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Nicole Y. Y. Wicha, Ph.D. wicha@uthscsa.edu |
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Research Interests Dr. Wicha’s research interests lie in uncovering the neural correlates for cognition. Her current research focuses on language comprehension in monolingual and bilingual populations. She works to better understand how we interpret meaning and structure in words and sentences, and as bilinguals how we are able to perform such complicated tasks as switching back and forth between two languages during a conversation. Dr. Wicha uses event-related brain potentials (ERPs) and behavioral measures as her primary research techniques. Collaborative efforts with colleagues at the RII include research into neuro-cognitive changes in children with attention deficit disorder (Principal Investigator Steven Pliszka, MD; David Glahn, PhD) and language-experience effects on pitch discrimination (Co-investigator Shalini Narayana, MD).
Recent Publications 1. Rivera, S. M., Bates, E. A., Orozco-Figueroa, A., and Wicha, N. Y. Y.(accepted). Spoken Verb Processing in Spanish: An Analysis Using a New Online Database. Applied Psycholinguistics. 3. Wicha, N. Y. Y., Orozco-Figueroa, A., Reyes, I., Hernandez, A., Gavaldón de Barreto, L. & Bates, E. A., (2005). When zebras become painted donkeys: Grammatical gender and semantic priming interact during picture integration in a spoken Spanish sentence. Language & Cognitive Processes, 20(4), 553-587. 4.
Wicha, N. Y. Y., Moreno, E. M., & Kutas, M. (2004). Anticipating words and their gender: An event-related brain potential study of semantic integration, gender expectancy and gender agreement in Spanish sentence reading. Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience, 16(7), 1272-1288. 6. Wicha, N. Y. Y., Bates, E. A., Moreno, E. M., & Kutas, M. (2003). Potato not Pope: human brain potentials to gender expectation and agreement in Spanish spoken sentences. Neuroscience Letters, 346(3), 165-168. 7. Wicha, N. Y. Y., Moreno, E. M., & Kutas, M. (2003). Expecting gender: an event related brain potential study onthe role of grammatical gender in comprehending a line drawing within a written sentence in Spanish. Cortex, 39(3), 483-508. 8. Bentrovato, S., Devescovi, A., D'Amico, S., Wicha, N., & Bates, E. (2003). The effect of grammatical gender and semantic context on lexical access in Italian using a timed word-naming paradigm. Journal of Psycholinguistic Research, 32(4), 417-430. 9. Bates, E., D'Amico, S., Jacobsen, T., Szekely, A., Andonova, E., Devescovi, A., Herron, D., Lu, C. C., Pechmann, T., Pleh, C., Wicha, N., Federmeier, K., Gerdjikova, I., Gutierrez, G., Hung, D., Hsu, J., Iyer, G., Kohnert, K., Mehotcheva, T., Orozco-Figueroa, A., Tzeng, A., & Tzeng, O. (2003). Timed picture naming in seven languages. Psychonomic Bulletin & Review, 10(2), 344-380. Teaching Dr. Wicha teaches Cognitive Neuroscience and Human Electrophysiology as graduate-level courses cross-listed at UTSA and UTHSCSA. Cognitive Neuroscience is an interdisciplinary introduction to the study of mind and brain. Students learn about converging methodologies (e.g., neuropsychology, psychophysics and neuroimaging) for understanding the brain basis of cognition (e.g., memory, aging, language, perception). Human Electrophysiology focuses on imaging techniques – specifically event-related brain potentials – used to observe changes in electrical brain activity related to cognition. Students learn hands-on the usefulness and limitations of these techniques for answering questions about the mind and brain. Both courses are open to motivated upper-division undergraduate students.
Recent Honors and Awards
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