September, 2020

Meet our newest graduate research assistant, Abby. She is a Learning Sciences PhD candidate from Clemson. View her full bio under our 'people' tab. Welcome to the team, Abby! 

August 1, 2020

Congrats to one of our May 2020 graduates, Nathanael, on his recent admission into graduate school at American University in Washington D.C. He will be studying Biotechnology with a concentration in Business. Best of luck, Nathanael!  

July 1, 2020

Congratulations to Dr. Ross who was appointed as the new SmartLife Endowed Chair in Aging and Cognition at Clemson University. Dr. Ross is an Associate Professor of Psychology and the Associate Director of the Institute for Engaged Aging beginning the July. 

June, 2020

Dr. Lesley Ross was awarded funding from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) to conduct the project "State of Knowledge on Older Drivers" along with Dr. Loren Staplin of TransAnalytics. The goal of the project is to conduct a systematic literature review of research published on older driver safety since 2000. The SHAARP team, led by Sara Freed, is currently conducting the systematic literature search and extracting key information from eligible publications to assist in the final report.

April 27, 2020

Sara was recognized for her outstanding research during the 2020 Penn State Undergraduate Research Exhibition. Nearly 200 students competed in the exhibition. Sara's poster, titled "Women are Not More Likely to Receive Suggestion to Cease Driving" won third place in the Social and Behavioral Sciences category. Congratulations Sara!

April, 2020

Penn State University has moved all non-essential on campus activities to remote. Therefore, all Faculty, students and staff in the SHAARP Lab are working remotely at this time.

We have also suspended all lab visits for participants until it is deemed safe to resume. We are however, still available to answer any questions about the lab or on-going studies. If you have a question, please call (814) 865-4773.

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April, 2020

Congratulations to our graduating Research Assistants, Sara Bickhart, Nathanael Jiya, and Anabella Raika! We are proud of you and appreciate all of your contributions to the SHAARP Lab. We wish you the best in all of your future endeavors.

April, 2020

The Everyday Function Intervention Trial (EFIT) is now open to recruitment! This study is open to men and women between the ages of 65 and 85. EFIT is a 6 month study investigating the use of cognitive training to improve everyday function in older adults. Please see the Projects/Current Projects tab on the main page of the SHAARP website for additional information. You can also call the SHAARP lab at (814) 865-4773.

August 2019

SHAARP welcomes our new postdoctoral fellow, Dr. Erica O'Brien, to Penn State. Dr. O'Brien is part of the Center for Healthy Aging T32 training grant. Please see more about Dr. O'Brien under 'People'. We are excited to have her join the team!

August 2019

The Feasibility and Enjoyment of Exergames (FLEX) study has completed participant recruitment. Thank you to all of our participants! We will now be busy with data analysis.

May 2019

Christy Phillips, PhD will be joining Atria Senior Living, Inc. as Vice President, Resident Engagement. Dr. Phillips, who was a postdoctoral scholar in the lab from 2014 to 2016, will be responsible for overseeing Engage Life events programing in her new position. You can view her full bio in our Alumni page.

March 2019

On February 22nd Briana successfully defended her dissertation, "Associations Between Physical and Cognitive Function in Healthy Older Adults." She will graduate in May 2019 with a PhD in Human Development and Family Studies.

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Briana has accepted a postdoctoral fellowship at the Department of Epidemiology at the University of Pittsburgh, where she will join the T32 Population Neuroscience of Aging and Alzheimer's disease program.

February 2019

Our paper, "Older adult lifespace varies by driving status and residential population density," was just accepted to the Transportation Research Record, a journal of the Transportation Research Board. Congrats to Dr. Phillips, Sara Freed, and Dr. Ross!

January 2019

Dr. Ross and Sara Freed attended the Transportation Research Board Annual 2019 Meeting in Washington, DC. Here are some highlights from the conference:

Feburary 2019

Dr. Ross and Sliwinski were recently awarded a grant from the National Institutes of Health/National Institute on Aing (U0 1AG062370) to examine cognitive, psychosocial, neural, and biological mechanisms of several types of cognitive training transfer to everyday functioning among older adults. Data collection will begin in the Fall of 2019. Additional information and the project status can be found here. The study is called Elucidating the Necessary Active Components of Training (ENACT).

December 2018

We are pleased to announce that Sara Freed was awarded the Dwight David Eisenhower Transportation Fellowship Program Graduate Fellowship. The fellowship, sponsored by the Federal Highway Administration, is awarded to students pursuing degrees in transportation-related disciplines. Congratulations Sara! 

January 2019

Dr. Ross was recently awarded a grant from the National Institutes of Health/National Institute on Aging (R21 AG060216) to examine the daily cognitive and psychosocial mechanisms of cognitive training transfer to everyday functioning among older adults. Data collection will begin in the Fall of 2019. Additional information and the project status can be found here. The study is called Everyday Function Intervention Trial (EFIT).

November 2018

Several members of the SHAARP Lab attended the Gerontological Society of America (GSA) annual meeting in Boston, Massachusetts. Sara Freed, Sara Troutman, and Briana Sprague presented posters at the conference, which you can find more information about on their CV’s located under the People tab. 

October 2018

Congratulations to Sara Freed, whose work "Characteristics and Predictors of Distracted Driving Behaviors in Older Adults" was accepted for a presentation at the Transportation Research Board 2019 Annual Meeting in January." A second lab paper, "Older Adult Lifespace Varies by Driving Status and Residential Population Density", by Christine Phillips, Sara Freed, and Lesley Ross was also accepted for presentation at the conference.   

September 2018

Congratulations to Dr. Ross for her recent Innovative Research on Aging Award presented by the Mather LifeWays Institute on Aging! This award is given to researchers who engage in high-quality, innovative research that addresses important issues in older adulthood. More information can be found here.

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January 2019

The Center for Healthy Aging Pathways T32 program is accepting applications for predoctoral and postdoctoral fellowships. Please contact Dr. Ross if you are interested in working in the SHAARP lab and see the T32 website for more information on the application process.

July 2018

The SHAARP lab is happy to announce that we have three GSA poster presentations accepted this year. Congratulations to Briana, Sara F., and Sara B.W.T.

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June 2018

Congratulations to Briana, who was chosen as one of the 25 participants in Stanford University's Forming Science-Industry Research Collaborations. She will attend the two-day workshop in September.

Briana was also the 2018 recipient of the Zarit Award for Graduate Student Excellence in research, teaching, and service.

Lastly, she also received the 2018-2019 Kligman fellowship- a competitive college-wide fellowship for dissertation research. Congratulations, Briana!

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June 2018

Dr. Ross and Sara Freed attended the mid-year meeting for the Transportation Research Board's Committee on Safe Mobility of Older Persons. This year, the theme of the meeting was "The Legalization of Marijuana and Its Effects on the Safe Mobility of Older Persons."

April 2018

Briana Sprague and Sara Freed were recently awarded a Small Project Grant from the College of Health and Human Development. The SHAARP Lab will use these funds to conduct a pilot study with older adults in the fall. Look for more information later this summer.

April 2018

Congratulations to lab members Sara Winter and Sara Freed, who both defended their Master's in April!

April 2018

Dr. Ross has been appointed Chair of the Transportation Research Board Committee on Safe Mobility of Older Persons. Check out the press release from the Larson Transportation Institute where Dr. Ross is a faculty affiliate in our Recent Press section.

March 2018

A paper titled "The effects of useful field of view training on brain activity and connectivity" has been accepted to the Journals of Gerontology, Series B: Psychological Sciences. The reference can be found under the publication tab. 

February 2018

Congratulations to lab member Sara Freed, who received the Harold F. Martin Graduate Assistant Outstanding Teaching Award! This graduate school-wide award recognizes graduate assistants for outstanding teaching performance. Congrats Sara!

January 2018

Dr. Ross and Sara just got back from the Transportation Research Board Annual Meeting in Washington, DC. A highlight of the conference was attending the Human Factors Workshop:  Is There a Relationship Between Older Drivers’ Medical Conditions, Health Status, and Safe Driving? Dr. Ross and Sara look forward to attending the TRB mid-year meeting this summer with members of the Committee on Safe Mobility of Older Persons (ANB60) Subcommittee on Senior Mobility Options. Check back later when Dr. Ross announces the theme of this year's mid-year meeting.

January 2018

The Pennsylvania State University’s Center for Healthy Aging offers postdoctoral training through the Pathways T32 Training Program. The goal of this NIA-funded program is to train the next generation of scientists in psychosocial determinants and biological pathways that underlie healthy and unhealthy aging. Applications are now being accepted for T-32 Post-doctoral Fellowships. Applicants should consult the website for more information about the program. 

December 2017

Congratulations to Briana, who has a new accepted manuscript! This paper implemented a new technique to examine measurement invariance in the WAIS-R, an intelligence test. She found that even when relaxing certain (statistical) assumptions, there is little evidence of age-related bias in this particular test. The paper, Revising measurement invariance in intelligence testing in aging research: Evidence for almost complete metric invariance across age groups, will be published in the Journal for Person-Oriented Research. 

November 2017

Congratulations to Briana, one of the recipients of the James McKenney Student Travel Award. This is a $1000 award for students to attend the Association for Gerontology in Higher Education conference in Atlanta, GA. Briana will attend the conference in March. Congratulations, Briana!

November 2017

Briana's TVEM manuscript is in! Make sure to check it out here

November 2017

Congratulations to SHAARP lab member Christina Webb (Johnson) on her RGSO Dissertation Award through the College of Liberal Arts!

November 207

The Claire Kamp Dush's Ranking of HDFS Programs in North American are in! Pennsylvania State University's HDFS program was ranked #1 amongst 48 HDFS doctoral programs. Penn State was also ranked #1 in the Family Science category, Adolescent Development and Emerging Adulthood category, and Adult Development and Aging category. Read more on the rankings here.

September 2017

Briana Sprague's TVEM paper has been accepted! This paper examined cross-sectional relationships between physical and cognitive function in older adults using a novel statistical technique called time-varying effects modeling (TVEM). Briana and her colleagues found that simple physical function was a stronger predictor of processing speed, memory, and reasoning for the oldest-old, and complex physical function generally was a stronger predictor for the young-old and oldest old. This demonstrates that age plays a critical role in how relationships between physical and cognitive function couple across the older adulthood continuum.

Check back soon for the link to the manuscript. Congratulations Briana! 

August 2017

Erica Schmidt recently graduated from The University of Alabama Birmingham with a Ph.D. in Medical/Clinical Psychology. Erica was a student of Dr. Lesley Ross and continues to work with Dr. Ross and the SHAARP Lab. Erica is now a postdoctoral fellow in Neuropsychology at the University of Nebraska Medical Center. Congratulations, Erica!

August 2017

Dr. Ross attended the TRB (Transportation Research Board) Annual Meeting at the Jonsson Center of the National Academy of Sciences in Massachusetts. The conference took place from August 8-9, and focused on the safety and mobility benefits of advanced driver assistance systems for older drivers. Emphasis was placed on how to best educate older adults of the purpose, proper use of, and consequences for safety outcomes of specific in-vehicle technologies. 

August 2017

Congratulations to Dr. Ross, the 2017 recipient of Penn State's Health and Human Development College's Evelyn R. Saubel Faculty Award. This award honors faculty members committed to human service who are accessible advisers in both academic and career decisions and who demonstrate a caring, professional style. Dr. Ross will be recognized at a ceremony on November 15th at the Living Center. Congratulations, Dr. Ross! 

July 22-27, 2017

Dr. Ross, Briana Sprague, and Sara Freed attended the IAGG Conference in San Francisco. After presenting posters at the conference, the SHAARP lab took a trip to Alcatraz while in California. See more about their trip here. 

July 2017

Former undergraduate research assistant Dan Van Florcke has been accepted to NYIT College of Osteopathic Medicine in Old Westbury, Long Island. He credits the SHAARP Lab for providing relevant information regarding health care for the growing older adult population. Congratulations Dan and good luck on your journey to becoming a physician! 

May 2017

Three SHAARP lab alumni graduated this weekend. Check out the Out and About page for more information and pictures of Kirsten, Suzanne, and Tom.

April 2017

A big congratulations to SHAARP graduate student Briana Sprague! Briana was awarded the Harold F. Martin Graduate Assistant Outstanding Teacher Award. She was nominated by faculty members in HDFS because of her high SRTE and wide-ranging Teaching Assistant experiences. 

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Briana also received the Joseph and Jean Britton Distinguished Graduate Fellowship.This is a competitive fellowship that goes to one student in the College of Health and Human Development who has distinguished him/herself through research, teaching, and service in gerontology. Congratulations Briana, what an accomplishment! 

April 2017

SHAARP Lab undergraduate research assistant Kirsten Wojacek presented at the 2017 Undergraduate Research Exhibition on Wednesday, April 5th. Kirsten completed her research on the relationship between health conditions and driving avoidance in older adults. Congratulations on a successful presentation! 

April 2017

Undergraduate research assistant Suzanne Hamilton has accepted her admission to The University of Pennsylvania's Graduate School of Education. Suzanne will be pursuing a M.S.Ed in Higher Education and is looking forward to returning to her home town of Philadelphia. Congratulations Suzanne!

March 2017

Tom Drago (SHAARP lab member 2015-2016) has been accepted to the Atlantic Bridge Program to study medicine in Ireland. He will be spending his first two years at the National University of Ireland in Galway, Ireland. Following these two years, Tom will return to the United States for his last three years of clinical rotations at hospitals that the NUI Galway has connections with. Congratulations Tom! 

March 2017

The SHAARP lab visited Philipsburg Senior Center on Saturday, March 25th for a Health Screening Fair. Click here for more information and photos from the day. We are looking forward to returning on Saturday, April 29th for a movie day! 

March 2017

The Penn State Center for Healthy Aging is accepting postdoctoral and predoctoral fellowship applications for the Pathways T32 Training Program. Please see the training grant website for further information. Predoctoral fellowship applications are due by March 1, 2017.

February 2017

The SHAARP lab visited the Philipsburg Senior Center on Saturday, February 25th, for a day full of fun and games! The afternoon was spent playing card games and board games, such as Skippo. We also solved various puzzles and spent time catching up over snacks and treats. We will be doing a health screening when we return on March 25th, so be sure to check back and see how the day goes. 

February 2017

We are happy to add another Research Assistant to the SHAARP Lab! Welcome Alana Peng! Click here to learn more about Alana. 

February 2017

Sara Freed is the new Student Representative for the Transportation and Aging Interest Group of the Gerontological Society of America (GSA). She will be working with interest group members to establish a communication platform through GSA's website.

Congratulations Sara!

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January 2017

Graduate student, Briana Sprague, was selected as a recipient of the Harold F. Martin Graduate Assistant Outstanding Teaching Award for 2016-2017! Great job Briana and keep up the good work!!

January 2017

Congratulations to Dr. Ross, Briana Sprague, and Sara Freed on the acceptance of their abstracts to be presented at the 2017 International Association of Gerontology and Geriatrics! This year's conference will be held July 23-27 in San Francisco, California. Check back here for updates!

January 2017

In 2017 we are proud to welcome three new members to the SHAARP lab: Research Assistants Charles Myers and Elaina Lioudis and Postdoctoral Scholar Dr. Chongming Wang! Learn more about them here.

December 2016

Interested in what we do? Consider applying to the top Human Development and Family Studies PhD program in the United States! See http://hhd.psu.edu/cms/hdfs/Graduate-Education for further information. 

December 2016

The Transportation Research Board Committee for the Safe Mobility of Older Persons (ANB60) has released its Fall/Winter 2016 newsletter. You can find a PDF of the newsletter here. The newsletter includes information on current research initiatives, projects, partnerships, and training. You can also find information on past and upcoming meetings and events. 

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For more information on the Committee for Safe Mobility of Older Persons, click here.

November 2016

The SHAARP Lab is excited to announce that we are officially on Twitter! We will be sharing our lab’s latest news, publications, and outings. We will also keep everyone updated on recent related healthy aging studies. Be sure to follow us @psuSHAARPlab to keep up-to-date with our research here at Penn State University.

November 2016

"The impact of three cognitive training programs on older adults' physical functioning across five years", led by Dr. Ross, has just been accepted for publication in the Journal of Aging and Health.  Further information will be provided on our 'Publications' tab as soon as the accepted papers are released.

October 2016

The SHAARP lab visited the Philipsburg Senior Center on Saturday September 24th for a craft and games day! We spent the afternoon playing card and board games including Trivial Pursuit and Left Center Right. We also worked on puzzles and art activities while enjoying snacks and each other's company. Visit the Out and About page for pictures from that day. 

We’ll be back to the center on October 29th for a movie day. Be sure to check back to see how it goes!

September 2016

Congratulations to our Postdoctoral Fellow, Dr. Christy Phillips! Dr. Phillips has a new position at Arizona State University's School of Nutrition and Health Promotion. We wish her the best and look forward to our continued collaborations. 

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August 2016

Dr. Ross and Sara Freed recently attended the mid-year meeting of the Transportation Research Board Subcommittee on Senior Mobility Options. The topic of the meeting was how to realize the promise of information technology to improve alternative mobility options for older people, and to gauge the anticipated personal and public health benefits. For more information and pictures from the trip, visit the Out and About page. 

July 2016

The Transportation Research Board has released Cicular Number E-C211 titled Taxonomy and Terms for Stakeholders in Senior Mobility. The Circular is the product of the TRB Committee on the Safe Mobiity for Older Persons' (ANB60) two midyear meetings (2013 and 2014). The goal of the Circular is to facilitate communication and promote best practice among a host of disciplines and professional organizations committed to safe, independent, and dignified options for seniors to remain mobile within their communities. We encourage transportation professionals and consumers to use the Circular and provide suggestions for updates as needed due to new policies, research findings, and techologies.

July 2016

Several members of the SHAARP Lab went to Sweden for HDFS 597, Aging in a Welfare State, led by Drs. Zarit and Ross and hosted at Jönköping University. Students had the opportunity to attend lectures, visit health care providers, and meet with faculty members from multiple universities. Check out our Out and About page for pictures and more information.

July 2016

"The impact of three cognitive training programs on driving cessation across ten years: A randomized controlled trial", led by Dr. Ross, has just been accepted for publication with The Gerontologist. Additionally, the "Association between executive function and problematic adolescent driving", led by graduate student Caitlyn Pope, has just been accepted for publication in The Journal of Developmental and Behavioral Pediatrics. Further information will be provided on our 'Publications' tab as soon as the accepted papers are released.

June 2016

Congratulations to Erica Schmidt who successfully defended her dissertation. See our 'Out and About' tab for more information.

May 2016

Congratulations to SHAARP Undergraduate Research Assistants Janice, Dan and Kathryn who graduated from Penn State this year.  We are proud of all of you and look forward to watching you develop into your professional careers. See "Out and About" for further information. 

May 7, 2016

Congradulations former SHAARP member Laura Mayhall. Laura has accepted a position in the Michigan State University Clinical Psychology program beginning this fall.

May 3, 2016

Lab member Jinshil Hyun (Department of HDFS, Dr. Sliwinski primary mentor) received an award this week. See 'Out and About' for more information.  

May 3, 2016

Lab member Christina Webb (Department of Psychology, Dr. Dennis primary mentor) received two awards this week. See 'Out and About' for more information.  

April 17, 2016

Congradulations to Briana Sprague, Christina Webb, and Jinshil Hyun on their presentations at the Cognitive Aging Conference in Atlanta Georgia. Please see our 'Out and About' page for more details. 

April 2016

The SHAARP lab's postdoctoral scholar, Dr. Christy Phillips, gave a lecture in the 2016 Healthy Aging Community Lecture Series. The lecture, "Move It! Physical Activity and Aging", was a huge success. Check the Out and About page to read more about the event. 

April 2016

Congratulations to our very own Suzanne Hamilton and Daniel van Florcke for participating in Penn State’s annual Undergraduate Exhibition! Their presentations were a big success and encompass a lot of what SHAARP lab is all about. For pictures of the event and for more information on the presentations click here. 

March 2016

Two recent papers from the lab have been published! One paper, published in Transportation Research Record, examines changes in physical function and changes in driving mobility in older adults across five years. Another paper, published in Accident Analysis and Prevention, examines the impact of personality traits on distracted driving behaviors in teens and older adults. Full reference information and links to these publications are located in the "Publications" tab.

February 2016

Erica Schmidt was recently matched at the Memphis VA Medical Center for a clinical internship. Erica is a doctoral student in the Medical-Clinical Psychology Program at the University of Alabama at Birmingham. In addition to preparing for her internship, she is currently working with Dr. Ross on completing her dissertation. Congrats Erica!

January 2016

Dr. Ross and Dr. Phillips attended the Transportation Research Board of the National Academies Annual Meeting in Washington, DC earlier this month. Dr. Phillips presented two talks:

January 2016

New! Two manuscripts have just been accepted for publication!

Erica Schmidt's manuscript titled "Cortical thickness in fronto-parietal and cingulo-opercular networks predicts executive function performance in older adults" has been accepted for the Journal of Neuropsychology. 

Kaarin Anstey, Ph.D., and colleagues have published an editorial paper titled "Road safety in an ageing population: Risk factors, assessment, interventions and future directions" has been accepted in International Psychogeriatrics. 

Further information about both of these papers can be found under the "Publications" tab.

September 2015

The SHAARP Lab is kicking into high gear as the fall semester is starting. We are excited to welcome five new undergraduate RA's into the lab. See the "People" page for their pictures and bios. 

The SHAARP Lab had a very productive summer and were awarded the Penn State Mary Anna Mangino Community Service Endowment in the College of Health and Human Development. Please see the "Out and About" for further information about our summer activities, recent graduations, presentations and publications as well as our activities within the community. 

April 2015

In the Spring 2015 semester, three of our undergraduate research assistants graduated. All three have been accepted to their top choice schools. 

Also, both Lana and Lindsay presented their own research projects  at the 2015 Penn State Undergraduate Research Exposition.

Check out our new "Out and About" section of this site for more information and photos.

March 2015

Our paper, The transfer of speed of processing training to older adults' driving mobility across five years, is now in press in The Journals of Gerontology: Psychological Sciences! 

-One of our graduate students has a paper that has recently been accepted to Leisure Sciences! Sara Freed is an author on Perceptions of leisure by older adults who attend senior centers.

[More details about these articles, as well as the article links, will be provided soon.]

January, 2015

Penn State's Human Development and Family Studies program was recently ranked at the top of a list of HDFS programs in North America. Several undergraduate and graduate lab members are enrolled in the HDFS program, which emphasizes interdisciplinary study of human development in context. The program was also ranked #1 in Adult Development and Aging programs. Access the rankings here.

November, 2014

Graduate students represented the SHAARP lab at the annual Gerontological Society of America meeting, held in Washington, DC from November 5-9. Posters presented were:

• Freed, S., Sliwinski, M., Scott, S., Almeida, D., Smyth, J., Lipton, R., & Katz, M. (2014, November). The impact of chronic stress on rumination, anxiety, depression, and age. Poster presented at the annual meeting of Gerontological Society of America, Washington, D.C. 

• Hyun, J., Almeida, D., Smyth, J., Katz, M. J., Lipton, R. B., & Sliwinski, M. (2014, November). The roles of age and cognitive function in moderating the relationship between job demand and emotional distress. Poster presented at the annual meeting of Gerontological Society of America, Washington, D.C. 

• Sprague, B. N., Sliwinski, M. J., Almeida, D., Smyth, J. M., Katz, M., & Lipton, R. (2014). Correlates of physical activity in adults. Poster presented at the annual meeting of the Gerontological Society of America, Washington, D.C.

September, 2014

Three papers coauthored by lab members have recently been published. The latest, published online September 23, 2014 in PLoS One, examined potential mechanisms of speed of processing cognitive training. Click on the title to link to each article. 

• Layfield S., Burge W., Mitchell W., Ross L.A., Denning C., Amthor F., Visscher K. (2014). The Effect of Speed of Processing Training on Microsaccade Amplitude. PLOS ONE 9(9): e107808. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0107808

• Vance, D. E., Fazeli, P. L., Ball, D. A., Slater, L. Z., & Ross, L. A. (2014). Cognitive functioning and driving simulator performance in middle-aged and older adults with HIV. Journal of the Association of Nurses in AIDS Care, 25(2), e11-e26. doi: 10.1016/j.jana.2013.12.001.

• Fazeli, P. L., Crowe, M. G., Ross, L. A., Wadley, V., Ball, K. K., & Vance, D. E. (2014). Cognitive functioning in adults aging with HIV: A cross-sectional analysis of cognitive subtypes and influential factors. Journal of Clinical Research in HIV AIDS and Prevention, 1(4), 1-15. DOI: 10.14302.

August, 2014

The SHAARP Lab accepts a limited number of students interested in gaining experience in human subjects research to work as volunteer Research Assistants. For more details, click here...

August, 2014

As Vice Chair of the Transportation Research Board (TRB) of the National Academies' Committee on Safe Mobility of Older Persons, Dr. Ross has been on the road presenting mobility-related research. Earlier this year she was a convenor of the Human Factors Workshop and gave a presentation at the annual TRB meeting in Washington DC. July took Dr. Ross to Massachusetts to present at the mid-year meeting of the TRB Committee on Safe Mobility of Older Persons. She most recently returned to our nation's capital to present a paper on the transfer to mobility and neural correlates of a cognitive intervention at the annual American Psychological Association conference .

August, 2014

The SHAARP lab welcomes our newest team member, Dr. Christy Phillips. Dr. Phillips received her doctorate in Aging Studies from the University of South Florida in 2013. Her dissertation explored the within- and between- person relationships between daily physical activity and cognitive function among community-dwelling older adults.  More details about Dr. Phillips are here...

April, 2014

Lab members presented research findings at the biannual conference held in Altanta, GA in April. Two posters were presented by Graduate student, Erica Schmidt, and Dr. Ross. Christy Phillips, Postdoctoral Fellow, gave a plenary talk.

• Schmidt, E. L., McManus, B., & Ross, L. A. (April 2014). Neuroticism predicts performance on Tower of London. 

• McManus, B., Schmidt, E. L., & Ross, L. A. (April 2014). Processing speed mediates the relationship between performance IQ and executive planning. 

• Phillips, C.B., Edwards, J.D., Andel, R., Kilpatrick, M. (2014). Daily physical activity and 

  cognitive performance variability in older adults. 

January, 2014

We are pleased to welcome Dr. Lesley Ross to the Center for Healthy Aging. Her appointment is with the Department of Human Development and Family Studies with an office assignment in the Center. Dr. Ross brings expertise in cognitive aging, interventions to maintain healthy aging, human factors, with applications for everyday outcomes such as mobility and driving. Learn more about Dr. Ross here...

December, 2013

A systematic review was conducted to examine the impact of cognitive training, educational interventions, exercise interventions, and mixed interventions in maintaining broadly-defined mobility.

Full citation: Ross, L. A., Schmidt, E., & Ball, K. K. (2013). Interventions to maintain mobility: What works. Accident Analysis and Prevention, 61, 167-196. ISSN 0001-4575, http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.aap.2012.09.027. (http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0001457512003442)

Keywords: Mobility; Intervention; Training; Older adults; Driving; Lifespace

November, 2013

The Southeastern Transportation Research, Innovation, Development and Education (STRIDE) Center recognized Erica for her work on the project examining real-world driving mobility, A Naturalistic Driving Study across the Lifespan. One student is selected each year on the basis of outstanding accomplishments in research, academics, professionalism, leadership and technical merit. For more information about Erica, click here...

November, 2013

The lab was represented at the annual GSA meeting in New Orleans, LA with four presentations by Dr. Ross, Erica Schmidt and Wes Burge. 

• Ross, L. A. & Ball, K. Can cognitive interventions maintain mobility? Paper presented at the Cognitive Training: Results from the ACTIVE Study at 10 Years Symposium. 

• Schmidt, E., Visscher, K. M., Burge, W., & Ross, L. A. Structural predictors of instrumental activities of daily living. Poster presentation.

• Ross, L. A., Denning, C. R., Schmidt, E., & Visscher, K. M. Cognitive training increases cognitive efficiency: Evidence from neuroscience? Poster presentation.

• Choi, M., Bezuk, B., Ross, L. A., & Blonder, L. X. Driving limitations and perceived stress in later life. Paper presented at Driving Cessation in Later Life: Current Research and Future Challenges Symposium.

October 2020

Dr. Ross coauthored a systematic review on older driver interventions. More details about this article can be found under the 'publications' tab. 

September 2020

Check out Dr. Alyssa Gamaldo's newest publication "Correlates of Life Satisfaction Among Middle-Aged and Older Black Adults" under our 'publications' page.

February 2019

Penn State Larson Transportation Institute

February 2019

By Kristie Auman-Bauer

Penn State News

May 2018

Posit Science PR Team

April 2018

By Danica Laub

Larson Transportation Institute

March 2018

SharpBrains

November 2017

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Penn State News

October 2016

By Lindsay Dodgson 

Business Insider

June 2015

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July 2016

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Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

July 2016

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The Washington Post

October 2016

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