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Working Memory and Plasticity Laboratory Meeting
Friday, September 20, 2019 1:00 to 3:00 pm Education Building 3216 Program: Three Ph.D. in Education students will be discussing their first year research poster presentations. Presenter: Daniela Alvarez-Vargas Title: Everything in Moderation: Using Proximal and Distal Measures to Forecast the Long-term Impacts of Math Interventions Research Abstract: Interventionists often justify short-term intervention targets on the basis of their potential for long-term effects. Past attempts have overestimated or underestimated these outcomes. In the present study we use data from a randomized control trial of a first-grade math intervention. We show how omitted variable bias and over-alignment bias from the use of measures proximal to the intervention contribute to the over-estimation of long-term treatment impacts, while under-alignment bias from the use of measures distal to the intervention contributes to the under-estimation of long-term treatment impacts. We identify some promising and some very biased methods for forecasting treatment impacts. In particular, we find that using proximal measures with small impacts and distal measures with large impacts may yield realistic forecasts. Presenter: Joong won (Will) Lee Title: The Relation of Morphological Awareness to Language and Literacy Skills: A Meta-Analysis Research Abstract: The purpose of this meta-analysis was to examine the correlation of morphological awareness with vocabulary, phonological awareness, orthographic awareness, decoding, spelling, reading fluency, and reading comprehension. We synthesized the aforementioned correlations within 64 published studies (N = 16,119) that met our inclusion criteria. Findings indicated that morphological awareness was, on average, significantly related to all the language and literacy skills above– vocabulary (r = .48), phonological awareness (r = .32), orthographic awareness (r = .38), decoding, (r = .44), spelling (r = .49), reading fluency (r = .67), and reading comprehension (r = .56). Moderator analyses showed that the correlations varied by grades, orthographic depth, and type of morphological awareness (e.g., derivation vs. compound). Presenter: Alexandria Weaver Title: Activity Engagement and Cognitive Performance in Older Adults Research Abstract: Research supporting cognitive reserve theory suggests that engaging in a variety of cognitive, social, and physical activities may serve as protective factors against age-related changes in mental abilities, especially if the activities are cognitively engaging. Individuals who participate in a variety of cognitive activities have been found to be less likely to develop Alzheimer’s disease and other related dementias. Here I explored the relationship between engaging in a variety of activities and cognitive performance amongst healthy older adults between the ages of 65-85. Frequency of cognitive activity engagement was found to significantly predict cognitive performance over social and physical activities. These findings suggest that not all activities may be equal in their potential protective abilities. Comments are closed.
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