2026 Karen Emmorey: Psychology Researcher – H-Index, Publications & Awards

Discipline name	D-Index	World Ranking	Current World Ranking	National Ranking	Current National Ranking	Publications	Citations
Psychology	68	2491	2279	1441	1289	221	16392

Research.com Recognitions

2010 - Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS)

Overview

Karen Emmorey is affiliated with San Diego State University in the United States. Their research primarily spans the fields of psychology and neuroscience, with a strong emphasis on developmental and educational psychology, cognitive neuroscience, experimental and cognitive psychology, human-computer interaction, and social psychology.

The scientist's work covers several main topics, including hearing impairment and communication, hand gesture recognition systems, language, metaphor, and cognition, tactile and sensory interactions, neurobiology of language and bilingualism, action observation and synchronization, and reading and literacy development.

Frequent co-authors in their research include Phillip J. Holcomb, Katherine J. Midgley, Zed Sevcikova Sehyr, Brittany Lee, and Gabriela Meade.

Karen Emmorey has published extensively in the following venues:

Neuropsychologia
The Journal of Deaf Studies and Deaf Education
Brain and Language
Bilingualism Language and Cognition
Neurobiology of Language

Notable recent papers authored or coauthored by Karen Emmorey include:

"The ASL-LEX 2.0 Project: A Database of Lexical and Phonological Properties for 2,723 Signs in American Sign Language" (2021) in The Journal of Deaf Studies and Deaf Education
"Contribution of Lexical Quality and Sign Language Variables to Reading Comprehension" (2022) in The Journal of Deaf Studies and Deaf Education
"Cross-modal translation priming and iconicity effects in deaf signers and hearing learners of American Sign Language" (2020) in Bilingualism Language and Cognition
"New Perspectives on the Neurobiology of Sign Languages" (2021) in Frontiers in Communication
"On the Connection Between Language Control and Executive Control-An ERP Study" (2021) in Neurobiology of Language

In 2010, Karen Emmorey was recognized as a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS).

Best Publications

Language, Cognition, and the Brain: Insights From Sign Language Research

Karen Denise Emmorey

1455
Citations
The Source of Enhanced Cognitive Control in Bilinguals Evidence From Bimodal Bilinguals

Karen Emmorey;Gigi Luk;Jennie E. Pyers;Ellen Bialystok

473
Citations
Symbolic gestures and spoken language are processed by a common neural system

Jiang Xu;Patrick J. Gannon;Karen Emmorey;Jason F. Smith

416
Citations
Visual imagery and visual-spatial language: Enhanced imagery abilities in deaf and hearing ASL signers

Karen Emmorey;Stephen M. Kosslyn;Ursula Bellugi

390
Citations
Neural systems mediating American sign language: effects of sensory experience and age of acquisition.

Helen J. Neville;Sharon A. Coffey;Donald S. Lawson;Andrew Fischer

390
Citations
Towards a New Neurobiology of Language

David Poeppel;Karen Emmorey;Gregory Hickok;Liina Pylkkänen

350
Citations
Differential coding of perception in the world's languages

Asifa Majid;Asifa Majid;Seán G. Roberts;Ludy Cilissen;Karen Emmorey

329
Citations
Lexical Recognition in Sign Language: Effects of Phonetic Structure and Morphology

Karen Emmorey;David Corina

311
Citations
Perspectives on Classifier Constructions in Sign Languages

Karen Denise Emmorey

304
Citations
Bimodal bilingualism

Unknown

283
Citations
A visuospatial “phonological loop” in working memory: Evidence from American Sign Language

Margaret Wilson;Karen Emmorey

282
Citations
Familiar voice recognition: Patterns and parameters. Part I. Recognition of backward voices

Diana Van Lancker;Jody Kreiman;Karen Emmorey

277
Citations
ASL-LEX: A lexical database of American Sign Language

Naomi K. Caselli;Zed Sevcikova Sehyr;Ariel M. Cohen-Goldberg;Karen Emmorey

273
Citations
A morphometric analysis of auditory brain regions in congenitally deaf adults

Karen Emmorey;John S. Allen;Joel Bruss;Natalie Schenker

272
Citations
Do signers gesture

Karen Emmorey

263
Citations
Neural systems underlying spatial language in American Sign Language.

Karen Emmorey;Hanna Damasio;Hanna Damasio;Stephen McCullough;Thomas J. Grabowski

251
Citations
The neurological substrates for prosodic aspects of speech.

Karen D. Emmorey

223
Citations
A "word length effect" for sign language: further evidence for the role of language in structuring working memory.

Margaret Wilson;Karen Emmorey

218
Citations
Mental rotation within linguistic and non-linguistic domains in users of American sign language.

Karen Emmorey;Edward Klima;Edward Klima;Gregory Hickok

212
Citations
Modulation of bold response in motion-sensitive lateral temporal cortex by real and fictive motion sentences

Ayse Pinar Saygin;Stephen McCullough;Stephen McCullough;Morana Alac;Karen Emmorey;Karen Emmorey

201
Citations
Evidence from an emerging sign language reveals that language supports spatial cognition

Jennie E. Pyers;Anna Shusterman;Ann Senghas;Elizabeth S. Spelke

201
Citations
Linguistics: The Cambridge Survey: The mental lexicon

Karen D. Emmorey;Victoria A. Fromkin

183
Citations
The Syntax of American Sign Language: Functional Categories and Hierarchical Structure: by Carol Neidle et al.

Karen Emmorey

66
Citations
Consequences of the Now-or-Never bottleneck for signed versus spoken languages.

Karen Emmorey

4
Citations

Frequent Co-Authors

Hanna Damasio University of Southern California

Tamar H. Gollan University of California, San Diego

Ursula Bellugi Salk Institute for Biological Studies

Liina Pylkkänen New York University Abu Dhabi

Stephen M. Kosslyn Harvard University

Jonathan Grainger Aix-Marseille University

Stephen C. Levinson Radboud University

Gregory Hickok University of California, Irvine

David P. Corina University of California, Davis

Angela D. Friederici Max Planck Institute for Human Cognitive and Brain Sciences

External Links

Personal website of Karen Emmorey

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