Cognitive Science Colloquium October 21

Dr. Jasińska studies the neural systems that support language and cognitive development and learning using a combination of behavioral, genetic, and neuroimaging (fNIRS, s/fMRI, EEG/ERP) research methods. Her research aims to understand how early life experiences (including bilingual/multilingual language experience) shape neurocognitive development and learning, with a focus on understanding development in environments with poverty-related risk, including rural communities in West Africa and recently resettled refugee children in Canada.

Dr. Jasińska received her Ph.D. in Psychology and Neuroscience from the University of Toronto in 2013, and completed postdoctoral training at Haskins Laboratories before establishing the BOLD laboratory.

Dr. Jasińska is the recipient of the 2016-2018 Jacobs Foundation Early Career Fellowship, 2018 Society for functional Near Infrared Spectroscopy Young Investigator Award, 2022 International Literacy Association’s Dina Feitelson Research Award, and 2023-2025 MIT Solve LEAP (Leveraging Evidence for Action to Promote change) Fellowship. Dr. Jasińska is currently a visiting research scientist at the UNESCO Mahatma Gandhi Institute of Education for Peace and Sustainable Development.

Compared to other regions, Sub-Saharan Africa has the largest number of young children experiencing poverty (Black et al., 2017), the largest number and proportion of 3-4-year-olds (29.4 million; 44%) failing to meet cognitive, language, and social-emotional milestones (McCoy et al., 2016), and the lowest literacy rates—22% of youth and 32% of adults are illiterate (UIS, 2022). Poverty and its co-occurring risks (malnutrition, disease, maternal stress, low-quality learning environments) negatively impact neurocognitive development and children’s readiness to learn—the cognitive, social, and emotional capacities essential to children’s success in school. Yet, much of what is currently known about neurocognitive development and learning comes from studies almost exclusively done in high-income countries across Minority World contexts in the Global North, limiting the generalizability of our current understanding of neurocognitive development and the ability to enact effective evidence-based policies for vulnerable learners growing up in environments with high poverty-related risk. Focusing on the context of rural Côte d’Ivoire, this talk will discuss how the latest tools of cognitive neuroscience—portable neuroimaging technologies—can be used to track neurocognitive development and learning in environments with high poverty-related risks, and how such insights can be leveraged to inform educational practices and social policies that strengthen children’s potential for success. The talk will present evidence on how the typical neurodevelopmental trajectory for literacy responds to low education quality in contexts of poverty and high rates of child labor, and explore the potential of quality education and poverty reduction programs for improving learning at scale.