Current Research

Online Pedagogy: (1) Discussion Boards and (2) Incorporating AI

Online discussion boards are often only associated with distance learning environments. However, this discussion platform can significantly contribute to student learning in on-campus courses as well. Cognitive psychology research on human learning suggest specific guidelines for maximizing student comprehension, memory, and course satisfaction for both the on-campus and on-line mediums. Learning theories such as levels-of-processing, self-referencing, transfer, the generation effect, application of content to concrete examples and real-life connections, and distributed learning can be explicitly applied to the development of effective and engaging online discussion. These theories provide the framework for how to design and implement successful discussion boards to serve as a valuable learning tool. Students can be encouraged to connect concepts to related information in the course and to their own experience through specific instructions from the instructor. The use of guided questions can have competing effects on student participation and their engagement with one another. Our research investigates the factors that improve motivation to participate, student satisfaction with the engagement, flexible application of the concepts covered, and accurate use of the concepts. We are also evaluating how to design discussions to allow for appropriate use of AI tools without sacrificing student learning.

Co-curricular Engagement in First Generation College Students

Considerable discussion and scholarship has been conducted on first-generation students’ academic retention and successful completion of a degree program. Factors such as motivation, parental support, and peer engagement have been evaluated in connection with self-efficacy and educational attainment. Fewer studies have assessed first generation students’ academic co-curricular engagement as measured by use of campus resources, involvement in student organizations and leadership, global and cultural experiences, professional internships and networking, research experiences, or community & service learning. The research that has been conducted indicates there is a strong divide between first generation and continuing generation student engagement. However, there are issues that exist with the current assessment tools (such as double-barreled questions and unclear terms). We investing these forms of engagement using a newly developed assessment tool to determine awareness, interest, and level of involvement by students who self-identify as first-generation and their peers. We are further using focus groups to confirm the item validity. We are also evaluating the impact of strength-based rhetoric to promote use of these campus opportunities and delivery methods for increasing engagement, particularly among students at commuter schools or with a higher comittment load outside of their class responsibilities. Would explicitly acknowledging the characteristics shared by these students, emphasizing their strengths, and encouraging them to take pride in the role these characteristics can play in their success during and after graduation, improve their sense of belonging, reduce imposter syndrome, and increase co-curricular engagement, all factors associatied with higher retention to graduation and advantageous post-graduation outcomes?

Institutional & Faculty Support for First Generation College Students

First-generation students bring valuable life experiences that help enrich the diverse tapestry of academia and contribute to an educated society best equipped to support equitable opportunities for upward mobility. While they are not alone in offering diverse contributions, they are often framed by their deficiencies without much discussion of the valuable qualities they share, such as resilience and determination to pursue goals that differ from their home environment. In addition to investigating strategies to improve first-generation students' co-curricular engagement, the GSU Cognition Lab also evaluates strategies and activities that provide the tools instructors and institutions can use to capitalize on this cohort of pioneers, without dismissing their intersectional identities. How prepared to support first-generation students are instructors and other support staff who interact with students most? How can we improve this?

Memory & Social Media

A lot of research suggests that social media use impairs our autobiographical recall, reducing detail, lowering affective response, harming encoding of information and making retrieval more difficult. The most common conclusion is that sharing our experiences online harms our memory because we are "off-loading" the information to an external source. However, this does not take into account the dynamics of social media, including feedback to the posts, reminders of the memories, or the power of an objective record to sustain more accurate recall. We investigate these other factors to determine what benefits might exist for using social media to keep a record of our experiences.

Memory & the Law / Neurolaw

Grant submitted... more information coming soon. 😉

Student led projects

One of the amazing benefits of GovState is that our labs are not restricted on the topics we can investigate. If you are interested in gaining research experience and have a topic that you would like to explore, let's discuss! You can learn about the research process helping on existing projects while I help you develop your own research question and project design. I will guide you through the many stages of research development, execution, analysis, and dissemination if that interests you. If I think there might be a better guide available on campus for your exact research interests, I will connect you with that person. I will be happy knowing that you are exploring your interests and learning more about the scientific method and how to be a critical thinker!