My research focuses on issues of mental representation and computation in the areas of spatial cognition and lexical processing.  I study cognitive deficits in children and adults with brain damage or learning disabilities, with the aim of gaining insight into normal cognitive representations and processes, how these are instantiated in the brain, and how they are disrupted when the brain is damaged or fails to develop normally.  For example, an extensive study of a college student with a remarkable impairment in perceiving the locations and orientations of visual stimuli (despite normal visual acuity) has led to conclusions about the nature of spatial representations in the normal visual system (McCloskey et al., 1995; McCloskey & Palmer, 1996; McCloskey & Rapp, 2000a, 2000b).  In other research involving brain-damaged patients with impairments in writing, patterns of impaired performance provide grounds for conclusions about the forms of mental representation underlying lexical processing, and the computations carried out over these representations (e.g., McCloskey et al., 1994).

Finally, I am interested in foundational issues in cognitive science, including the rationale for adopting a representational/computational conception of the mind, the relationship between cognitive science and neuroscience, the fundamental distinctions between connectionist and symbolic frameworks, and the role of simulation in cognitive science (e.g., McCloskey, 1991).

050.105 Introduction to Cognitive Neuropsychology
050.306 Laboratory in Cognitive Neuropsychology
050.315 Cognitive Neuropsychology of Visual Perception
050.364/664 Advanced Topics in Cognitive Neuropsychology
050.600 Theory and Methods in Cognitive Psychology
050.601 Theoretical and Methodological Issues in Cognitive Neuropsychology
050.602 Topics in Cognitive Neuropsychology
050.802 Research Seminar in Cognitive Processes

McCloskey, M. (submitted). Spatial Representations and Multiple-Visual-Systems Hypotheses: Evidence from a Developmental Deficit in Visual Location and Orientation Processing.

McCloskey, M. (2003). Beyond Task Dissociation Logic: A Richer Conception of Cognitive Neuropsychology. Cortex, 39, 196-202

Whalen, J., McCloskey, M., Lindemann, M., & Bouton, G. (2002). Representing arithmetic table facts in memory: Evidence from acquired impairments. Cognitive Neuropsychology, 19, 505-522.

McCloskey, M. (2000). Future directions in cognitive neuropsychology. In B. Rapp (Ed.), What deficits reveal about the human mind/brain: A handbook of cognitive neuropsychology (pp. 593-610). Philadelphia: Psychology Press.

McCloskey, M. (2000). Spatial representation in mind and brain. In B. Rapp (Ed.), What deficits reveal about the human mind/brain: A handbook of cognitive neuropsychology (pp. 101-132). Philadelphia: Psychology Press.

McCloskey, M., & Rapp, B. (2000a). Attention-referenced visual representations: Evidence from impaired visual localization. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception and Performance, 26, 917-933. doi: 10.1037//0096-1523.26.3.917

McCloskey, M., & Rapp, B. (2000b). A visually-based developmental reading deficit. Journal of Memory and Language, 43, 157-181.

McCloskey, M., & Palmer, E. (1996). Visual representation of object location: Insights from localization impairments. Current Directions in Psychological Science, 5, 25-28.

McCloskey, M., Rapp, B., Yantis, S., Rubin, G., Bacon, W. F., Dagnelie, G., Gordon, B., Aliminosa, D., Boatman, D. F., Badecker, W., Johnson, D. N., Tusa, R. J., & Palmer, E. (1995). A developmental deficit in localizing objects from vision. Psychological Science, 6, 112-117.

McCloskey, M., Badecker, W., Goodman-Schulman, R. A., & Aliminosa, D.  (1994).  The structure of graphemic representations in spelling:  Evidence from a case of acquired dysgraphia.  Cognitive Neuropsychology, 11, 341-392.

McCloskey, M.  (1991).  Networks and theories:  The place of connectionism in cognitive science.  Psychological Science, 2, 387-395.

Joint appointments: Department of Psychology, Zanvyl Krieger Mind/Brain Institute

e-mail: michael.mccloskey@jhu.edu
Phone: (410) 516-5325
Office: 147C Krieger Hall
Lab: 147A Krieger Hall
Lab Phone: (410) 516-5245
Mailing address:

Department of Cognitive Science
Johns Hopkins University
237 Krieger Hall
3400 N. Charles St. Baltimore, MD 21218-2685, U.S.A.