PhD, Cognitive Psychology, University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign - 1993
M.A., Cognitive Psychology, University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign - 1990
B.A. (summa cum laude) Honors Psychology and English, Eastern Illinois University, Charleston - 1987
Areas of Specialty
Courses
Cognitive Psychology
Biopsychology
Research Methods
Cognitive Neuroscience
Courses Taught
PSH 301 Research Methods
PSH 341 Biopsychology
PSH 351 Cognitive Psychology
PSH 640 Advanced Biopsychology
Research Interests
Memory: Memory for recently-viewed faces or events (e.g., eyewitness memory); memory for different types of information (e.g., surface, conceptual)
Language: Role of linguistic factors (e.g., focus; syntactic prominence) in comprehension of sentences and discourses; Role of phonological information in reading; Reading impairment.
Presidential Teaching Excellence Award (2025)
Birch, S.L. (2016). Prevalence and profile of Phonological and Surface Subgroups in College Students with a History of Reading Disability. Journal of Learning Disabilities, 49, 339– 353.
Alogna, V. K., Attaya, M. K., Aucoin, P., Bahnik, S., Birch, S., Birt, A. R., ... Zwaan, R. A. (2014). Registered replication report: Schooler & Engstler-Schooler (1990). Perspectives on Psychological Science, 9, 556–578.
Birch, S. & Rayner, K. (2010). Effects of Syntactic Prominence on Eye Movements during Reading. Memory & Cognition, 38(6), 740-752.
Birch, S.L., & Chase, C.H. (2004). Visual and language processing deficits in compensated and impaired college students with dyslexia. Journal of Learning Disabilities, 37, 389-410.
Birch, S.L., and Clifton, C. (2002). Effects of Varying Focus and Accenting of Adjuncts on the Comprehension of Utterances. Journal of Memory and Language, 47, 571-588.
Birch, S.L., Pollatsek, A., and Kingston, J. (1998). The nature of the sound codes accessed by visual language. Journal of Memory and Language, 38, 70-93.
Lea, R.B., Mason, R.A., Albrecht, J.E., Birch, S.L., & Myers, J.L. (1998). Who knows what about whom: What role does common ground play in accessing distant information? Journal of Memory and Language, 39, 70-84.
Birch, S.L. & Rayner, K. (1997). Linguistic focus affects eye movements during reading. Memory & Cognition, 25, 653-660.
Birch, S.L., & Brewer, W.F. (1995). The fate of originally-presented surface information following recall errors in sentence memory tasks. The European Journal of Cognitive Psychology, 7, 145-167.
Birch, S.L., & Clifton, C.E. (1995). Focus, accent, and argument structure: Effects on language comprehension. Language and Speech, 38, 365-391.
Birch, S.L., & Garnsey, S.M. (1995). The effect of focus on memory for words in sentences. Journal of Memory and Language, 34, 232-267.
Birch, S., Logory, D., and Wagaman, B. (2019, November). Effects of Verbal Description and Race in Face Identification. Presented at the Psychonomic Society meeting, Montreal, Québec.
Desrochers, M., Birch, S., Margolin, S., & *Castaneda, J. (2015, May). Peer Mentoring of Undergraduate Psychology Students in Career and Graduate School Preparation. Presented at the Association for Psychological Science Annual Convention, New York, NY.
Birch, S. & *Kelly, C. (2015, May). Race of Observer may mediate Verbal Overshadowing Effects. Presented at the Association for Psychological Science Annual Convention, New York, NY.
Birch, S. (2013, May). Exploring the Double Deficit Hypothesis in College Students Without Reading Disability. Presented at the Association for Psychological Science Annual Convention, Washington, D.C.Birch, S. (2010, November). A Study of the Double Deficit Hypothesis in College Students with Dyslexia. Presented at the Psychonomic Society meeting, St. Louis, MO.
Birch, S. (2009, November). Processing differences between subgroups of college students with dyslexia. Presented at the Psychonomic Society meeting, Boston, MA.
Birch, S.L., & Prince, D. J. (2005, November). Do subtypes exist among nondyslexic readers? Presented at the Psychonomic Society meeting, Toronto, Ontario.
Birch, S.L., & Clifton, C.E. (2004, November). Does an implicitly mentioned instrument require a pitch accent?. Presented at the Psychonomic Society meeting, Minneapolis, MN.
Birch, S.L., & Chase, C. (2001, November). Visual and language processing deficits in adults with varying degrees of reading impairment. Presented at the Psychonomic Society meeting, Orlando, FL.
Novick, D., Frank, E. and Birch, S. (2001, November). Effects of a psycho-educational intervention on laboratory stress. Presented at the Society for Research in Psychopathology, Madison, WI.
Birch, S.L., & Rayner, K. (2000, November). Effects of syntactic prominence on fixation durations. Presented at the Psychonomic Society meeting, New Orleans, LA.
Chase, C., & Birch, S. (2000, February). Delayed and phonological adult dyslexics. Presented at the annual meeting of the International Neuropsychological Society, Denver, CO.
Birch, S.L., Albrecht, J.E., & Myers, J.L. (1998, November). Eye movement measures of syntactic focus effects on pronoun resolution. Presented at the Psychonomic Society meeting, Dallas, TX.
Birch, S.L., & Clifton, C.E. (1997, November). Effects of varying focus and accenting of adjectives on the comprehension of utterances. Presented at the Psychonomic Society meeting, Philadelphia, PA.
Chase, C., Monfette, S., & Birch, S.L. (1997, November). Color filters and reading: A behavioral and neurophysiological study. Presented at the Psychonomic Society meeting, Philadelphia, PA.
Birch, S.L., & Pollatsek, A. (1996, November). The nature of the phonological code accessed by visual language. Presented at the Psychonomic Society meeting, Chicago, IL.
Chase, C.H., & Birch, S.L. (1996, November). Visual processing capabilities of adult dyslexic readers. Presented at the Psychonomic Society meeting, Chicago, IL.
Chase, C.H., & Birch, S.L (1996, June). The role of low spatial frequencies in word perception. Presented at the American Psychological Society meeting, San Francisco.
Birch, S.L., Albrecht, J.E., & Myers, J.L. (1995, November). Syntactic focusing structures influence discourse production and comprehension. Presented at the Psychonomic Society meeting, Los Angeles, CA.
Lea, R.B., Albrecht, J.E., Birch, S.L., Mason, R., & Myers, J.L. (1995, November). The role of common ground in accessing distant information during reading. Presented at the Psychonomic Society meeting, Los Angeles, CA.
Birch, S.L., & Clifton, C.E. (1995, March). Investigating the focus- accent-argument structure relationship. Presented at the CUNY Sentence Processing Conference, Tucson, AZ.
Birch, S.L., & Rayner, K. (1994, November). Effects of linguistic focus on eye movements. Presented at the Psychonomic Society meeting, St. Louis, MO.
Birch, S.L. (1993, June). The effects of focus in sentence comprehension: Speeded recognition. Presented at the American Psychological Society meeting, Chicago, IL.
Birch, S.L. (1993, May). Focus effects in sentence comprehension: Naming. Presented at the Midwestern Psychological Association meeting, Chicago, IL.
Birch, S.L., & Brewer, W.F. (1990, November). Memory permanence versus memory replacement in sentence recall. Presented at the Psychonomic Society meeting, New Orleans, LA.
Birch, S.L. (1990, May). Implicit memory for original lexical information in mis-recalled sentences: Trace replacement or trace destruction? Presented at the Midwestern Psychological Association meeting, Chicago, IL.
