Author Archives: pagegould

Mentor: Dr. Jennifer Ryan Project Description The goal of this research project is to use web-based online eyetracking platforms to develop a short task that may screen for memory problems in older adults. The way we view the world is influenced by how we make memories, and what we can remember. This research project willContinue reading “Online screening for age-related memory decline”

Mentor: Dr. Asaf Gilboa Project Description Learning something new is easier if we already have knowledge on that topic, but how this happens in the brain is only beginning to be understood. Most studies of how the brain makes new memories use stimuli, such as a list of unrelated words, that separate information from itsContinue reading “How prior knowledge begets new memories”

Mentor: Dr. Nicole Anderson Project Description Autobiographical memory is poor for our early years; we recall few events from our first three years of life, and memory for events occurring between the ages of 4 and 7 is spotty. This Òchildhood amnesiaÓ has been attributed to various sources. The hippocampus is not developed sufficiently inContinue reading “Development of autobiographical memory”

Mentor: Dr. Jed Meltzer Project Description My lab studies language processing in adults, with applications to diagnosis and rehabilitation of disorders such as stroke and dementia, second language learning, and the relationship of language to other cognitive and motor processes. Recently we have studied the use of advanced software-based techniques for efficiently studying words, bothContinue reading “Language revitalization through optimized learning techniques”

Mentor: Dr. Michael Mack Project Description Our ability to learn, reason, and remember often go hand-in-hand. However, scientific research has largely treated them as independent abilities with separate brain systems. More recent cognitive neuroscience findings suggest otherwise—the same brain regions known to support memory, like the hippocampus, also play a role in new learning. InContinue reading “Learning, memory, and reasoning: the mutual interplay of cognition’s key mechanisms”

Mentor: Dr. Tina Malti Project Description Child emotional and behavioral challenges are a significant health issue in Canada and are of heightened concern during the COVID-19 pandemic. Promotion of children’s social-emotional development (e.g., emotion regulation, empathy, and self-reflection) using a trauma-informed approach may be a fruitful means to support children and families in combating difficultiesContinue reading “Research and Practice Partnership: Building Awareness and Increasing Social Emotional Capacity in the Early Years (RAISE)”

Mentor: Dr. Ryann Manning Project Description Diaspora communities – individuals who identify with and retain a connection to their country of birth or ancestry, but reside elsewhere (Nielsen & Riddle, 2009)—can play an important role during times of crisis their countries of origin (DEMAC, 2016; Erikson, 2014; International Organization for Migration, 2015; Loebach, 2015; Nagarajan,Continue reading “Diaspora Communities Organizing in Response to Disasters”

Mentor: Dr. Becca Neel Project Description People want to belong and to be valued by others, but sometimes, that desire is thwarted. Devaluation can take many forms. In our lab, we are examining one form of devaluation in particular: invisibility. When someone is invisible, they are overlooked and ignored by others. How does a personContinue reading “Responses to Feeling Invisible”

Mentor: Dr. Rosanna Olsen Project Description Alzheimer’s disease (AD) is a devastating and costly neurodegenerative illness. A major barrier to the discovery of new treatments is that we currently lack measures that can detect AD prior to symptom onset. Early and effective diagnosis of AD provides a critical opportunity for patients to seek out treatmentsContinue reading “Evaluating eye-movement and brain imaging indicators that predict dementia in healthy older adults”

Mentor: Dr. Elizabeth Page-Gould Project Description Taken on the whole, interacting with other people – even virtually – seems fundamental to human thriving. Indeed, meaningful interactions make for a good life. However, not all social interactions leave us feeling fulfilled. This descriptive project seeks to map out the qualities of meaningful interactions, with a particularContinue reading “Meaningful Interactions with Friends”

Mentor: Dr. Samuel Ronfard Project Description Unlike older children and adults, preschool children typically judge improbable events, such as making blue applesauce or finding an alligator under a bed, to be impossible. This developmental pattern is robust and holds for phenomena across the physical, psychological, and biological domains. Children and adults might be making differentContinue reading “Children and adults’ thinking about possible, improbable, and impossible events”

Mentor: Dr. Meg Schlichting Project Description Past work suggests that the memories of children, adolescents, and adults differ in many ways. There may be important differences in both how memories are stored as well as how they are later accessed that give rise to the myriad behavioural changes we see over development. For example, itContinue reading “Memory Organization and Development”

Mentor: Dr. Jessica Sommerville Project Description Even babies possess moral tendencies: infants will help others achieve their goals, and evaluate others based on whether they are helpful or harmful. At the same time, we know that these early moral sensitivities likely differ from more mature moral responses in fundamental ways. The question is, how? TheContinue reading “Good and Evil, Reward and Punishment”

Mentor: Dr. Jennifer Stellar Project Description Hierarchies in which some individuals have more power than others are a defining feature of almost every group or society. However, holding power does not necessarily mean one fully understands the extent of their power. For example, a boss may think that if they ask their employee to helpContinue reading “Are people blind to their own power?”

Mentor: Dr. Romin Tafarodi Project Description The rapid growth and development of the service sector over the past half-century has led to the increased pragmatizing of knowledge as occupational asset. How is this reflected in our understanding of knowledge itself? To examine how university students at the University of Toronto define, identify, pursue, and hopeContinue reading “How do first-year undergraduate students understand “knowledge”?”

Mentor: Dr. Soo Min Toh Project Description How does the work and non-work domains of your life interact to influence how well you perform in each domain? How can one domain enhance the other in a mutually supporting and sustainable way? Different researchers have approached these questions from different perspectives and on different populations. WithContinue reading “Technology and You: How Digital Devices and Applications affect Work and Non-Work Performance and Health”

Mentor: Dr. Benjamin Wolfe Project Description If you are driving down the road and someone steps into the road ahead of you, what do you need to know to stop in time? How quickly can you understand the scene and understand what you can do to avoid a crash? I’ve shown that we can understandContinue reading “Understanding how drivers respond to dangerous situations”