Kara Federmeier

Kara D. Federmeier is a professor in the Department of Psychology, Department of Kinesiology, and the Program in Neuroscience, as well as head of the Cognition and Brain Lab (CABLab), at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. She is also a full-time faculty member at the Beckman Institute for Advanced Science and Technology, and head of the Illinois Language and Literacy Initiative. She is an expert in using human electrophysiology to understand the neural basis of cognition, with a focus on language and memory in both younger and older adults. As of 2021, she has authored over 140 scientific publications which have been cited over 18,300 times.
==Biography==
She graduated as valedictorian from Danville High School in 1990 before attending the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, where she earned her degree with honors in biology and was named a Bronze Tablet Scholar for being in the top 3% of her graduating class, in 1994. She received her PhD in Cognitive Science from the University of California, San Diego in 2000, where she trained in the Kutas Cognitive Electrophysiology Lab under the supervision of Dr. Marta Kutas and remained there as a postdoctoral researcher for the following two years. In 2002, she became a professor in the Department of Psychology at the University of Illinois.
==Research==
Federmeier’s research is focused on understanding how the brain builds and stores representations of meaning, with a particular focus on language comprehension and memory. Her work, which primarily takes advantage of the event-related potential (ERP) technique, has contributed heavily to the field of language processing, particularly in the realms of prediction, processing differences in brain hemispheres, and effects of aging.
===Prediction in Language Processing===
Federmeier’s doctoral thesis, “Sense and structure: Electrophysiological investigations of semantic memory organization and use” detailed one of the earliest ERP demonstrations of semantic predictions during language comprehension.Federmeier, K.D. and Kutas, M. (1999a). A rose by any other name: Long-term memory structure and sentence processing. Journal of Memory and Language, 41, 469-495.Federmeier, K. D. and Kutas, M. (1999b). Right words and left words: Electrophysiological evidence for hemispheric differences in meaning processing. Cognitive Brain Research, 8, 373-392.Kutas, M. and Federmeier, K. D. (2000). Electrophysiology reveals semantic memory use in language comprehension. Trends in Cognitive Science, 4, 463-470.Federmeier, K. D., McLennan, D. B., De Ochoa, E., & Kutas, M. (2002). The impact of semantic memory organization and sentence context information on spoken language processing by younger and older adults: An ERP study. Psychophysiology, 39(2), 133-146.
===Hemispheric Contributions to Language (The PARLO Framework)===
Federmeier’s work has shown that language comprehension is supported by multiple cognitive mechanisms that are distributed across the left and right cerebral hemispheres of the brain. Contrary to early theories advanced primarily from behavioral work, Federmeier’s ERP studies demonstrated that the two cerebral hemispheres are capable of representing knowledge in similar ways.Federmeier, K. D., Mai, H., and Kutas, M. (2005). Both sides get the point: Bihemispheric sensitivity to sentential constraint. Memory and Cognition, 33, 871-886. However, the left and right cerebral hemispheres subtly diverge in how they use context information to support comprehension. Taking these findings into account, Federmeier developed the PARLO (Production Affects Reception in Left Only) framework to interpret the roles of the left and right hemispheres in understanding context.Federmeier, K. D. (2007). Thinking ahead: The role and roots of prediction in language comprehension. Psychophysiology, 44, 491-505.
===Connecting and Considering: Multiple streams of semantic processing during language comprehension===
Federmeier's more recent work explores the separability of various types of semantic processing during language comprehension. Federmeier's work has shown that some aspects of semantic processing are largely obligatory and seem to precede conscious recognition. When individuals encounter a meaningful stimulus, like a word or picture, they seem to near-immediately link it to large swaths of information in long-term memory in a graded fashion ("connecting"). The timing of this process is remarkably stable and is reflected in N400 brain potentials.Federmeier, K. D. (2022). Connecting and considering: Electrophysiology provides insights into comprehension. Psychophysiology, 59(1), e13940.
==Career Milestones==
Federmeier has been granted numerous honors and awards. In 2010, she received the James S. McDonnell Foundation Scholar Award, which granted funding over 6 years for a project investigating “Cognitive and neural mechanisms of meaning comprehension.” In 2012, she was named a University Scholar by the University of Illinois, recognizing excellence in scholarship. The following year, she was named as a College of Liberal Arts and Sciences Centennial Scholar, a three-year appointment awarded to 10 UIUC faculty in recognition of their scholarly productivity and contributions to the educational mission. From 2016 to 2019, she was elected President of the Society for Psychophysiological Research (SPR). SPR subsequently named her as part of its inaugural class of fellows in 2021 in recognition of her sustained contributions to the field of psychophysiology.
==Selected Publications==
* Federmeier, K. D. (2022). Connecting and considering: Electrophysiology provides insights into comprehension. Psychophysiology, 59(1), e13940.
* Federmeier, K.D. and Laszlo, S. (2009). Time for Meaning: Electrophysiology Provides Insights into the Dynamics of Representation and Processing in Semantic Memory. Psychology of Learning and Motivation, 51, 1-44.
* Federmeier, K. D., Mai, H., and Kutas, M. (2005). Both sides get the point: Bihemispheric sensitivity to sentential constraint. Memory and Cognition, 33, 871-886.
Category:University of Illinois alumni
Category:University of California alumni
Category:Professors