Abstract: At the Institute of Education Sciences (the research arm of the U.S. Department of Education), the Cognition and Student Learning program provides funding to researchers to conduct research at the intersection of cognitive science and education. This talk will highlight how applying cognitive science and cognitive neuroscience theories and findings to education practice is both an effective way of developing and identifying instructional approaches, curricula, programs, and policies that improve student learning as well as an opportunity to test a theory in a ‘real world’ setting.

Bio: Dr. Erin Higgins is a cognitive psychologist whose interests lie at the intersection of basic and applied research that seeks to understand how people learn. Dr. Higgins is currently an Associate Research Scientist at the National Center for Education Research within the Institute of Education Sciences (IES) of the U.S. Department of Education. In this role, she serves as the program officer overseeing the Cognition and Student Learning research grants portfolio, which seeks to apply what we know about how the mind works to education practice. Dr. Higgins received her Ph.D. in cognitive psychology from the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign. While at Illinois, her research focused on understanding how different types of learning tasks affect what people eventually learn and remember. Before joining IES, Dr. Higgins served as a Human Factors Engineer at TASC, Inc., consulting at the Research, Development, and Human Factors Laboratory of the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA). In this role, she focused on developing and evaluating tools to help air traffic controllers and pilots offload their memory and maintain attention on critical information while making decisions and maintaining awareness of the current state of the National Airspace.

Note: This is a webinar, not a seminar.