Jason Ozubko, assistant professor of psychology at SUNY Geneseo, has received a three-year $370,245 Academic Research enhancement Award research grant from the National Institute on Neurological Disorders and Stroke.
The project, titled “The Role of Post-Encoding Retrieval on the Cognitive and Neural Representations of Real-World Spatial Environments,” extends through June of 2021.
“This work will provide better understanding of how spatial memories develop and could ultimately lead to new interventions and strategies to slow spatial memory decline in the growing population of Americans over 65 years of age, which is estimated about 46 million,” said Ozubko.
Ozubko has developed research software that utilizes Google Street View to rapidly and easily virtualize real-world environments. With the software, he and research students working with him will investigate how spatial representations that support navigation in familiar environments develop over time, both cognitively and neutrally.
The funds will provide summer salary support for Ozubko and wages for three undergraduate students working with him. It also will provide support for use of a functional magnetic resonance imaging scanner at the University of Rochester and other research related expenses.