Educational Neuroscience | The University of Alabama

"WBRC" Interviewed Dr. Hyemin Han

10/18/2021

Dr. Hyemin Han talks about the increased framing effect during the COVID -19 pandemic. His study shows how to frame the messaging better about how to persuade people to get vaccinated and take preventive measures to deal with COVID-19 spread, which could be a perfect way for the policymaker and health organization to release information better in the future. So, people will be more likely to take action on COVID-19 or some other types of diseases.
Here is the WBRC news link: https://bit.ly/3Fo962k

Congratulations to Dr. Hyemin Han for his research work on " Replicating the disease framing problem during the 2020 COVID-19 pandemic: A study of stress, worry, trust, and choice under risk".
Here is a link to the research: https://bit.ly/3tydcQg

Graduate Student Mentorship Leads to Undergraduate Research Award

4/21/2021

This past academic year, PhD student Cailee Nelson has been mentoring undergraduate student Madelyn Armstrong in the NERD Lab. Madelyn presented her research at UA's annual Undergraduate Research and Creative Activity (URCA) Conference, where she was awarded "First Place Work in Progress" for the "Education" category. In collaboration with Dr. Laura Morett, director of the the NERD Lab, the group has been researching "The effect of transitioning to online classes on students with and without Autism Spectrum Disorder” (also the title of their project). Congratulations to Madelyn, Cailee, and Dr. Morett on their work.

See the University's official news announcement here.

Graduate Students Showcase their Research this Year!

3/23/2021

Throughout the 2020-2021 academic year, numerous graduate students have presented (or will present) their research at various conferences. Due to COVID-19, many conferences have been virtual, but that hasn't stopped our students from continuing their great work. Congratulations to students on their research!

Jacob Feiler presented a poster at the Annual Meeting for the Association for Psychological Science in May 2021.
- Feiler, J.B., Scofield, J. (2021, May). (STEM)bodying Cognition.Presented at the Annual Meeting for the Association for Psychological Science (Virtual).
Cailee Nelson presented a research talk at the Southeastern Psychological Association (SEPA) annual conference on March 20, 2021.
- Transitioning Online: Challenges for College Students with ASD. Cailee Nelson, Laura Morett, Laura Stoppelbein, & Susan White, University of Alabama
Kaitlyn May presented at the University of California, Berkeley's Graduate School of Education Research Day.
- May, K.E. & Guyotte, K.W. (April 2021). Teaching Abstract Scientific Concepts Through Dance: The Perfect Pas de Deux?
Sarah Hughes Berheim presented at the 61st Annual Meeting of the Psychonomic Society during November 2020.
- Hughes-Berheim, S. S., Morett, L. M., & Shelley-Tremblay, J. F. (2020, July). Representational Gesture's Impact on Integration of Newly-Learned Words into Read Sentential Contexts.

This post will be updated to reflect student presentations during the 2020-2021 academic year, so please check back.

Kaitlyn May Places as Finalist in Regional 3MT Competition!

3/23/2021

After being awarded first place in the annual 3-Minute Thesis (3MT) competition at the University of Alabama (click for post), Kaitlyn May went on to place as a finalist in the Council of Southern Graduate School's regional 3MT competition. Her talk is titled “Frontoparietal Network in Executive Functioning in Autism Spectrum Disorder" and represents Kaitlyn's ongoing interests in executive functioning and autism spectrum disorder. Congratulations to Kaitlyn!

Dr. Firat Soylu is featured on NPR's "The Pulse"

2/20/2021

Dr. Firat Soylu talks to Maiken Scott about the role of neuroscience research in education. Among other things, Dr. Soylu discusses how our brains and bodies interact with the environment to create a robust learning system. If you're interested in how neuroscience research relates to education and how our brains (and our kid's brains) learn and remember things in school, check out the article and listen to the full podcast here.

Kaitlyn May wins 1st Place in the University of Alabama's Three Minute Thesis (3MT) Competition!

11/9/2020

First place in the annual 3MT competition was awarded to our own Kaitlyn May for her talk titled “Frontoparietal Network in Executive Functioning in Autism Spectrum Disorder.” Kaitlyn won $1,500 and will represent UA at the Council of Southern Graduate Schools 3MT competition in February. See the UA news blurb about Kaitlyn here. Congratulations to Kaitlyn!

MRI Scanner Coming to the University of Alabama

9/8/2020

We are thrilled to announce that a major research grant from the National Science Foundation was awarded to assist UA in purchasing an MRI machine! This will certainly enable increased collaboration among students and faculty in the educational neuroscience concentration with other departments and researchers at UA, as well as increased access to innovative neuroimaging methodologies.

“The research enabled through this MRI facility will boost our understanding of the neuroscience of learning and neurodegenerative diseases, bringing benefits to our entire state as well as the broader society. There’s a lot of collaborations we are developing not just on the biological side of neuroscience, but with computational researchers, as well.” - Dr. Sharlene Newman, ALRI executive director and co-lead on the NSF grant.

Read more about this exciting news from UA's official article here.

Ed Neuro Students Present at the Alabama Advanced Imaging Consortium Conference

7/31/2020

Fourth Year student Kaitlyn May presented at the Alabama Advanced Imaging Consortium Conference in July 2020 and won "Outstanding Poster Presentation Award" along with $100. Her poster was titled "Frontoparietal Network in Executive Functioning in Autism Spectrum Disorder" and was in collaboration with Dr. R.K. Kana of UA's Department of Psychology.

Ed Psych Graduate Students Receive Research Awards at SUGRS 2020

5/14/2020

Six graduate students in the Educational Psychology PhD program received Research Awards at the 2020 Southeastern Universities Graduate Research Symposium (SUGRS).

Mona Anchan, a third year PhD student, received an Outstanding Paper Presentation Award for her paper Adding Marginalization, Subtracting Scores, Multiplying Inequities, Dividing People: Low Math Performance Predictors.

Two other doctoral students, Sarah S. Hughes-Berheim, a second year, and Kaitlyn May, a third year, received Outstanding Poster Presentation Awards for their posters How we teach vocabulary matters: Do gestures used during word learning influence reading? and Neurofunctional Indices of Executive Functioning in Autism Spectrum Disorder respectively.

Three additional PhD students Kelsie J. Dawson, Brian Rivera, and Nahide Gungordu received Poster Presentation Merit Awards for their posters Moral Growth Mindset Measure: Measurement Invariance Among Political Orientations, Neural Basis of Information Transfer in Autism Spectrum Disorder: A Pilot Study, and Infant Development and Cortisol: Partial Evidence of a Dynamic System respectively.

You can find the posters in the slideshow below or download them from their respective links for better resolution.

Congratulations to all award recipients!

Mona Anchan Receives Paul W. Terry Memorial Endowed Scholarship

4/17/2020

Mona Anchan received the Paul W. Terry Memorial Endowed Scholarship awarded to a student in Educational Psychology based on academic merit.

Mona Anchan is a third year doctoral student in the Educational Psychology PhD program in the Educational Neuroscience Concentration. Mona is part of the ELDEN lab where she works with Dr. Firat Soylu.

You can learn more about Mona's research here.

Congratulations to Mona!

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