Gloria S. Waters, PhD

Scholarly, Research, and/or Practice Interests

• Language comprehension in aging and after neurological disorders
• Neural localization of language functions
• Development of psycholinguistically oriented assessment tools of language comprehension and production
• Structure and role of working memory in language comprehension
• Development of reading and spelling skills in normal and disordered populations

Courses Taught

• Psychology of Reading
• Adult Language Disorders
• Aging and Communication
• Language Learning Disabilities
• Neuroanatomy & Neurophysiology
• Research Methods

Selected Publications

Lists of published works: Google Scholar

• McAllister, T., Bachrach, A., Waters, G., Michaud, J. & Caplan, D. (2009). Production and comprehension of unaccusatives in aphasia.Aphasiology, 23(7-8), 989-1004.
• Caplan, D., Chen, E. & Waters, G. (2008).Task-dependent and task-independent neurovascular responses to syntactic processing. Cortex, 44(3), 257-275.
• Caplan, D., Stanczak, L., Waters, G. (2008). Syntactic and thematic constraint effects on blood oxygenation level dependent signal correlates of comprehension of relative clauses. J Cogn Neurosci. 20(4), 643-56.
• Caplan, D., Waters,G., Dede, G., Michaud, J. & Reddy, A. (2007).  A study of syntactic processing in aphasia I: behavioral (psycholinguistic) aspects.  Brain Lang. 101(2), 103-150.
• Caplan, D., Waters, G., Kennedy, D., Alpert, N., Makris, N., Dede, G., Michaud, J. & Reddy, A. (2007).  A study of syntactic processing in aphasia II: neurological aspects.  Brain Lang. 101(2), 151-177.
• Chen, E., Caplan, D., West, W.C. & Waters, G.S. (2006). Determinants of BOLD Signal Correlates of Processing Object-Extracted Relative Clauses,Cortex, 42, 591-604.
• Stanczak, L., Waters, G. & Caplan, D. (2006). Typicality-based learning and generalization in aphasia: two case studies of anomia. Aphasiology, 20, 374-383.
• Caplan, D., Chen, E., Waters, G. & Robakis, D. (2005). Syntactic and semantic influences on BOLD signal responses to comprehension of relative clauses. Brain and Language, 95, 72-73.
• Waters, G.S. & Caplan, D. (2005). The relationship between age, processing speed, working memory capacity and language comprehension.Memory, 13, 403-413.
• Caplan, D., Waters, G., DeDe, G., Michaud, J. & Reddy, A. (2004). A Study of Syntactic Processing in Aphasia I: Behavioral (Psycholinguistic) Aspects, Brain and Language, 91, 64-65.
• Caplan, D., Waters, G., Kennedy, D., Alpert, N., Makris, N., DeDe, G., Michaud, J. & Reddy, A. (2004).   A Study of Syntactic Processing in Aphasia II: Neurological Aspects, Brain and Language, 91, 66-67.
• DeDe, G., Caplan, D., Kemtes, K. & Waters, G.S. (2004). The relationship between age, verbal working memory, and language comprehension.  Psychology & Aging, 19, 601-616.
• Waters, G.S. & Caplan, D. (2004) The reliability and stability of verbal working memory measures. Behavior Research Methods, Instruments, and Computers, 35, 550-564.
• Waters, G.S., & Caplan, D. (2004) Individual differences in working memory capacity and on-line syntactic processing: Evidence from self-paced listening. Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology A, 57, 129-163.
• Waters, G.S., Caplan, D., & Yampolsky, S. (2003). On-line syntactic processing under a concurrent memory load. Psycholnomic Bulletin and Review, 10, 89-95.
• Waters, G.S., Caplan, D., Alpert, N. & Stanczak, L. (2003)  Individual differences in rCBF correlates of syntactic processing in sentence comprehension: Effects of working memory and speed of processing. Neuroimage, 19, 101-112.
• DeDe, G., Parris, D. & Waters, G.S. (2003). Teaching Self-Cues: A treatment approach for verbal naming. Aphasiology, 17, 465-480.
• Caplan, D., Waters, G.S., & Alpert, N. (2003). Effects of age and speed of processing on rCBF correlates of syntactic processing in sentence comprehension. Human Brain Mapping. 19, 112-131.
• Caplan, D. & Waters, G. (2003). On-line syntactic processing in aphasia: Studies with auditory moving window presentation. Brain & Language,84, 222-249.
• Waters, G.S., & Caplan, D. (2002). Verbal working memory and language comprehension. Encyclopedia of Cognitive Science.  Nature Publishing Group, Macmillan Publishers, Basingstoke, England.
• Waters, G.S. & Caplan, D. (2002). Working memory and on-line syntactic processing in Alzheimer’s disease: Studies with auditory moving windows presentation. Journal of Gerontology: Psychological Sciences, 57B, 298-311.
• Caplan, D. & Waters, G.S., (2002). Working memory and connectionist models of parsing: A response to MacDonald and Christiansen.Psychological Review, 109, 66-74.
• Caplan, D., Vijayan, S., Kuperberg, G., West, C., Waters, G., Greve, D., Dale, A.M. (2002). Vascular response to syntactic processing: an event-related fMRI study of relative clauses. Human Brain Mapping. 15, 26-38
• Yampolsky, S. & Waters, G. (2002). Treatment of single word oral reading in an individual with deep dyslexia. Aphasiology, 16, 455-471.
• Yampolsky, S., Waters, G., Caplan, D., Matthies, M., & Chiu, P. (2002). Effects of acoustic degradation on syntactic processing: Implications for the nature of the resource system used in language processing. Brain and Cognition, 48, 617-625.
• Seidenberg, M.S. & Waters, G.S. (1989). Reading nonwords aloud – A mega study.  Bulletin of the Psychonomic Society, 27(6), 489.
• Waters, G.S., & Bruck, M. & Malus-Abramowitz, M.  (1988).  The role of linguistic and visual processes in spelling:  A developmental study. Journal of Experimental Child Psychology, 45, 400-421.
• Bruck, M. & Waters, G.S. (1988).  An analysis of the spelling errors of children who differ in their reading and spelling skills. Applied Psycholinguistics, 9,  77-92.
• Waters, G.S., Caplan, D., & Hildebrandt, N. (1987). Working memory and written sentence comprehension. Attention and Performance XII, 531-555.
• Waters, G.S., Komoda, M.K. & Arbuckle, T.Y. (1985). The effects of concurrent tasks onreading:  Implications for phonological recoding. Journal of Memory and Language, 24, 27-45.
• Waters, G.S.,  & Seidenberg, M.S. (1985). Spelling-sound effects in reading:  Time course and decision criteria. Memory and Cognition, 13, 557-572.
• Waters, G.S., Bruck, M. & Seidenberg, M. S. (1985).  Do children use similar processes to read and spell words?  Journal of Experimental Child Psychology, 39, 511-530.
• Seidenberg, M.S., Waters, G.S., Barnes, M., & Tanenhaus, M.K.(1984).  When does irregular spelling or pronunciation influence word recognition?Journal of Verbal Learning and Verbal Behavior,  23, 383-404.
• Seidenberg, M.S., Waters, G.S., Sanders, M., & Langer, P. (1984). Pre- and post-lexical loci of contextual effects on word recognition. Memory and Cognition, 1984, 12(4), 315-328.
• Waters, G.S., Seidenberg, M.S., & Bruck, M. (1984). Children’s and adults’ use of spelling-sound information in three reading tasks. Memory and Cognition, 12(3), 293-305.

Research Funding

• U.S. Department of Education: Institute of Education Sciences, “Assessment of Comprehension in Older Struggling Readers” 2010-14, (Principal Investigator: G. Waters, Co-PI: D. Caplan).
• National Institute of Deafness and Communication Disorders, R21/R33, “Theoretically Based Treatment for Sentence Comprehension in Aphasia”, 2009-14, (Principal Investigator: S. Kiran, Co-PI’s: D. Caplan, G. Waters).
• National Institute of Deafness and Communication Disorders, R01, “Functional Neuroimaging Studies of Syntactic Comprehension”, 2007-10, (Principal Investigator: D. Caplan, Co-PI: G. Waters).
• U.S. Department of Education: Institute of Education Sciences, “Assessment of Comprehension in Older Struggling Readers”, 2005-09, (Principal Investigator: G. Waters, Co-PI: D. Caplan).

Awards and Honors

• Canada Council Doctoral Fellowship
• Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada Post-doctoral Fellowship
• Medical Research Council of Canada Centennial Fellowship (Awarded but not accepted)
• National Health and Welfare Canada National Health Scholar Award (Awarded but not accepted)
• Fonds de la Recherche en Sante du Quebec Chercheur Boursier Award
• Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada,  Faculty Award for Women
• Royal Society London, U.K./Natural Sciences and Engineering,  Research Council of Canada Bilateral Exchange Fellowship