Recent Lab News
October 1, 2024
Congratulations to Madi Maguire, who has been awarded a SSHRC CGS Master's Scholarship for the 2024-2025 academic year! This will support Madi in exploring her project, “Examining the Relation Between Attentional Difficulties and Procrastination in Young Children”.
Well done, Madi!
Read more in the Brock News.
Well done, Madi!
Read more in the Brock News.
September 27, 2024
Our research on children's procrastination was featured in an article from Today's Parent!
Check it out: https://www.todaysparent.com/kids/4-ways-to-help-kids-who-procrastinate/
Check it out: https://www.todaysparent.com/kids/4-ways-to-help-kids-who-procrastinate/
September 25, 2024
Congratulations to Ege Kamber who is first-author on a recently accepted review paper on children's saving behaviour. The review paper has been accepted in Developmental Review and proposes an ecological framework with which to study the development of children's saving.
Kamber, E., Atance, C. M., Kamawar, D., & Mahy, C. E. V. (in press). Children’s Saving: A review and ecological framework. Developmental Review.
Kamber, E., Atance, C. M., Kamawar, D., & Mahy, C. E. V. (in press). Children’s Saving: A review and ecological framework. Developmental Review.
September 11, 2024
Check out this Brock News story on a recently published paper that reviews the literature on adult and children's procrastination and points out mutual implications for definitions, theory, and intervention. This paper was recently published in Nature Reviews Psychology.
August 2024
The lab has fit in some fun this summer!
We had a bowling and laser tag night earlier in the month and a writing retreat at Blue Mountain.
We had a bowling and laser tag night earlier in the month and a writing retreat at Blue Mountain.
July 24, 2024
Our recent published research on children's saving strategies was featured in a Brock News Story!
Click on the image below to be directed to the full story.
Click on the image below to be directed to the full story.
July 18, 2024
We are thrilled to announce that in the last week, we have completed data collection for two of our studies!
After four years of data collection, we have finished data collection on a study that examines the effect of verbal reminders on 3 to 5 year olds' prospective memory. MA student, Madi Maguire, is busy writing up the results of the study for publication.
We also just finished collecting data from 150 children aged 8 to 10 years for a study examining the mechanisms underlying children's future thinking. Ege Kamber, current PhD student will be analyzing the data and writing up the results for publication over the summer.
After four years of data collection, we have finished data collection on a study that examines the effect of verbal reminders on 3 to 5 year olds' prospective memory. MA student, Madi Maguire, is busy writing up the results of the study for publication.
We also just finished collecting data from 150 children aged 8 to 10 years for a study examining the mechanisms underlying children's future thinking. Ege Kamber, current PhD student will be analyzing the data and writing up the results for publication over the summer.
July 3, 2024
We are happy to announce that research on children's saving strategies has been published in the Journal of Experimental Child Psychology! Congrats to lead author and PhD student, Ege Kamber, and MA students, Madi Maguire and Edyta Houshang-Tehrani, who are co-authors. Former PhD student, Tessa Mazachowsky, is also a co-author as this was one of her original dissertation studies before the pandemic forced us to change our plans. This study was conducted last summer at the Ontario Science Centre. Please click on the image below to read more!
July 2, 2024
Excited that our review paper on the mutual implications of procrastination research in adults and children is now in press at Nature Reviews Psychology. It was wonderful to collaborate with Yuko Munakata and Akira Miyake on this important review that outlines how considering both the child and adult literature on procrastination has implications for definitional issues, theory, and intervention.
June 21, 2024
Ege Kamber, 3rd year PhD student gave a talk at the Canadian Psychological Association Convention in Ottawa, ON. Ege presented preliminary findings on our study that is attempting to develop behavioural measures of children's procrastination in a talk entitled "Preschool children's procrastination and its relations with planning and delay of gratification". He gave this presentation as part of a symposium on children's future thinking.
May 31- June 2, 2024
Several students from our lab presented our research findings at the Annual Meeting of the Jean Piaget Society held in Toronto from May 31-June 2, 2024. Our work was well-received and we all enjoyed hearing about the latest research in cognitive development!
Pictured below are Ege Kamber, Madi Maguire, and Mirella Rocca presenting their posters. Ege presented work on children's procrastination and how it changes over time. Madi presented work on how reminders affect children's prospective memory. Mirella presented work on children's saving and how it's influenced by parents behaviour. Edyta Houshang Tehrani (not pictured) also presented a poster on the effect of emotion simulation on young children's procrastination.
Pictured below are Ege Kamber, Madi Maguire, and Mirella Rocca presenting their posters. Ege presented work on children's procrastination and how it changes over time. Madi presented work on how reminders affect children's prospective memory. Mirella presented work on children's saving and how it's influenced by parents behaviour. Edyta Houshang Tehrani (not pictured) also presented a poster on the effect of emotion simulation on young children's procrastination.
May 9-10, 2024
The Developing Memory and Cognition Lab facilitated a workshop on Procrastination for Grade 10 and 11 students who participated in Scientifically Yours. In the workshop, students learned about the process of psychological research and learned how to score a measure of their own procrastination.
May 1, 2024
We are thrilled to have two co-op students working in the lab this summer! Mirella Rocca is a NSERC Undergraduate Student Research Award holder and Kaitlyn Potashnyk is funded by a Faculty of Social Sciences Research Assistantship and a Council for Research in Social Sciences award. We look forward to having a very productive summer!
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April 24, 2024
Congratulations to MA student, Madi Maguire, for being awarded a President's Surgite Award from Brock University!
This award recognizes a student's leadership, academic reputation, contributions to student life and service to the University and Niagara communities. Madi is on the far right of the photo below.
Way to go, Madi!
This award recognizes a student's leadership, academic reputation, contributions to student life and service to the University and Niagara communities. Madi is on the far right of the photo below.
Way to go, Madi!
April 12, 2024
We're gearing up for a busy spring and summer in the DMC Lab.
We'll have 2 co-op students, Mirella Rocca and Kaitlyn Potashnyk working in the lab as well as a Match of Minds student, Sam Kszan, who will be doing some pilot testing for a new project on how children produce future narratives. They will be in the lab from May to September and will be working on several projects on children's saving, procrastination, prospective memory, and future thinking.
In the fall, we will be welcoming 3 new MA students: Mirella Rocca, Haley McStravick, and Rebecca McCabe! We look forward to an expanding graduate student group.
We have several studies ongoing, so if you are a parent of a child aged 3 to 10 years, please get in touch with us!
We'll have 2 co-op students, Mirella Rocca and Kaitlyn Potashnyk working in the lab as well as a Match of Minds student, Sam Kszan, who will be doing some pilot testing for a new project on how children produce future narratives. They will be in the lab from May to September and will be working on several projects on children's saving, procrastination, prospective memory, and future thinking.
In the fall, we will be welcoming 3 new MA students: Mirella Rocca, Haley McStravick, and Rebecca McCabe! We look forward to an expanding graduate student group.
We have several studies ongoing, so if you are a parent of a child aged 3 to 10 years, please get in touch with us!
February 27, 2024
Our lab has had a busy start to 2024! We have several projects in progress examining young children's saving behaviour, episodic foresight, prospective memory, and procrastination behaviour. For more information on how to participate, see this page.
Our lab is looking forward to spring conference season and announcement of graduate student awards and summer funding very shortly.
Our lab's research was recently featured in the Brock News, promoting the Undergraduate Student Research Awards program. Last summer, Kwasi Duah and Maria Conversano held these awards in the lab that funded summer research projects.
Our lab is looking forward to spring conference season and announcement of graduate student awards and summer funding very shortly.
Our lab's research was recently featured in the Brock News, promoting the Undergraduate Student Research Awards program. Last summer, Kwasi Duah and Maria Conversano held these awards in the lab that funded summer research projects.
December 6, 2023
We have had a busy, productive fall term in the DMC Lab! Students have been busy preparing scholarship and graduate program applications, submitting manuscripts for publication, and giving presentations and getting feedback on research projects. We recently resumed in-person testing in the lab and are looking for 3 to 6 year old children to participate in a study on saving behaviour.
Thanks to all lab members and participants who have contributed to our research either in virtual or in-person studies.
Wishing everyone a restful, joyful holiday season and a great start to 2024!
Thanks to all lab members and participants who have contributed to our research either in virtual or in-person studies.
Wishing everyone a restful, joyful holiday season and a great start to 2024!
October 30, 2023
Dr. Mahy and her students, Ege Kamber (PhD student) and Maria Conversano (Honours thesis student), along with her colleagues Ulrich Mueller and Sascha Zuber, recently published a paper in the Journal of Cognition and Development. This study asked parents to report on their children's prospective memory successes and failures over a period of 4 days using a diary methodology.
October 27, 2023
Dr. Mahy recently published a review paper with her colleague Dr. Angela Nyhout from the University of Kent.
The review focuses on the development of episodic thought and proposes support it. Please see our Publications page for more information.
Dr. Mahy recently published a review paper with her colleague Dr. Angela Nyhout from the University of Kent.
The review focuses on the development of episodic thought and proposes support it. Please see our Publications page for more information.
September 29, 2023
We are happy to announce that our paper on children's procrastination and its relation with personality, temperament, and the home environment was recently accepted for publication in the journal, Early Childhood Research Quarterly.
Congratulations to Ege Kamber, current PhD student, who is the first author of this paper!
To read the paper, please go to our Publications page.
Congratulations to Ege Kamber, current PhD student, who is the first author of this paper!
To read the paper, please go to our Publications page.
June 1-3, 2023
Dr. Mahy and PhD student Ege Kamber attended the 52nd annual meeting of the Jean Piaget Society in Madrid, Spain. We presented work on episodic future thinking in childhood and our recent diary study on young children's prospective memory in daily life. Dr. Mahy was co-organizer of the conference alongside Dr. Susan Rivera.
May 24, 2023
Dr. Mahy delivered an invited research talk at Johannes Gutenberg University in Mainz, Germany. Her talk was titled "The cognitive and social correlates of young children’s procrastination tendencies". She spent two days meeting with Dr. Mareike Altgassen and her PhD students discussing research and potential future collaborations and had a productive visit.
May 6, 2023
The DMC Lab will be at the Ontario Science Centre during weekends in May collecting data for a study examining preschooler's saving ability. We are excited to be a part of ResearchLive and to collaborate with the Science Centre again after a long pandemic hiatus!
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May 1, 2023
Welcome to Kwasi Duah and Maria Conversano who started their NSERC Undergraduate Student Research Awards this week!
wasi and Maria won these prestigious awards and will be working full-time in the lab for 16 weeks this spring and summer. They will be working on projects related to children's future-oriented thinking and memory.
wasi and Maria won these prestigious awards and will be working full-time in the lab for 16 weeks this spring and summer. They will be working on projects related to children's future-oriented thinking and memory.
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March 24, 2023
Dr. Mahy is honoured to be the recipient of the 2022 Chancellor's Chair for Research Excellence from Brock University. This Award comes with 3 years of funding for a program of research that will explore young children's procrastination behaviour, improve its measurement, and explore a possible intervention. Dr. Mahy and her students are excited to continue and expand this line of research!
March 20, 2023
Dr. Mahy gave an invited virtual talk to the developmental group at York University entitled "The development of procrastination in early childhood: An Ecological Approach".
March 16, 2023
Dr. Mahy gave an invited talk at UC Davis on her recent research on the emergence and development of young children's procrastination behaviour.
March 13-14, 2023
Our lab's recent research on the emergence of procrastination in young children has been featured in the news. Here are two articles from the Toronto Star and CTV News. Dr. Mahy has also been interviewed on several radio shows about the study.
March 6, 2023
Our recently published research on the emergence of young children's procrastination was recently featured in the Brock News. Our study found that even very young children procrastinated and that children with better future thinking and better self-control had less procrastination tendencies according to parent-report.
December 15, 2022
Wishing everyone a peaceful and restful holiday season ahead!
The lab will be closed over the holidays but will resume our virtual studies in the new year! We hope that 2023 will give us the opportunity to return to in-person data collection. Thank you to all our study participants who have taken part in one of our virtual studies this year. We couldn't do our research without you!
The lab will be closed over the holidays but will resume our virtual studies in the new year! We hope that 2023 will give us the opportunity to return to in-person data collection. Thank you to all our study participants who have taken part in one of our virtual studies this year. We couldn't do our research without you!
December 7, 2022
Congratulations to current PhD student, Ege Kamber, who gave a presentation on his research as part of the Brock Faculty of Social Sciences (FOSS) Research Colloquium as a recipient of a FOSS Student Research Award. Ege presented some preliminary results on his project that is exploring processes underlying children's episodic future thinking. His work was also feature in the Brock News. Well done, Ege!
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December 1, 2022
The lab has had a productive fall term!
We have recently published 3 new research papers:
Zuber, S., Joly-Burra, E., Mahy, C. E. V., Loaiza, V., & Kliegel, M. (2023). Training updating, switching, or inhibition in school age children: A multi-facet latent change score approach. Journal of Experimental Child Psychology.
Kamber, E., Mazachowsky, T. R. & Mahy, C. E. V. (2022). The emergence of future-oriented cognition in toddlerhood: The contribution of cognitive and language abilities. Journal of Cognition and Development.
Fuke, T. S. S., Kamber, E., Alunni, M., & Mahy, C. E. V. (in press). The emergence of procrastination behaviour in early childhood: Relations with executive control and future-oriented cognition. Developmental Psychology.
Special congratulations to current PhD student, Ege Kamber, and former DMC Lab members, Tessa Mazachowsky, Taissa Fuke, and Melissa Alunni! Congratulations to everyone for all their hard work to see this research through to publication.
We have recently published 3 new research papers:
Zuber, S., Joly-Burra, E., Mahy, C. E. V., Loaiza, V., & Kliegel, M. (2023). Training updating, switching, or inhibition in school age children: A multi-facet latent change score approach. Journal of Experimental Child Psychology.
Kamber, E., Mazachowsky, T. R. & Mahy, C. E. V. (2022). The emergence of future-oriented cognition in toddlerhood: The contribution of cognitive and language abilities. Journal of Cognition and Development.
Fuke, T. S. S., Kamber, E., Alunni, M., & Mahy, C. E. V. (in press). The emergence of procrastination behaviour in early childhood: Relations with executive control and future-oriented cognition. Developmental Psychology.
Special congratulations to current PhD student, Ege Kamber, and former DMC Lab members, Tessa Mazachowsky, Taissa Fuke, and Melissa Alunni! Congratulations to everyone for all their hard work to see this research through to publication.
November 28, 2022
Congratulations to former PhD student, Dr. Tessa Mazachowsky, for beginning a position as a Research Awards & Scholarships Specialist in the Faculty of Graduate Studies at Brock University! Wishing you all the best in your new position!
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November 2022
Dr. Mahy gave invited talks in Ottawa this week. On November 3rd, she gave a talk at the University of Ottawa on her new research on children's procrastination entitled, “I’ll clean up this mess later”: The development and correlates of procrastination in early childhood. On November 7th, Dr. Mahy gave a talk on some recent research on prospective memory at Carleton University, entitled The role of reminders and metacognitive awareness in the development of children’s prospective memory. Dr. Mahy also met with her collaborators, Cristina Atance and Deepthi Kamawar, during her visit to Ottawa.
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October 14, 2022
The DMC lab celebrated Tessa's PhD and Taissa's MA at convocation this fall. Congratulations to Tessa and Taissa and wishing you both all the best in your next adventures!
September 9, 2022
Dr. Mahy gave a talk at the University of Victoria entitled "The emergence and development of young children’s procrastination" to the Cognitive and Brain Sciences group. Dr. Mahy spent the month of September collaborating with her colleagues, Ulrich Mueller and Sascha Zuber, at the University of Victoria working on a project that will examine children's everyday life prospective memory errors and successes using a diary methodology.
September 2022
Congratulations to former MA student, Taissa Fuke, who is currently working as a Psychometrist at a private practice, Project Coordinator, and a Clinical Associate at the PsychoEd Clinic in Toronto.
July 6, 2022
Congratulations to Tessa Mazachowsky who successfully defended her PhD dissertation entitled "Novel ways to measure future-oriented cognition: Using parent-report measures and open-ended responses to explore young children's future thinking development!
Well done, Dr. Mazachowsky!
Well done, Dr. Mazachowsky!
June 29, 2022
Congratulations to Taissa Fuke for successfully defended her MA thesis entitled "Executive and Retrospective Memory Processes in Preschoolers' Prospective Memory"! This research is already published at Cognitive Development.
June 15, 2022
Dr. Mahy contributed a chapter on the development of children's prospective memory to the third edition of The Development of Memory in Infancy and Childhood edited by Mary L. Courage and Nelson Cowan. It is very exciting to see this excellent book in print!
June 2, 2022
Ege Kamber and Taissa Fuke, current graduate students, both presented posters at the Jean Piaget Society Conference in Philadelphia.
Ege presented a poster on young children's procrastination and Taissa presented her recently published work on children's prospective memory.
Ege presented a poster on young children's procrastination and Taissa presented her recently published work on children's prospective memory.
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May 24, 2022
Congratulations to current PhD student, Ege Kamber, for completing his comprehensive exam!
Ege wrote the exam on the topic of the development of cognitive biases in childhood. Thanks to Dr. Karen Arnell and Dr. Angela Evans for serving as committee members.
Well done, Ege!
Ege wrote the exam on the topic of the development of cognitive biases in childhood. Thanks to Dr. Karen Arnell and Dr. Angela Evans for serving as committee members.
Well done, Ege!
May 2, 2022
Congratulations to our three Undergraduate Honours students, Madi Maguire, Mariah Parente, and Taylor McRae, who completed their Honours thesis in the DMC lab this year!
Madi completed her project examining the role of verbal reminders on preschool children's prospective memory. Mariah examined the future-oriented cognitive abilities of children with autism spectrum disorder and Taylor examined the future oriented cognitive abilities of children with attentional disorders.
We have enjoyed having you in the lab and wish you all the best in your future endeavours!
Madi completed her project examining the role of verbal reminders on preschool children's prospective memory. Mariah examined the future-oriented cognitive abilities of children with autism spectrum disorder and Taylor examined the future oriented cognitive abilities of children with attentional disorders.
We have enjoyed having you in the lab and wish you all the best in your future endeavours!
April 25, 2022
This week we said farewell to Uroog, our lab manager for the past 2 years and welcomed Rachel Boase as our new lab manager.
We are wishing Uroog all the best in her new position and are looking forward to having Rachel in this new role!
We are wishing Uroog all the best in her new position and are looking forward to having Rachel in this new role!
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April 21, 2022
Taissa Fuke, MA student, and Ege Kamber, PhD student, are in Madison, Wisconsin this week to present their research at the Cognitive Development Society's Bi-Ennial Conference. Taissa will present work on the emergence and development of young children's procrastination behaviour and Ege will present work on the early emergence of future oriented cognition and its cognitive and linguistic correlates. Click here to see the conference program.
March 11, 2022
Congratulations to current MA student, Taissa Fuke, for having her MA research project examining the contribution of executive function and retrospective memory processes to children's prospective memory performance accepted for publication at Cognitive Development!
December 23, 2021
Wishing everyone a peaceful and healthy holiday season! We have had a busy year in the DMC lab despite the challenges of the pandemic. Special thanks to members of our research team and our participants who have been involved in virtual studies in 2021.
December 13, 2021
Dr. Mahy recently published a paper in Child Development Perspectives entitled "The development of children's prospective memory: Lessons for developmental science". The paper reviews the current literature on the development of children's prospective memory and suggests future directions for research.
November 24, 2021
Dr. Mahy gave a talk entitled "The emergence and development of children's procrastination behaviour" as part of Brock University's Lifespan Institute Speaker series on Children's Social, Emotional, and Cognitive Development- What's happening and why? She was joined by her colleagues Dr. Angela Evans and Dr. Cathy Mondloch who spoke about their research on the Development of (dis)honesty across childhood and children's ability to recognize faces and first impressions of children's faces.
https://brocku.ca/lifespan-development-research/children-speaker-series/
https://brocku.ca/lifespan-development-research/children-speaker-series/
October 20, 2021
Our lab has had two papers accepted for publication this fall both first authored by current PhD student, Tessa Mazachowsky!
The first paper examines the role of parent's scaffolding and children's strategies in children's prospective memory performance.
Mazachowsky, T. R., Hamilton, C., & Mahy, C. E. V. (2021). What supports the development of children’s prospective memory? Using a parent-report to examine the relation between children’s memory techniques, parent scaffolding, and children’s prospective memory. Journal of Cognition and Development, 22, 721-743.
The second paper is a partial replication of findings that suggest adults's episodic foresight is influenced by their current state.
Mazachowsky, T. R., McKenzie, K., Busseri, M., & Mahy, C. E. V. (in press). “These pretzels are making me thirsty” so I’ll have water tomorrow: A partial replication and extension of adults’ induced episodic foresight. PLOS One.
The first paper examines the role of parent's scaffolding and children's strategies in children's prospective memory performance.
Mazachowsky, T. R., Hamilton, C., & Mahy, C. E. V. (2021). What supports the development of children’s prospective memory? Using a parent-report to examine the relation between children’s memory techniques, parent scaffolding, and children’s prospective memory. Journal of Cognition and Development, 22, 721-743.
The second paper is a partial replication of findings that suggest adults's episodic foresight is influenced by their current state.
Mazachowsky, T. R., McKenzie, K., Busseri, M., & Mahy, C. E. V. (in press). “These pretzels are making me thirsty” so I’ll have water tomorrow: A partial replication and extension of adults’ induced episodic foresight. PLOS One.
September 7, 2021
A warm welcome to our newest PhD student, Ege Kamber. Ege got his undergraduate and Master's degrees from Bogazici University in Turkey. For his MA research, he examined the development of children's saving behaviour. For his PhD research in the DMC lab, he plans to examine different theoretical accounts for the development of children's future thinking including examining the roles of self-projection, scene construction, and episodic memory. Welcome to our team, Ege!
July 16, 2021
Our lab held a socially distanced graduate student meeting at a local park this past week. Although the lab is not doing any face-to-face studies, we are busy with conducting our online studies and analyzing data from several studies asking parents about their children's future-oriented behaviour, memory, and self-regulation.
June 11, 2021
Congratulations to Samantha Moeller who successfully defended her MA thesis entitled "Adults' perceptions of forgetful children: The impact of child age, domain, and memory type". Well done!
April 1, 2021
Our paper examining adults' perceptions of forgetful children has been accepted for publication in the journal Memory.
This paper was based on Samantha Moeller's Masters thesis project and was in collaboration with current PhD student, Tessa Mazachowsky, former MA student, Lydia Lavis, and current PhD student at the University of Oregon, Stephanie Gluck.
This paper was based on Samantha Moeller's Masters thesis project and was in collaboration with current PhD student, Tessa Mazachowsky, former MA student, Lydia Lavis, and current PhD student at the University of Oregon, Stephanie Gluck.
March 4, 2021
Our paper examining young children's ability to predict their prospective memory performance and its relation with metacognitive abilities was recently published in the Journal of Experimental Child Psychology. This study was Lydia Lavis's MA research project. Please click here to read the whole paper.
February 8, 2021
Read about how our lab has adapted to the pandemic and shifted many of our studies online in this article from The Brock News.
January 12, 2021
Dr. Mahy is now Associate Editor at Cognitive Development. Cognitive Development publishes research on the development of cognition. Dr. Mahy looks forward to holding this position and further contributing to the peer-review process.
January 8, 2021
Check out the white board video that PhD student, Tessa Mazachowsky, created to provide information to researchers about our Children's Future Thinking Questionnaire! If you are interested in learning more about the questionnaire or wish to use it in your own research, please click here.
November 30, 2020
Current PhD student, Tessa Mazachowsky, and Dr. Mahy co-wrote an article on children's saving ability in The Conversation. Click on the image below to read the story.
November 24, 2020
Dr. Mahy gave a public talk virtually today entitled "What is prospective memory? Understanding how we remember to do things in the future". See below for the recording of the webinar.
October 23, 2020
Despite the challenges of the pandemic, our lab has been busy this fall. We are holding weekly lab meetings and graduate student group meetings. We have held two socially distanced graduate student group meetings in a local park!
The lab is starting up several exciting online projects examining children's procrastination, cognitive processes involved in prospective memory, gender stereotypes and how those influence judgements of men and women's forgetfulness, as well as projects that will extend the validity of the Children's Future Thinking Questionnaire. Many of these studies will ask parents to rate their children on a number of different abilities. Although our methodology has had to change, we still are investigating critical questions in the development of prospective memory and future-oriented thinking!
In addition to these online studies for parents and adults, we have two studies that involve live online studies with children ages 3 to 6. Both studies examine children's ability to remember to do things in the future. If you are interested in having your child participate, please email the lab.
The lab is starting up several exciting online projects examining children's procrastination, cognitive processes involved in prospective memory, gender stereotypes and how those influence judgements of men and women's forgetfulness, as well as projects that will extend the validity of the Children's Future Thinking Questionnaire. Many of these studies will ask parents to rate their children on a number of different abilities. Although our methodology has had to change, we still are investigating critical questions in the development of prospective memory and future-oriented thinking!
In addition to these online studies for parents and adults, we have two studies that involve live online studies with children ages 3 to 6. Both studies examine children's ability to remember to do things in the future. If you are interested in having your child participate, please email the lab.
September 28, 2020
We are pleased to welcome, Taissa Fuke, our new MA student to the Developing Memory and Cognition Lab! Taissa is interested in children's prospective memory and teasing apart why children make these types of memory errors. Taissa completed her undergraduate degree at the University of Ottawa and completed her Honours thesis in Cristina Atance's lab. Welcome Taissa!
July 21, 2020
Congratulations to Lydia Lavis for successfully defending her MA thesis entitled "The relation between young children's memory and metacognition"! A big thanks to her committee members, Dawn Good, Cathy Mondloch, and Lynn Dempsey. Well done, Lydia! In the fall, Lydia will be completing a certificate in knowledge mobilization at the University of Guelph.
May 21, 2020
Dr. Mahy recently was asked to comment on Fruit Snack Challenge, where parents are giving their children a test of delay of gratification at home and then posting the outcomes on social media. Children are given a bowl of candy or treats and then are asked to wait to have them often with hilarious results.
Read more about the story below by clicking on the article.
Read more about the story below by clicking on the article.
April 17, 2020
Congratulation to current MA student, Lydia Lavis, who is the recipient of the Vincent FitzGibbon Graduate Bursary!
This award is made annually to a full-time student majoring in Psychology or Neuroscience at Brock University who is interested in pursuing the field of brain injury rehabilitation and demonstrates community involvement or work related experience in the social/health services field. Way to go, Lydia!
This award is made annually to a full-time student majoring in Psychology or Neuroscience at Brock University who is interested in pursuing the field of brain injury rehabilitation and demonstrates community involvement or work related experience in the social/health services field. Way to go, Lydia!
April 1, 2020
We hope everyone is staying safe during this unprecedented time!
The DMC Lab has been closed for the past two weeks in order to ensure the safety of research participants and DMC research team members during the COVID-19 pandemic. Just because data collection is on pause does not mean our research has stopped though.
The lab is currently working on writing up several research projects for publication, setting up a new online study on the topic of impressions of forgetful children, and creating infographics to better communicate our research findings to members of the public.
We hope to resume our in lab data collection when it is safe to do so, but in the meantime, be well!
The DMC Lab has been closed for the past two weeks in order to ensure the safety of research participants and DMC research team members during the COVID-19 pandemic. Just because data collection is on pause does not mean our research has stopped though.
The lab is currently working on writing up several research projects for publication, setting up a new online study on the topic of impressions of forgetful children, and creating infographics to better communicate our research findings to members of the public.
We hope to resume our in lab data collection when it is safe to do so, but in the meantime, be well!
March 27, 2020
Congratulations to Dayna McNeill who has been awarded a prestigious NSERC Undergraduate Student Research Award (USRA) for the spring and summer of 2020!
Dayna will be working on two projects: one will examine the role of verbal disruption in prospective memory during aging and the other will be examining why very young children forget to carry out their intentions.
Dayna will be working on two projects: one will examine the role of verbal disruption in prospective memory during aging and the other will be examining why very young children forget to carry out their intentions.
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February 7, 2020
Here is an article published in The Brock News about the development of the Children's Future Thinking Questionnaire developed by Tessa Mazachowsky and Caitlin Mahy.
February 1, 2020
Maria Conversano, a high school student from Holy Cross Catholic Secondary School, gave a presentation on the development of children's saving behaviour as the final part of the high school mentorship placement. Maria has been working in our lab since September 2019 and will be continuing to volunteer in the lab. Well done Maria!
January 28, 2020
Our paper entitled "Younger and older adults’ prospective memory: The role of delay task difficulty" has been accepted for publication in Aging, Neuropsychology, and Cognition. This study found that older adults had worse prospective memory than younger adults, but there was no impact of delay task difficulty on prospective memory. Interestingly, older adults reported thinking about their intention more than younger adults despite worse performance. We are currently conducting follow-up work on the role of subvocal rehearsal in prospective memory and aging.
Congratulations to Alison O'Connor who is a PhD student and first author on the paper!
Congratulations to Alison O'Connor who is a PhD student and first author on the paper!
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January 24, 2020
Dr. Mahy gave an invited talk entitled "The development of the Children's Future Thinking Questionnaire" to the Developmental Science Interest Group at the University of Toronto.
January 7, 2020
We are pleased to announce that our paper entitled "Developing an understanding of others’ emotional states: Relations among affective theory of mind measures in early childhood" has been accepted for publication at the British Journal of Developmental Psychology. Data for this project was collected at the Ontario Science Centre and the paper's first author is a graduate student associate in our lab, Caitlyn Gallant, and the second author is current MA student in our lab, Lydia Lavis. See our publications page for more information.
November 27, 2019
We are very excited to announce that our paper describing the development of the Children's Future Thinking Questionnaire has been accepted for publication in Developmental Psychology! We look forward to freely sharing the 44-item questionnaire that measures young children's planning, prospective memory, saving behaviour, delay of gratification, and episodic foresight with other researchers who study children's cognitive development and want to measure these domains of future-oriented cognition.
For more information, please see our page on the Children's Future Thinking Questionnaire.
Mazachowsky, T. R., & Mahy, C. E. V. (2020). Construction of the children’s future thinking questionnaire: A reliable and valid parent-report measure of children’s future-oriented cognition. Developmental Psychology.
We are very excited to announce that our paper describing the development of the Children's Future Thinking Questionnaire has been accepted for publication in Developmental Psychology! We look forward to freely sharing the 44-item questionnaire that measures young children's planning, prospective memory, saving behaviour, delay of gratification, and episodic foresight with other researchers who study children's cognitive development and want to measure these domains of future-oriented cognition.
For more information, please see our page on the Children's Future Thinking Questionnaire.
Mazachowsky, T. R., & Mahy, C. E. V. (2020). Construction of the children’s future thinking questionnaire: A reliable and valid parent-report measure of children’s future-oriented cognition. Developmental Psychology.
November 18, 2019
We are pleased to announce that our paper entitled, The roles of perspective and language on young children’s delay of gratification performance, has been accepted for publication in the Journal of Experimental Child Psychology. Please see our Publications page for more information.
We are pleased to announce that our paper entitled, The roles of perspective and language on young children’s delay of gratification performance, has been accepted for publication in the Journal of Experimental Child Psychology. Please see our Publications page for more information.
September 23, 2019
Dr. Mahy wrote an article about children's forgetfulness for The Conversation. This article draws on research from the Developing Memory and Cognition Lab. Read the article here or click on the photo below.
Dr. Mahy wrote an article about children's forgetfulness for The Conversation. This article draws on research from the Developing Memory and Cognition Lab. Read the article here or click on the photo below.
September 20, 2019
Dr. Mahy gave an invited talk entitled "Don’t forget to feed the goldfish: The Executive Framework of children’s prospective memory development" to the Cognitive and Brain Sciences group at the University of Victoria.
Dr. Mahy gave an invited talk entitled "Don’t forget to feed the goldfish: The Executive Framework of children’s prospective memory development" to the Cognitive and Brain Sciences group at the University of Victoria.
September 18, 2019
Lydia Lavis presented some recent data on young children's awareness of prospective memory at the Brock Psychology Data Blitz. Preliminary results suggest that children's reflection of their prospective memory performance is more accurate than their predictions.
Lydia Lavis presented some recent data on young children's awareness of prospective memory at the Brock Psychology Data Blitz. Preliminary results suggest that children's reflection of their prospective memory performance is more accurate than their predictions.
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July 29, 2019
Congratulations to Tessa Mazachowsky who was awarded a Joseph-Armand Bombardier Canada Graduate Scholarship in the 2019-2020 competition. Tessa's research project is entitled "The neglected areas of children's future thinking: Bringing attention to methodological issues and the development of children's saving for the future". This funding will support Tessa in her exploration of the emergence and development of children's saving behaviour and the creation of new tasks to measure saving behaviour. Well done Tessa!
Congratulations to Tessa Mazachowsky who was awarded a Joseph-Armand Bombardier Canada Graduate Scholarship in the 2019-2020 competition. Tessa's research project is entitled "The neglected areas of children's future thinking: Bringing attention to methodological issues and the development of children's saving for the future". This funding will support Tessa in her exploration of the emergence and development of children's saving behaviour and the creation of new tasks to measure saving behaviour. Well done Tessa!
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June 8, 2019
Congratulations to Caitlyn Gallant and Lydia Lavis who both presented research at the 49th meeting of the Jean Piaget Society held June 6-8th in Portland, OR.
Caitlyn organized a symposium on novel approaches to the study of theory of mind and presented work on the development and coherence of affective theory of mind measures in early childhood.
Lydia presented a poster on her Masters research on children's memory performance, memory predictions, and metacognitive awareness.
Congratulations to Caitlyn Gallant and Lydia Lavis who both presented research at the 49th meeting of the Jean Piaget Society held June 6-8th in Portland, OR.
Caitlyn organized a symposium on novel approaches to the study of theory of mind and presented work on the development and coherence of affective theory of mind measures in early childhood.
Lydia presented a poster on her Masters research on children's memory performance, memory predictions, and metacognitive awareness.
May 2, 2019
Congratulations to Chelsey Masson and Emma Stallwood who both completed their Honours Thesis projects in the DMC lab this past semester! Wishing them both all the best at graduate school next fall!
Congratulations to Chelsey Masson and Emma Stallwood who both completed their Honours Thesis projects in the DMC lab this past semester! Wishing them both all the best at graduate school next fall!
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March 22, 2019
Congratulations to PhD student Tessa Mazachowsky who presented a poster and gave a talk at the Society for Research in Child Development (SRCD) biennial meeting held in Baltimore, MD. Tessa presented data on executive function and prospective memory in her talk and children's ability to spontaneous think about the future with her poster.
Congratulations to PhD student Tessa Mazachowsky who presented a poster and gave a talk at the Society for Research in Child Development (SRCD) biennial meeting held in Baltimore, MD. Tessa presented data on executive function and prospective memory in her talk and children's ability to spontaneous think about the future with her poster.
December 6, 2018
Dr. Mahy gave a talk on her research on children's future thinking at the inaugural Social Sciences Research Colloquium at Brock University. Dr. Mahy was awarded the Untenured Research of the Year award this past year and was invited to speak about her work.
Dr. Mahy gave a talk on her research on children's future thinking at the inaugural Social Sciences Research Colloquium at Brock University. Dr. Mahy was awarded the Untenured Research of the Year award this past year and was invited to speak about her work.
August 18, 2018
We were back at the Ontario Science Centre this year collecting data in August for a project on children's understanding of emotions and affective theory of mind. We are looking forward to finishing up data collection this fall. The photo below is of Caitlyn and Lydia setting up for data collection.
We were back at the Ontario Science Centre this year collecting data in August for a project on children's understanding of emotions and affective theory of mind. We are looking forward to finishing up data collection this fall. The photo below is of Caitlyn and Lydia setting up for data collection.
July 31, 2018
We bid our lab manager, Amanda Krause, a fond farewell last week as she gets ready to begin her Masters in Counseling Psychology at the University of Ottawa in the fall. Welcome, Katarina McKenzie, our new lab manager for 2018-2019!
We bid our lab manager, Amanda Krause, a fond farewell last week as she gets ready to begin her Masters in Counseling Psychology at the University of Ottawa in the fall. Welcome, Katarina McKenzie, our new lab manager for 2018-2019!
June 14, 2018
We are pleased to announced that our paper entitled "Do verbal reminders improve preschoolers’ prospective memory performance? It depends on age and individual differences" has been accepted for publication in Cognitive Development.
We are pleased to announced that our paper entitled "Do verbal reminders improve preschoolers’ prospective memory performance? It depends on age and individual differences" has been accepted for publication in Cognitive Development.
June 11, 2018
We are thrilled to announce that Lydia Lavis will be starting her MA degree in the Developing Memory and Cognition Lab this fall!
We are thrilled to announce that Lydia Lavis will be starting her MA degree in the Developing Memory and Cognition Lab this fall!
May 22, 2018
Dr. Mahy and Tessa Mazachowsky will be heading to Amsterdam next week for the 48th Annual meeting of the Jean Piaget Society. Dr. Mahy will be presenting work on why preschooler's forget to carry out their future intentions and Tessa will be presenting her work on the cross-validation of the children's future thinking questionnaire.
Dr. Mahy and Tessa Mazachowsky will be heading to Amsterdam next week for the 48th Annual meeting of the Jean Piaget Society. Dr. Mahy will be presenting work on why preschooler's forget to carry out their future intentions and Tessa will be presenting her work on the cross-validation of the children's future thinking questionnaire.
May 7, 2018
Congratulations to Tessa Mazachowsky for being awarded an Ontario Graduate Scholarship for 2018-2019. Well done Tessa!
Congratulations to Tessa Mazachowsky for being awarded an Ontario Graduate Scholarship for 2018-2019. Well done Tessa!
May 3, 2018
Tessa Mazachowsky gave a talk at Development 2018, hosted at Brock University last week, entitled "Thirst biases young children's predictions about their future selves but not future others" in a symposium session on Children's hypothetical thinking.
Tessa Mazachowsky gave a talk at Development 2018, hosted at Brock University last week, entitled "Thirst biases young children's predictions about their future selves but not future others" in a symposium session on Children's hypothetical thinking.
April 12, 2018
More good news about funding. Dr. Mahy was recently awarded an Early Researcher Award (ERA) from the Ontario Ministry of Research, Innovation, and Science. Funds from this award will go towards funding a post-doctoral fellow, graduate students, and undergraduate students in the Developing Memory and Cognition Lab over the next five years!
More good news about funding. Dr. Mahy was recently awarded an Early Researcher Award (ERA) from the Ontario Ministry of Research, Innovation, and Science. Funds from this award will go towards funding a post-doctoral fellow, graduate students, and undergraduate students in the Developing Memory and Cognition Lab over the next five years!
April 11, 2018
Dr. Mahy is honoured to be awarded the 2018 Untenured Researcher Award from the Brock Faculty of Social Sciences.
Dr. Mahy is honoured to be awarded the 2018 Untenured Researcher Award from the Brock Faculty of Social Sciences.
March 29, 2018
Congratulations to current PhD student Tessa Mazachowsky for being awarded a Dean of Graduate Studies Spring 2018 Research Fellowship! Tessa will continue her work on the creation of a valid and reliable parent-report questionnaire on children's future oriented cognition with this award.
Congratulations to current PhD student Tessa Mazachowsky for being awarded a Dean of Graduate Studies Spring 2018 Research Fellowship! Tessa will continue her work on the creation of a valid and reliable parent-report questionnaire on children's future oriented cognition with this award.
March 26, 2018
Congratulations to undergraduate student, Chelsey Masson, for being awarded an NSERC Undergraduate Student Research Award for the summer. This award will fund Chelsey to work full-time in the DMC lab this summer on several projects. Well done Chelsey!
Congratulations to undergraduate student, Chelsey Masson, for being awarded an NSERC Undergraduate Student Research Award for the summer. This award will fund Chelsey to work full-time in the DMC lab this summer on several projects. Well done Chelsey!
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December 14, 2017
The Developing Memory and Cognition Lab was at the Ontario Science Centre today for their Symposium Day. Dr. Mahy presented recent data on why preschoolers forget to carry out their intentions based on data that was collected at the Science Centre this past July.
The Developing Memory and Cognition Lab was at the Ontario Science Centre today for their Symposium Day. Dr. Mahy presented recent data on why preschoolers forget to carry out their intentions based on data that was collected at the Science Centre this past July.
November 24, 2017
Here is a story in the St Catharines Standard about a recent study in our lab trying to understand why preschoolers forget to carry out their intentions and how this might change with age.
Here is a story in the St Catharines Standard about a recent study in our lab trying to understand why preschoolers forget to carry out their intentions and how this might change with age.
November 3, 2017
Check out a recent story about our research on preschooler's forgetfulness and collecting data at the Ontario Science Centre in the Brock News.
Check out a recent story about our research on preschooler's forgetfulness and collecting data at the Ontario Science Centre in the Brock News.
September 26, 2017
Our DMC Lab Office got an update with a new coat of paint. This is our graduate students and undergraduate student work space.
Our DMC Lab Office got an update with a new coat of paint. This is our graduate students and undergraduate student work space.
September 7, 2017
The DMC Lab is starting up two new studies this fall!
One focuses on effect of cognition and motivation on 3 to 5 year old's future thinking and the other will examine age differences between younger and older adult's memory performance.
Welcome to our two new research assistants, Chelsey Masson and Jill Ivany!
The DMC Lab is starting up two new studies this fall!
One focuses on effect of cognition and motivation on 3 to 5 year old's future thinking and the other will examine age differences between younger and older adult's memory performance.
Welcome to our two new research assistants, Chelsey Masson and Jill Ivany!
August 4, 2017
Our research team was at the Ontario Science Centre in Toronto the first week of August 2017 conducting a research study on 3- and 4-year-olds' memory development. We were thrilled to partner with the Research Live! Program and the Ontario Science Centre. It was a very successful week of data collection.
Our research team was at the Ontario Science Centre in Toronto the first week of August 2017 conducting a research study on 3- and 4-year-olds' memory development. We were thrilled to partner with the Research Live! Program and the Ontario Science Centre. It was a very successful week of data collection.
July 26, 2017
And that's a wrap! We just finished collecting data on a study that examined the role of reminders on young children's prospective memory. Thanks to all the children and families that participated! Now Dr. Mahy and Tessa Mazachowsky will write up the results and submit a manuscript for publication.
And that's a wrap! We just finished collecting data on a study that examined the role of reminders on young children's prospective memory. Thanks to all the children and families that participated! Now Dr. Mahy and Tessa Mazachowsky will write up the results and submit a manuscript for publication.
July 24, 2017
Congratulations to DMC Lab Graduate Student, Tessa Mazachowksy, who successfully defended her MA thesis on the development of a parent questionnaire on young children's future oriented thinking! Tessa will continue her PhD work in the Developing Memory and Cognition Lab.
Congratulations to DMC Lab Graduate Student, Tessa Mazachowksy, who successfully defended her MA thesis on the development of a parent questionnaire on young children's future oriented thinking! Tessa will continue her PhD work in the Developing Memory and Cognition Lab.
