CIGEV, area gerontology: Research on Lifespan, Multidirectionality and Plasticity – Director: Matthias Kliegel

Group Turoman: Lifespan Sensory and Cognitive Synergies (LSCS)

WHAT do we study?

Our group is interested in the links between...

  • sensory systems, e.g., how audition and vision interact to affect attention and memory
  • cognitive processes, e.g., how working memory is implied in prospective memory
  • sensory and cognitive processes, e.g., how sensory decline impacts cognitive decline

WHO do we study?

Historically, we have focused mainly on period from childhood to adulthood, with a special interest in the impacts on primary education outcomes. However, we are now branching into older adulthood as well, to better cover the human lifespan.

HOW do we study it?

In terms of methods, we mainly use Bayesian sequential behavioural designs, univariate EEG (ERP), and multivariate EEG (MVPA). In terms of approach, we consider ourselves an interdisciplinary group, working in collaboration with national and international partners, such as the Working Memory, Cognition and Development lab at the UNIGE (Switzerland), the Jacobs Foundation based in Zurich (Switzerland), the Leibniz Research Centre for Working Environment and Human Factors Dortmund (IfaDo, Germany), the Mathematical Thinking Lab at Tel Aviv University (Israel), the LewPeaLab at the University of Texas at Austin (USA), the Cognitive Neuroscience of Memory & Aging Lab at the University of Notre Dame (USA), among others.

WHY do we study it?

We study perceptual and cognitive processes that people use in everyday life situations, not just in the lab. Our goal has always been to contribute to improving learning, developmental, and daily life outcomes through understanding the mechanisms of their component perceptual and cognitive processes. To ensure practical translations of our work, we strive to conduct our work as transparently as possible, according to Open Science principles, and to communicate our work with non-scientists in various ways.

 

Ongoing projects:

  1. SENS-COG: the links between sensory decline and cognitive decline across the lifespan (upcoming)
  2. WM-PM: understanding the mechanisms of prospective memory though a working memory framework (upcoming)
  3. MSWM: Multisensory working memory representations
  4. Audiovisual distraction effects on children’s and adults’ working memory
  5. Harnessing multivariate analyses of EEG to reveal the contents of children’s working memory