Some current projects
_____________
Cognitive and Physical Exercise Self-Efficiency
Cognitive self-efficacy is a person’s belief in their cognitive abilities. Self-efficacy is believed to motivate people to engage in any kind of exercise, including cognitive exercise. It is hypothesized that challenge and enjoyment impact motivation to engage in any kind of exercise. This study explored the impact of challenge and enjoyment on older adults’ cognitive self efficacy. 146 healthy adults, 55 years of age and older, completed an online survey about exercise. These results will inform continued research to develop meaningful cognitive exercise programs for elderly individuals on a personalized basis.
Figurative Language Project
The goal of this project is to explore figurative language comprehension in both healthy individuals and those with an acquired brain injury. This project looks at multiple types of figurative language and examines the existing assessment tools for measuring comprehension. This project also looks at the relationship between figurative language comprehension and factors such as age, cultural background, geographic location.
Silent Movie Project
The goal of this research is to understand individuals’ understanding of emotions that are conveyed nonverbally (healthy individuals and individuals with acquired brain injuries including stroke and traumatic brain injury). Research questions are as follows: Do healthy individuals demonstrate appropriate understanding of emotions conveyed during nonverbal movies (e.g., positive/negative, happy/sad, funny/tragic, etc.)? Do cognitive-communicatively impaired individuals demonstrate appropriate understanding of emotions conveyed during nonverbal movies (e.g., positive/negative, happy/sad, funny/tragic, etc.)?
Improving Verbal Expression in Persons with Nonfluent Aphasia
Persons with nonfluent aphasia typically understand what others say but have trouble saying what they want to say. Examples of common difficulties include: 1) struggling to get words out; 2) leaving words out; 3) speaking in short sentences or non-sentences; and 4) speaking in unnatural ways, without rhythm, flow, and inflection. This study is exploring therapeutic use of computerized tools to improve the verbal expression of persons with nonfluent aphasia. By stimulating parts of the brain used for talking, we hope to provide speech-language pathologists with new information to help them plan therapy and help their patients achieve the best speech therapy outcomes possible.