{"id":17960,"date":"2026-10-15T13:25:06","date_gmt":"2026-10-15T17:25:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/cognitivescience\/?p=17960"},"modified":"2026-10-15T13:35:07","modified_gmt":"2026-10-15T17:35:07","slug":"cognitive-science-colloquium-october-21","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/cognitivescience\/2026\/cognitive-science-colloquium-october-21\/","title":{"rendered":"Cognitive Science Colloquium \nOctober 21"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<section class=\"w-screen px-6 cu-section cu-section--white ml-offset-center md:px-8 lg:px-14\">\n    <div class=\"space-y-6 cu-max-w-child-5xl  md:space-y-10 cu-prose-first-last\">\n\n            <div class=\"cu-textmedia flex flex-col lg:flex-row mx-auto gap-6 md:gap-10 my-6 md:my-12 first:mt-0 max-w-5xl\">\n        <div class=\"justify-start cu-textmedia-content cu-prose-first-last\" style=\"flex: 0 0 100%;\">\n            <header class=\"font-light prose-xl cu-pageheader md:prose-2xl cu-component-updated cu-prose-first-last\">\n                                    <h1 class=\"cu-prose-first-last font-semibold !mt-2 mb-4 md:mb-6 relative after:absolute after:h-px after:bottom-0 after:bg-cu-red after:left-px text-3xl md:text-4xl lg:text-5xl lg:leading-[3.5rem] pb-5 after:w-10 text-cu-black-700 not-prose\">\n                        Cognitive Science Colloquium \nOctober 21 \n                    <\/h1>\n                \n                                \n                                    \n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Join us for a Research Talk entitled<em class=\"myprefix-text-italic\"> How Insights from Educational Neuroscience can support Children in Environments with High Poverty-Related Risks<\/em> <br>Our Guest Speaker is <strong class=\"myprefix-text-bold\">Dr. Kaja Jasi\u0144ska<\/strong> from the University of Toronto<br><br><strong class=\"myprefix-text-bold\">When:<\/strong> Wed Oct 21 from 3:00 &#8211; 4:00 p.m.<br><strong class=\"myprefix-text-bold\">Where:<\/strong> DT 2203<\/p>\n\n\n                            <\/header>\n\n                    <\/div>\n\n            <\/div>\n\n    <\/div>\n<\/section>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image aligncenter size-full is-resized\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"368\" height=\"341\" src=\"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/cognitivescience\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/255\/2026\/10\/Kaja-Jasinska-resized.jpg\" alt=\"Dr. Kaja Jasi\u0144ska from the University of Toronto\" class=\"wp-image-17961\" style=\"width:228px;height:auto\" srcset=\"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/cognitivescience\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/255\/2026\/10\/Kaja-Jasinska-resized.jpg 368w, https:\/\/carleton.ca\/cognitivescience\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/255\/2026\/10\/Kaja-Jasinska-resized-320x297.jpg 320w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 368px) 100vw, 368px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Dr. Jasi\u0144ska 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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Dr. Jasi\u0144ska 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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Dr. Jasi\u0144ska 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\u2019s Dina Feitelson Research Award, and 2023-2025 MIT Solve LEAP (Leveraging Evidence for Action to Promote change) Fellowship. Dr. Jasi\u0144ska is currently a visiting research scientist at the UNESCO Mahatma Gandhi Institute of Education for Peace and Sustainable Development.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">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\u201422% 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\u2019s <em>readiness<\/em>&nbsp;to learn\u2014the cognitive, social, and emotional capacities essential to children\u2019s 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 C\u00f4te d\u2019Ivoire, this talk will discuss how the latest tools of cognitive neuroscience\u2014portable neuroimaging technologies\u2014can 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\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Dr. Jasi\u0144ska 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 [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":623,"featured_media":17965,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[47,1],"tags":[12],"class_list":["post-17960","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-colloquia","category-news","tag-colloquium"],"acf":{"cu_post_thumbnail":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/cognitivescience\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17960","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/cognitivescience\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/cognitivescience\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/cognitivescience\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/623"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/cognitivescience\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=17960"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/cognitivescience\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17960\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":17968,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/cognitivescience\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17960\/revisions\/17968"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/cognitivescience\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/17965"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/cognitivescience\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17960"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/cognitivescience\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17960"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/cognitivescience\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17960"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}