January 2020 – MMDC update

• In September, we “beta-tested” MMDC measures with a pre-pilot study of six participants to determine whether the data collection website, Relationship Skills survey items, and Executive Function behavioral tasks functioned as intended.  Participant cognitive interviews were also conducted.  The pre-pilot data demonstrated that the website, survey, and behavioral tasks all functioned as designed.  A few modifications were made to make the website more user friendly, based on our observations and comments from the administrators and participants in the pre-pilot study.

• In November, we launched the pilot of the measures thanks to a great recruitment effort. To date, we have secured participation from elementary schools in Washington, DC and Jamaica Plain, MA, middle schools in Washington, DC, and high schools in O’Donnell, Gustine, and Austin,Texas.

•  Based on our preliminary data, two paper presentations have been accepted to the Society for Research in Adolescence (SRA) Biennial Conference which will take place during March, 2020.  Research Assistant Professor Paul Chase will present his paper, “Measures and Methods Across the Developmental Continuum: Developing an Idiographic Measure of Working Memory for Adolescents” and Postdoctoral Scholar Dian Yu will present her paper, “Developing a Measure of Cognitive Flexibility for Idiographic Analyses of Youth Development.” At the same SRA conference, Master’s students Tristin Flood and Justin Birudivol will each lead poster presentations with data from the MMDC project.