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SUMMARY:Attentive learning: Understanding mechanisms by studying outcomes\
 , risk and protective factors - Gaia Scerif\,  Attention\, Brain and Cogni
 tive Development\, Department of Experimental Psychology\, University of O
 xford
DTSTART:20191206T163000Z
DTEND:20191206T180000Z
UID:TALK128758@talks.cam.ac.uk
CONTACT:Louise White
DESCRIPTION:Attentional control plays a crucial role in biasing incoming i
 nformation in favour of what is relevant to further processing\, influenci
 ng encoding into memory and long-term learning. However\, assessing attent
 ional control processes over developmental time highlights how they are be
 st understood not simply as a control homunculus\, but rather as bidirecti
 onally influencing and influenced by multiple factors. Today I will focus 
 on three complementary lines of evidence pointing in this direction.\nThe 
 first line of work will focus on experimental manipulations engaging child
 ren and adults to highlight the interplay between attentional control\, me
 mory and learning. A combination of behavioural and electrophysiological d
 ata suggests similarities and differences in how children and young adults
  differ in the extent to which they deploy attentional control to optimize
  maintenance in memory. This experimental work is complemented by longitud
 inal data\, showing how individual differences in attentional control pred
 ict foundational predictors of early learning and their change over time. 
 \nThe second line of work centres on children receiving early genetic diag
 noses associated with very high risk of attention deficits in later childh
 ood. The specific molecular pathways implicated in each case point to chan
 ges in functional gene networks involved in neural development and respons
 ivity to environmental stimulation\, rather than specific or localised les
 ion-like deficits. Longitudinal findings suggests that early differences i
 n attention between and within supposedly homogeneous genetically identifi
 ed groups\, as well as individual differences in other domains\, predict v
 ariable learning outcomes. \nFinally\, and most recently\, I have been for
 tunate to work with colleagues who study attentional control and education
 al outcomes under conditions of high environmental risk associated with ve
 ry low income. These data suggest that\, again\, individual differences in
  attentional control predict learning outcomes\, but that there may be une
 xpected buffering factors in the environment associated with better than e
 xpected outcomes\, even under conditions of very high environmental risk.\
 nIn conclusion\, we have used complementary approaches to investigating th
 e mechanisms of attentive learning. In turns\, these findings suggest that
  attentive learning itself is malleable\, and that understanding variabili
 ty in good outcomes\, as well as weaknesses\, may help guide more effectiv
 e intervention.\n\nI read Psychology at the University of St. Andrews (Sco
 tland)\, spending a year as a visiting student at Queen’s University\, i
 n Canada. I then moved to London for a PhD at the Institute of Child Healt
 h\, University College London\, supervised by Professors Annette Karmiloff
 -Smith and Jon Driver\, in close collaboration with Prof Kim Cornish (now 
 at Monash University\, Australia). After a brief visiting fellowship (now 
 developed into an ongoing collaboration) at the Sackler Institute of Devel
 opmental Psychobiology\, Cornell University\, in 2003 I became a lecturer 
 in the School of Psychology\, University of Nottingham. I have been based 
 in Oxford since October 2006. My research group focuses on the development
  of attentional control and its underlying attentional difficulties\, from
  their neural correlates to their outcomes on emerging cognitive abilities
 . Understanding these questions involves combining the study of typical at
 tentional control with research on atypical development at risk of poor at
 tentional control development: 1) conditions with a well-defined genetic a
 etiology (e.g.\, fragile X syndrome\, Williams syndrome\, Down syndrome\, 
 sex chromosomal trisomies)\; and 2) complex behavioural syndromes of mixed
  aetiology (e.g.\, AD/HD). Ultimately\, this work is of interest both to b
 asic neuroscience and\, most importantly\, to the families and individuals
  who are affected by these differences. 
LOCATION:Ground Floor Lecture Theatre\, Department of Psychology
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