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Sheila Black

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Sheila R. Black

Associate Professor

  • email: sblack@ua.edu
  • phone (205) 348-5083
  • office location Gordon Palmer Hall 183

Education

  • PhD, Washington University in St. Louis

Research Areas

  • cognitive aging
  • racial disparities in cognitive aging
  • contributions of African Americans to the field of psychology

Bio

Sheila Black received her PhD from Washington University in St. Louis in 1994. An associate professor of cognitive psychology, Dr. Black is interested in age-related changes in attentional and semantic processes. She is also interested in age-related changes in episodic memory. Dr. Black teaches the cognitive aging class in the geropsychology emphasis, and clinical students also have the opportunity to work with her on projects involving cognitive aging.

Recent Grants

  • Quality of life and older rural health care recipients: Research Supplement for underrepresented minorities. National Institutes of Health. TDC: $187,00. 2001-2003.
  • Faculty seed grant, University of Alabama Center for Mental Health and Aging. $5000. S. Black, Co-investigator. 2005-2006.
  • “Cognitive Interventions for Older Type 2 Diabetics.” National Institutes of Health. S. Black, Principal Investigator. 2008 (Submitted

Centers

  • Alabama Research Institute on Aging

    • Selected Publications

    • Black, S. R., McCown, S., Lookadoo, R.,  Leonard, R. C.,., Decoster, J.   & Wayde, E.  Spence, S.  Aging, imagery and the bizarreness effect. (in press). Aging, Neuropsychology and Cognition.
    • Dillard, M., Boles, D., & Black, S.  (in press). Bidirectional resource training of simple and complex tasks. Proceedings of the Human Factors and Ergonomics Society.
    • Black, S. R. (2010).  Impact of Type 2 Diabetes on African American Older Adults. African American Research Perspectives, 13, 35-51.
    • Roskos-Ewoldsen, B. B,  Black, S. R., & McCowan, S. M. (2008).  Age-related changes in creative thinking. Journal of Creative Behavior, 42, 33-57.
    • Black, S.  R.  (2008). Telemedicine: A way to improve glycemic control among older diabetics.  In Y. Xiao and H. Chen (Eds.) Mobile Telemedicine: A Computing and Networking Perspective (pp.161-172).Boca Raton, FL: CRC Press, Auerbach Publications, Taylor & Francis Group.
    • Black, S. R. (2004). Age-related changes in cognition among African Americans. African American Perspectives, 10, 106-118.
    • Black, S. R.,  Spence, S. A., & Safiya, O. R.  (2004).  Contributions of African Americans to the field of  Psychology. Journal of Black Studies, 35, 40-64.
    • Black, S. R.  (2003).  A review of semantic satiation. In Serge P. Shohov (Ed.),  Advances in  Psychology Research, Volume 26 ( pp. 95-106). Huntington, NY: Nova Science Publishers, Inc.
    • MacGregor, M. W., Davidson, K. W., Barksdale, C., Black, S.R., & MacLean, D. (2003). The impact of adaptive defense use on resting blood pressure. Journal of Psychosomatic Research 55, 531-545.
    • Floyd, M., Rice, J., & Black, S. R. (2002). Recurrence of post-traumatic stress disorder in late life:  A cognitive aging perspective. Journal of Clinical Geropsychology, 8, 303-311.
    • Black, S. R. (2001). Semantic satiation and lexical ambiguity. American Journal of Psychology. 114, 593-510