News

Congratulations to second-year MA student Fatima Wasif, who has matched for a full-time neuropsychology assessment practicum in the pediatric epilepsy program at Hamilton Health Sciences this summer. Belated congratulations also to our two senior students, Rebecca Trossman - now nearing the end of a part-time year-long practicum in neuropsychological consultation at Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre, and Mahsa Sadeghi - now nearing the end of a part-time year-long assessment practicum at Lutherwood Children's Mental Health Centre. Way to go students!

Congratulations to Eleenor Abraham, a PhD student in the CAN Lab who was awarded a CPA Student Reserach Grant to support her doctoral work examining the contribution of rumination, exective functions, and familial factors to depressive symptoms in youth. Way to go Eleenor!

This study, a continuation of our work exploring the interplay of negative affect and cognition (Gabel & McAuley, 2018, 2020), examined the influence of a thinking style induction on participants with high and low levels of emotional reactivity. Our results are consistent with the notion that negative mood engenders analytic thinking which may benefit inhibitory performance provided it does not increase task-incongruent cognitive load.

Results from a randomized clinical trial, undertaken in partnership with the CAN Lab at the University of Waterloo and Cambridge Memorial Hospital, are now available in the Journal of Attention Disorders. This project examined whether our modifications to a commercially available working memory training program, called Cogmed, could improve some of the cognitive and mental health challenges that are commonly experienced by children and teens who have ADHD.

Congratulations to CAN Lab student Dr. Martyn Gabel, who was conferred a PhD in today's convocation ceremony at the University of Waterloo. Martyn recently completed his pre-doctoral residency at the University of British Columbia and is now working in a psychology practice in Ottawa. Martyn, the entire lab is proud of your accomplishments!

We are pleased to share that doctoral student Eleenor Abraham was receintly awarded a SSHRC Canada Graduate Scholarship. Congratulations Eleenor!

Congratulations to Master's student Fatima Wasif, who is the recipient of a SSHRC Canada Graduate Scholarship. Way to go!

This study, conducted with a community sample of children and youth, examined mental health concerns associated with exposure to relatively 'low' levels of interpersonal and/or accidental trauma. Our investigation demonstrates that although the prevalence of trauma is lower among children and youth in the general community compared with high-risk samples, the negative impact of these trauma experiences on their anxiety and mood remain significant.

Rebecca Trossman is publishng more of her Master's work in which she establishes in both undergraduate students and a community sample of adults that EF-challenges mediate an association between adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) and health.

In a follow-up to Gabel & McAuley (2018), we now provide more compelling evidence that negative mood has the potential to help or hinder performance on some kinds of EF tasks pending one's level of emotional reactivity. Our work suggests that emotional reactivity is an important moderator of the interplay between affect and cognition - perhaps because it influences whether a bad mood increases cognitive load (e.g., for low-reactive individuals) or serves as an informational cue that promotes analytic thinking (e.g., for high-reactive individuals).