Researchers Using Brainturk
A Study of Electronic Games and Cognition
Team
Sharon M Ramsay, MPH
Sharon Ramsay has a Master in Public Health and is currently a doctoral candidate at Binghamton University in the Graduate School of Education. The focus of her research is the impact of brain training on children in early childhood (6-8 years old).
Brian Piper, Ph.D.,M.S
Brian Piper has a MS in Experimental Psychology and a PhD in Neuroscience and Behavior. He is currently an Assistant Professor at Husson University School of Pharmacy in Bangor Maine. His research interests are varied and include developing computerized measures of neurobehavioral function that can be used across a wide range of ages.
Peter Gerhardstein, Ph.D.
Gerhardstein’s research, funded by the National Science Foundation, is directed toward understanding how children learn from touchscreens, video, and other 2D media. The presence of a video deficit effect, in which children fail to show learning under circumstances that would pose no issue to an adult, is a central issue motiving this research. This work is intended to understand the underlying developmental causes of this deficit, the specific factors that invoke it, and to provide guidance to developers of educational software and other applications for young children.
Pamela Sandoval,Ph.D.
Pamela Sandoval, Ph.D. has been in higher education for over twenty years with extensive experience in public policy and urban education. She has expertise in assessment, evaluation, accreditation, and quantitative and qualitative research methods. Since January 2011, she serves as Associate Professor in the Binghamton University, Graduate School of Education. She is the Director for the EDD in Theory and Practice in Education. She teaches research methods, policy, and social foundations. From January 2006, she served as Assistant Provost for P-16 Education in the Office of Academic Affairs at SUNY System Administration. As Assistant Provost, she was Liaison to SUNY Education Programs and led a number of SUNY System P-16 efforts. Prior to that administrative role, she was an Associate Professor at Indiana University Northwest (IUN). She was principal investigator in over $2 million in grants at IUN and participated in over $30 million in successful grant applications. She has twelve peer reviewed publications as well as numerous articles, reports, and national presentations.
Novartis Research
Christian Schaaf, MD, PhD, FACMG
Christian is a medical geneticist at Texas Children’s Hospital and an assistant professor in the department of Molecular and Human Genetics at Baylor College of Medicine. He researches the genetic causes of neuropsychiatric disorders in general, and autism spectrum disorder in particular. Current clinical studies involve individuals who have copy number variants of the CHRNA7 gene.
Individual Researchers
Brooke M DeWitt, MA (Doctoral Candidate, School Psychology)
Brief summary of my research project:
Physical activity has been shown to improve cognitive performance, academic achievement, and executive functioning in children, yet few studies have looked at engagement behaviors following physical activity. Student engagement is one of the most critical factors in students' success in school. For this study, school aged students were exposed to a cognitively engaging group activity of variable amounts of physical activity: sedentary board game play, skills building physical activity (not designed to reach moderate to vigorous level), and moderate-vigorous physical activity (i.e. basketball game). Students were randomly assigned to each condition 3 times over 9 days. Following the activities, students completed a BrainTurk Go / No-Go iPad task measuring response inhibition and were observed in the classroom using an interval-recording tool, the Behavioral Observation of Students in Schools (BOSS). The primary purpose of this study is to see if moderate to vigorous activity can promote changes in student engagement in a classroom setting through changes in response inhibition.
Nancy Barber, MA (Speech Pathology)
Nancy Barber is currently completing masters research in which she is researching the acute language and cognitive recovery profiles of bilingual persons who have had a stroke or head injury. It is hypothesized that this will provide information regarding influence of bilingualism on recovery as well as the role cognition may play when deciding on therapy approaches for patients. Participant's language is being assessed as well as nonverbal executive functions of updating, mental shifting and inhibition at 6 and 12 weeks post injury. For mental shifting, the number-letter task by Roger and Monsell(1995) is being employed. Brainturk.com has developed the software required for patients to complete this task.
Jessica Moschetto, B.S.
Graduate student researcher at Northern Arizona University.Currently, with the help of the Brainturk website and a group of dedicated students,she is conducting a study investigating the effects of Lemonade on decision-making.
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