Studying reading ability in monolingual and bilingual older adults with impaired or healthy cognitive abilities
(Photo provided by Annabelle Strahsberger)
“I applied to work in Dr. Whitford’s lab because I have always been interested in bilingualism. Many children in Europe grow up in multilingual houses, and I love to learn about the influence this has on these children.” ~Annabelle Strahsberger
Ψ
*In the following article, AS refers to Annabelle Strahsberger, and TS refers to The Synapse;
TS: Could you briefly introduce yourself, your supervisor, the topic of your research, and the field it contributes to? What drew you to pursuing this project?
AS: My name is Annabelle Sophie Strahsberger, and I am doing a Bachelor of Science in Psychology at the University of Graz in Austria. I came to UNB as an exchange student for the 2022/23 academic year to improve my English, gain a new viewpoint on my studies in psychology, and learn about a new culture and lifestyle.
In the winter term of 2023, I worked in the lab of Dr. Veronica Whitford as a basic research student. I applied to work in Dr. Whitford’s lab because I have always been interested in bilingualism. Many children in Europe grow up in multilingual houses, and I love to learn about the influence this has on these children.
TS: What was your research project and your contributions?
AS: I helped PhD student Narissa Byers with her study titled “A Behavioural and Neuroimaging Study of Reading in Linguistically Diverse Older Adults with Different Cognitive Profiles”. She is testing English and French monolinguals and English/French bilinguals who are healthy older adults, older adults with mild cognitive impairments, or older adults with Alzheimer’s disease. In order to study her research question, Narissa is using several techniques including eye-tracking measures, standardized tests, cognitive screeners (such as the Montreal Cognitive Assessment), and EEG (a tool to measure brain activity).
During this term, I attended weekly lab meetings and helped to create a recruitment database for older adults in Fredericton. I found over 200 recruitment places for the database, learned how to operate the SR-Research EyeLink 1000 eye-tracker, completed ethics certification, and generated some eye-tracking data. In the next two weeks, Narissa will teach me how to operate the EEG system. Unfortunately, no participants have been tested yet, so we don’t have any results.
TS: Why did you choose to take the basic research course? To what extent did the research experience align with what you’d expected?
AS: I took the basic research seminar because I have many close friends working in research who have taken me to their biology and chemistry labs and often talk about research. So I got interested in experiencing research myself and seeing the differences in their research experiences in their fields in Austria, and my research experiences in psychology in Canada. Additionally, my home university expects me to conduct my own study and write my own report soon; therefore, I want to learn as much as possible about the research process and how to operate eye-tracking and EEG machinery.
For the most part, my research experience aligned well with what I expected. However, I was surprised by the highly collaborative nature of scientific research (teams of undergraduate students, graduate students, and faculty advisor(s) are needed to execute projects), and I didn’t expect that the timeline of research projects is never as initially planned (unforeseen circumstances pop up). Ψ
Created for The Synapse by Incé Husain.
