Science Award 2020

Oct

2020

Psychological research is very important to us, which is why we work closely with researchers - from students and young scientists to multicentre international studies. All studies that use tests from the Vienna Test System or CogniPlus training can be submitted for the SCHUHFRIED Science Award.

The winners of the SCHUHFRIED Science Award 2020 are:

Francesca Pisano researched if Alzheimer's can be prevented.

Her study "Can Alzheimer's Disease Be Prevented? First Evidence from Spinal Stimulation Efficacy on Executive Functions" was based on the finding that Alzheimer's patients have difficulties with a variety of tasks even at an early stage of impairment.
The aim was to investigate the effect of transpinal direct current stimulation (tsDCS) in combination with cognitive training (using the CogniPlus trainings PLAND, ALERT and SELECT) to improve attention and executive functions in a group of Alzheimer's patients.

Pisano F, Caltagirone C, Satriano F, Perri R, Fadda L, Marangolo P. Can Alzheimer's Disease Be Prevented? First Evidence from Spinal Stimulation Efficacy on Executive Functions. J Alzheimers Dis. 2020;77(4):1755-1764. doi: https://doi.org/10.3233/jad-200695

Ramona Schödel looked at the correlation between smartphone use and the Big 5 personality factors.

Using the BFSI test and smartphone sensor data, correlations between sleep patterns and the Big Five personality factors were investigated. The results show that people with higher scores in Conscientiousness put their smartphone aside earlier in the evening. The duration of inactivity at night on weekdays varied less, indicating a balanced sleep rhythm. In addition, they had lower scores on the Roenneberg Chronotype, which indicates what time you normally fall asleep.

So the Big Five personality factors can predict sleep patterns. If you have high scores in Conscientiousness, you are likely to go to bed earlier and have a more regular sleep pattern. Conversely, the question "When do you put your smartphone away in the evening?" may soon be part of the standard repertoire of every job interview.

Schoedel, R., Pargent, F., Au, Q., Völkel, S. T., Schuwerk, T., Bühner, M., & Stachl, C. (2020). To challenge the Morning Lark and the Night Owl: Using smartphone sensing data to investigate day–night behaviour patterns. European Journal of Personality, 0(March), per.2258.
https://doi.org/10.1002/per.2258

Melanie Penning and Adriana Ruiz-Rizzo wondered if the attention training ALERT (CogniPlus) could improve visual processing speed in healthy older adults.

In summary, the results suggest that alertness training improves visual processing in older adults and that functional connectivity in the cingulo-opercular network is a neural marker for predicting individual training gains.