memory deficits in children and possibilities for remediation. In S. Pickering (ed.) Working memory and education, pp.274-307. Elsevier Press.
• White, H. and Shah, P. (2006). The uninhibited imagination: Creativity and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder. Personality and Individual Differences, 40, 1121-1131.
• Shah, P., Mayer, R.E., and Hegarty, M. (1999). Graphs as aids to knowledge construction: Signaling techniques for guiding the process of graph comprehension. Journal of Educational Psychology, 91, 690-702.

On Sabbatical Winter 2008

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