Past lab members
... assessing cognition in the healthy, the aging, the injured, and the malingering ...
Graduate Students
As thesis director to three graduate students who completed the research concentration at UTC, my role is to collaborate with students on a two year research program that will prepare them to attain a research-based career or pursue further post-graduate training. In addition I co-supervised graduate students in the Masters of Science in Occupational Therapy program at University of Toronto. Students in that program complete work in pairs under the direction of a faculty member to complete a one-year research project.
Sarah Finley (2012-2014)
Sarah's thesis examined the relationship between self-reported behavioral regulation and executive function. Her results indicated that greater self-regulation is related to fewer attention-related cognitive errors in everyday life, and, after controlling for speed, fewer errors on the Slip Induction Task which requires occasional deviations from a routine.
Upon graduation from UTC Sarah moved to Texas where she worked for one year as a research assistant at Baylor University and completed courses at University of North Texas. She is now completing a counseling program at University of Arkansas.
A note from Sarah: "I truly cannot express the gratitude I feel for all that you have done for me. You are so supportive and inspirational, than you so much for all you invested in me as a student. UTC is lucky to have you and I hope you continue to enjoy your time here."
R. Christopher Branson (2014-2016)
Chris' thesis studied the relationship among clinical screening measures of global cognition, measures of executive function, and instrumental activities of daily living in individuals with Parkinson’s disease. While he found that the Texas Functional Living Scale was better able to identify functional impairment, he also determined that the UTC-Multiple Errands Test was able to distinguish inefficient behavior in Parkinson’s disease participants.
Upon graduation UTC Chris accepted a position as a psychometrist in Tucson, Arizona. He recently moved to a position as a psychometrist at UCLA Semel Institute/Resnick Neuropsychiatric Hospital.
A note from Chris: "Thank you for the time and energy you have given to help me succeed during our time working together. You have made a life changing impact on me and I have learned more over the past year and a half than I ever have before. I am grateful for that and the opportunity to continue to work with and learn from you."
Allen Nida (2014-2016)
Allen's thesis explored the relationship between monitoring during two prospective memory (PM) tasks and performance during the UTC Multiple Errands Test. Allen's data indicated that accuracy on an eye-tracking PM task was a significant predictor of UTC-MET task completions but no other significant relationships were found.
Upon graduation from UTC Allen accepted a position as a psychometrist at St. Luke's Rehabilitation Hospital. He loves his position and he also enjoys living in Boise!
A note from Allen: "I have so much to thank you for. You have been a tremendous mentor in research and I have thoroughly enjoyed working together. I feel as if you have gone far beyond the call of duty in ensuring my success. Thank you for everything you've done."
Melissa Hansen & Nicole De Amicis (2015-2016)
Melissa and Nicole performed secondary analyses on two datasets to determine the cognitive contributors to performance on the Multiple Errands Test. They presented their findings in poster format at the 2016 meeting of the Canadian Association of Occupational Therapy and their manuscript is in press with the American Journal of Occupational Therapy.
Nicole VanRuymbeke & Cassandra Burns (2011-2012)
Nicole and Cassandra conducted a naturalistic experiment looking at the impact of random cued stopping on performance of experimental and everyday tasks that require executive function. Nicole and Cassandra presented their work in poster format at the 2012 meeting of the Canadian Association of Occupational Therapy.
Past Undergraduate Students
During my time at UTC I have supervised two students completing their Departmental Honors thesis projects (Haley Popp in 2014/15 and Carly Jessup in 2017/18), 14 undergraduate researchers enrolled in PSY 4997 and a further 10 volunteer undergraduate researchers.
I encourage undergraduate students who work with me to present some element of their research at UTC's ReSEARCH day and at other regional conferences when feasible. While student research mentorship is a time intensive process I find it is incredibly rewarding.
Thesis Committees
In addition to directing thesis projects for the students listed above, I have also mentored additional graduate and undergraduate student as a member of their thesis committees. Since 2013 I have been a member of 5 graduate thesis committees within the Department of Psychology (Matt McCurdy, Natalie Kuliesek, Edward Christopher, Katie Pendergast and Suzanne Gagliano), 2 department honors thesis committees (Iain Scott and Olivia Howard) and 1 Doctor of Nursing Practice committee.