Cognitive and Learning Sciences News

Category: Research

Dr. Kelly Steelman and CLS Affiliated Faculty Receive National Science Foundation Grant

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Dr. Kelly Steelman (CLS) is the Principal Investigator of a newly funded project titled “EAGER: SAI: Illuminated Devices: A Sociotechnical Approach to Empowering Digital Citizens and Strengthening Digital Infrastructure.” The National Science Foundation (NSF) is awarding a research and development grant of $299,617.

Michigan Tech faculty members Dr. Briana Bettin and Dr. Leo Ureel, who have joint appointments in CLS and CS, and Dr. Charles Wallace, who is affiliated with CLS, are named as Co-Principal Investigators.

Find the project’s abstract and additional information on the NSF’s website here.

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ACSHF Forum: Monday, January 11

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Over the last 100 years, the way we work has changed drastically, transitioning from the early ideas of scientific management by Frederick Taylor to concepts rooted in high organizational agility. Agile, a movement focused on improving the way we work, is one of the movements that has led the way to transforming the way we think about working with people.

During this session, Mark Cruth, a long-time Agile advocate and 2009 Michigan Tech Psychology graduate, will share his experience with Agile and how leveraging intrinsic motivation has positively influencing organizational culture change over the last 20 years. Please join us on Zoom for the presentation on Monday, January 11, at 2 pm. Zoom meeting link.

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ACSHF Forum: Monday, February 8

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Cyber crime has a significant impact on nations, corporations, and individuals. Violations of information security can reduce consumer confidence and valuation at the corporate level, and jeopardize social and financial well-being at the personal level.

In this talk, Robert West, an Elizabeth P. Allen Distinguished University Professor in the Department of Psychology and Neuroscience of DePauw University, will explore the findings of some of his recent research to demonstrate the utility of a decision neuroscience approach to providing insight into the neural correlates of ethical decision making in the context of information security. Please join the ACSHF Forum on Zoom Monday, February 8, at 2 pm. Zoom meeting link

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ACSHF Forum with Dr. Ricardo Eiris

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All are invited to attend a virtual conversation with Dr. Ricardo Eiris, whose research leverages virtual reality to enable STEM students to obtain active learning experiences in remote, dangerous, or too expensive to reach locations.

In this ACSHF Forum, Dr. Eiris will be discussing how virtual reality can be used to deliver virtual field trip experiences to STEM students. Site visits or field trips are a common tool utilized by STEM educators to engage students in active learning, assist traditional lessons, and attain stronger and deeper student learning experiences. However, there are major logistical challenged for educational institutions and teachers to perform these types of experiences. These barriers to implement site visits effectively reduce the number of students that have access to the benefits of such technique. By exploring the intersection of engineering, computer science, and cognitive and learning sciences, Dr. Eiris’ work in virtual site visits aim to overcome the existing barriers for STEM field trips and provide means to expand learning beyond what is possible in the classroom or the field.

Please join Dr. Eiris in exploring the democratization of STEM site visits to enable students to have unlimited access to otherwise impossible opportunities. Some of the specific multidisciplinary topics that will be covered in this forum discussion will be virtual reality, omnidirectional images, virtual humans, collaborative learning, and attentional allocation.

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ACSHF Forum: Monday, September 14, 2020

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This ACSHF Forum promises to provide even the most seasoned researcher a fresh perspective on human subject research (HSR). Attendees will receive a brief history of human rights violations that lead to the development of the Belmont Report, MTU’s guiding principles and the Common Rule. It will summarize why MTU is required to have both a Human Research Protection Program (HRPP) and an Institutional Review Board (IRB), their differences, and how they function at MTU.

In addition, attendees will learn HSR training requirements, process for determining if a project is Research or research, project submission process, review levels, and PI responsibilities of approved non-exempt projects. Please join the ACSHF Forum via Zoom.

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Alexandra Watral Awarded BCBS Grant

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Alexandra Watral, Applied Cognitive Science and Human Factors PhD student, has been awarded a Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan Foundation Student Award Grant for the upcoming academic year. This grant will support her research investigating the use of newly developed, brief clinical motor measures as diagnostic tools for mild cognitive impairment and Alzheimer’s disease.

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Psychology Research Methods 2020 Poster Conference Zooms Out!

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Congratulations to Michigan Tech’s psychology students who presented their original research posters today to CLS faculty and graduate students…over Zoom! (That’s a first!)

The research, which students worked on all semester, covered a range of topics from personality to human factors, decision making to well-being.
Great job Huskies!

“The Effect of Mindfulness within Pre-Game Rituals on Self-Reported Confidence and the Acute Effects of Mindfulness on Present State of Well-Being” by Emilie Jacques and Tyrell Buckley.

“The Effects of Priming with Informative Videos on Likelihood to Report Symptoms of Seasonal Affective Disorder“ by Ashley Van Handel, Erin Casey, and Emily Wisz.

“The Effects of Gamer Status and Gender on Impulsivity in Decisions and Thoughts” by Mariah Clement.

“The Effect of Word List Length on False Memory Generation Using the Deese-Roediger-McDermott Paradigm” by Alex Pippenger

“Impact of Self-Esteem on Levels of Regret in Action-Inaction Decision Scenarios” by Brooke C. Poyhonen.

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CLS Faculty and Students Attend Human Factors and Ergonomics Society Conference

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Nine faculty and students at conference
Pictured left to right: Samantha Smith (Fac), Margo Woller-Carter (alum), Kelly Steelman (Fac), Alexandra Watral (MS Stud), Abigail Kuehne (UG Stud, Accelerated MS), Shruti Amre (Ph.D. Stud), Susie Amato-Henderson (Fac), Lavanya Rajesh Kumar (Ph.D. Stud). Missing from photo: Dr. Beth Veinott (Fac), Kaitlyn Roose (Ph.D. Student)

The Department of Cognitive and Learning Sciences supported the travel of 9 faculty and students to attend this year’s Human Factors and Ergonomics Society Conference in Seattle October 28 – November 1, 2019.

We are beyond proud of this group of fine people, and ESPECIALLY love that we are not the “typical” faces of scientists in this field, or at Michigan Tech.

Six Tech undergraduate and graduate students attended and met folks from a variety of government and industry research labs, presented the ACSHF department poster, and all around enjoyed Seattle.

Dr. Elizabeth Veinott organized a panel on Training and Transfer: Exploring issues of embedded training in complex systems with industry and Coast Guard partners.  As systems become smarter, development cycles are accelerated, and operational requirements are more dynamic, new ET models, methods, and evaluation strategies are needed.  Dr. Veinott talked about her research developing embedded decision training for different operational teams.  Kaitlyn Roose, one of her PhD students, also attended HFES before heading off to have Esport discussions at BlizzCon.

Dr. Samantha Smith served as co-chair of a session on the use of physiological measures in cognitive engineering and decision making and also presented a research lecture on the relationship between cerebral hemodynamics and sustained attention. In addition to the keynote presentations, Dr. Smith particularly enjoyed attending discussion panels centered around systems and strategies for promoting human factors teaching and learning, and strategies for enhancing equality in the field of human factors and ergonomics.

Dr. Kelly Steelman served as the chair of a session on Perception and Safety on the Roads. As a 2019 HFES Science Policy Fellow, she also attended trainings with the HFES Government Relations Committee and Lewis-Burke Associates to learn more about government affairs and opportunities to impact the policy process. A highlight of the trip was attending a VIP tour of the Boeing Everett Factory to see the many aspects of human factors in aircraft manufacturing and workplace safety.

Nine faculty and students at conference

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Kaitlyn Roose Discusses The Psychology of Esports in APA Podcast

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Russell Shilling, PhD, guest host for Speaking of Psychology and chief scientific officer for the American Psychological Association, sat down at APA2019 to talk with Shawn Doherty, PhD, and Kaitlyn Roose, MS, to discuss the psychology of esports, the benefits of gaming on higher level cognition and the culture of video games.

If you would like to listen to the full podcast, click here.  The link also provides a full transcript and video of the interview.

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