Current Projects & Recent Presentations

The Healthy Aging Lab will play a leading role in the APPALACHIAN GERONTOLOGY EXPERIENCES: ADVANCING DIVERSITY IN AGING RESEARCH (AGE-ADAR) grant from the National Institutes on Aging. Learn more about this $1.8 million project at the link above.

LAB PROJECTS to which we all contribute include our studies on the cognitive, physical and emotional effects of awe. We have conducted several pilot studies to determine what kind of stimuli adults find awe-inspiring and whether an awe-induction reduces the errors or facilitates speed in a demanding executive functions cognitive task. While we are revising our R21 grant submitted to the NIA, we are entering the field to explore the effects of awe among older adults and among nursing home employees.

We are also using funds from our WVU Community Engagement grant to develop and test Appalachia-themed activities for use by persons with dementia (pwd) in the community and in long-term care settings. We will be consulting with Cameron Camp and his team at the Center for Applied Research in Dementia (www.cen4ard.com).

We recently completed a study with 700+ WVU scholars related to Sexual Harassment and Research Experiences (SHARE). We are using those data to develop a Best Practices module for reducing sexual harassment in the research lab. 

Learn about our AWE-some program of research here: