Julie Bugg

Julie Bugg

​Professor of Psychological & Brain Sciences
Director of Graduate Studies in Psychological & Brain Sciences
PHD, Colorado State University
MS, Colorado State University
BA, Bloomsburg University of Pennsylvania

contact info:

mailing address:

  • Washington University
    CB 1125
    One Brookings Drive
    St. Louis, MO 63130-4899

Professor Bugg is interested in the use of cognitive control to achieve attention and memory-related goals. She is principal investigator of the Cognitive Control & Aging Lab.

Her research explores the mechanisms that are used to resolve interference in conflict tasks (e.g., Stroop) and the various levels at which these mechanisms operate (e.g., list-level vs. item-specific level). Current areas of focus include: a) factors that moderate selection of top-down vs. stimulus-driven control mechanisms, b) how the presence of environmental contingencies moderates use of top-down control, and c) the differential effects of normal aging on multiple levels of cognitive control. A second line of research examines cognitive training and exercise engagement as strategies older adults can use to maintain and improve cognitive control with age.

Selected Publications

Bugg, J. M., & Chanani, S*. (2011). List-wide control is not entirely elusive: Evidence from picture-word Stroop. Psychonomic Bulletin & Review, 18, 930 – 936. 

Bugg, J.M., Jacoby, L.L., & Chanani, S*. (2011). Why it is too early to lose control in accounts of item-specific proportion congruency effects. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception and Performance, 37, 844 – 859.

Bugg, J. M., McDaniel, M. A., Scullin, M. K., & Braver, T. S. (2011). Revealing list-level control in the Stroop task by uncovering its benefits and a cost. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception and Performance, 37, 1595 – 1606.

Bugg, J. M., & Head, D. (2011). Exercise moderates age-related atrophy of the medial temporal lobe. Neurobiology of Aging, 32, 506 – 514. 

Bugg, J. M. (2008). Opposing influences on conflict-driven adaptation in the Eriksen flanker task. Memory & Cognition, 36(7), 1217 – 1227. 

* denotes undergraduate student

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