Susan Kemper

Roy A. Roberts Distinguished Professor of Psychology

skemper@ku.edu

426 Fraser Hall
1415 Jayhawk Dr.
University of Kansas
Lawrence, KS 66045

Telephone: 864-4131
Fax: 864-2666

Academic Department

Psychology

Research Specialty

My "The Language Across the Lifespan Project" addresses how aging affects the processing of spoken and written language and includes comparative studies of healthy older adults and adults with Alzheimer's disease and other age-related diseases. My research ranges from studies of how older adults' memory affects speech production to studies of how to enhance older adults' comprehension through "elderspeak," a set of special speech modifications designed for older adults. Along with other researchers, I examined early language abilities as a predictor of late-life cognitive impairment and Alzheimer's disease as part of the Nun Study. Recently, I have established a eye tracking laboratory for age-comparative studies of reading and visual information processing. Current projects include studies of the effects of dual task demands on speech production by healthy older adults and older adults who are recovering from strokes, studies of verbal fluency in healthy older adults, older adults with Alzheimer’s dementia and older adults with Parkinson’s disease, and eye-tracking studies of older adults' reading.

Awards

• Fellow, American Psychological Society
• Fellow, Gerontological Society of America
• Master Mentor Award, American Psychological Association and the Retirement Research Foundation

Professional Memberships

• Psychonomics Society
• American Psychological Society
• Gerontological Society of America

Degrees

• B. A., Psychology, 1974, Macalester College
• Ph. D., Psychology, 1978, Cornell University

For More Information

• Language Across the Lifespan: Communication and Aging Laboratory

Why Study at the University of Kansas?

I would be happy to talk with potential students about opportunities here at KU; this is my 28th year at KU and I still find it to be an exciting place that truly supports interdisciplinary collaboration. I am a participating faculty member in four doctoral programs at the University of Kansas: Gerontology, Child Language, Cognitive Psychology, and Developmental Psychology and affiliated with the Gerontological Center and the Schiefelbusch Institute for Life Span Studies as well as the Department of Psychology. Each program has unique strengths but they all share a common commitment to a "junior colleague" model of graduate training. As junior colleagues, graduate students are expected to gradually develop the full range of professional skills and competencies necessary to function as productive, independent researchers. Beginning as assistants to established researchers or more advanced students, students gradually assume increased responsibilities for the conduct of research as they acquire relevant research skills.

My students draw upon a wide range of resources to examine how language and communication abilities are affected by aging, leading to communication deficits for healthy older adults as well as those with age-associated diseases such as Alzheimer’s dementia and Parkinson’s disease. There is an exceptional concentration of faculty at the University of Kansas with convergent research and teaching interests in gerontology, psycholinguistics, linguistics, communication studies, and speech/hearing sciences. An active climate of research and scholarship exists which will promote the study of communication and aging and ensure that doctoral students acquire the skills and training necessary to function as independent researchers.