I'm an Assistant Professor of Behavioral Sciences at City University of New York, with joint appointments in Neuroscience and Cognitive Neuroscience. I also have an appointment as a Visiting Scholar at New York University.
My research interests include cognitive neuroscience, functional magnetic resonance imaging, glaucoma, neurodegenerative disorders, attention, learning, memory, educational technology, pedagogy, and developing games for education.
“Some video games are designed to foster a fun experience, while others are meant to educate. One 3D video game, which was at the center of a recent University of California, San Francisco study, was specially designed to enhance older adults cognitive abilities. Based on researchers findings, playing this game can improve seniors mental strength.In the study, which was published in “Nature,” researchers set out to see what impact playing their video game would have on participants between the ages of 60 and 85 years of age. Those who played the game had to navigate a race car around a winding track, while keeping an eye out for specific road signs. When these signs popped up, players were asked to press a button. Overall, the game required them to rapidly switch between tasks.While the game was difficult, the participants received training to make multitasking easier on them. The training proved very effective, as they were able to perform better than individuals in their 20s who were playing the game for the first time.Following the video game training, the participants saw improvements to their sustained attention and working memory. Ultimately, the study results show that the older brain can change.If adults play video games regularly and are curious to learn how this hobby has affected their cognitive abilities, it may be time for them to take an IQ test.”
There is clearly a need to infuse programming literacy into the Common Core. Disciplines that traditionally reside outside of the domain of science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) are slowly becoming more technical as the conduit between practitioner and audience migrates to the Internet and mobile devices. Within STEM, those who acquire programming skills are at advantage now that datasets are growing more complicated (e.g., The Brain Initiative). As a case study, consider one of my friends, a postdoctoral fellow studying parasites at Rockefeller University. She spent her evenings this summer steeped in a Python programming language course so that she could learn how to integrate the many software bundles that are now required for her to analyze data. Another friend is a full time programmer for a molecular biology lab at Columbia University. And yet another is a programmer working as a technical designer for the fashion industry. Few of us have to look far to find an acquaintance that is a programmer or had to learn to code to support a non-technical field.
Learning to code is currently a long and difficult path, but it doesn’t have to be. With proper instruction and good tools, programming should be no more complicated than learning a language. What if the act of learning to program was a game itself? Rob Lockhart reviews the current state of affairs in teaching kids to program using games. He also touches on the other tools that teach programming to kids, but the list is not intended to be comprehensive.
A recent study by Joaquin Anguera and the Gazzaley lab at UCSF reported that older adults who receive training on a customized driving simulator demonstrate improvements on tasks that demand divided attention. Performance benefits achieved by the simulator last for 6 months, and the resulting performance of the experimental group exceeded that of a 20-year-old control group that received no training. Electrophysiological measurements in this group also provided evidence for relief from the decline of brain wave activity associated with a decline of cognitive control in advanced age.
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