School of Psychology
 

Image of Efsun Birtwistle (Annac)

Efsun Birtwistle (Annac)

Assistant Professor, Faculty of Science

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Biography

Expertise Summary

Before I joined to the University of Nottingham as an Assistant Professor, I did PhD in the Graduate school of systemic neurosciences at the Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich (LMU Munich). My research and experiments focused on understanding the interplay between visual attention, working memory and long-term memory with adult participants through contextual cueing paradigm and dual tasking.

Following that I did my postdoc in the Department of Education at the LMU Munich within an ERC project called "Learning4Kids". Learning4Kids focused on supporting young children's early literacy and mathematical competencies through an app-based learning intervention within the context of the home learning environment (HLE). Here, children's academic competencies (literacy, numeracy, cognitive) were followed through several kindergarten and school assessments, and the HLE was measured through family surveys, observations, and interviews.

During this time, I did a systematic review and meta-analysis on cognitive training interventions and initiated a new project called "TrainKids" and acted (and continue to act) as a principal investigator. TrainKids focuses on training young children's general cognitive skills through learning apps. The aim is to support young children's executive functions (EFs), and to get insights into the cognitive activity's children are doing at home. Child assessments emphasis on measuring EFs and academic skills. The study also collects data from parents to understand the HLE, EF difficulty and the media competency of children.

Research focus:

  • Children's learning through digital interventions
  • Cognitive training, and training through mobile games
  • Home Learning Environment and family
  • Learning and memory processes
  • Interplay of attention, working memory and long-term memory
  • Executive control processes
  • Neurocognitive aspects of cognition

Research Summary

TrainKids: Cognitive training in kindergarten and insights into cognitive activities at home :… read more

Recent Publications

  • WIRTH, ASTRID, STADLER, MATTHIAS, BIRTWISTLE, EFSUN and NIKLAS, FRANK, 2023. New directions in the conceptualization and operationalization of the home learning environment. Journal of Educational Psychology. 115(1), 160
  • MUES, ANNA, WIRTH, ASTRID, BIRTWISTLE, EFSUN and NIKLAS, FRANK, 2022. Associations between children's numeracy competencies, mothers' and fathers' mathematical beliefs, and numeracy activities at home Frontiers in Psychology. 1530
  • BIRTWISTLE, EFSUN, SCHOEDEL, RAMONA, BEMMANN, FLORIAN, WIRTH, ASTRID, SÜRIG, CHRISTOPH, STACHL, CLEMENS, BÜHNER, MARKUS and NIKLAS, FRANK, 2022. Mobile sensing in psychological and educational research: Examples from two application fields International Journal of Testing. 22(3-4), 264-288
  • NIKLAS, FRANK, BIRTWISTLE, EFSUN, WIRTH, ASTRID, SCHIELE, TINA and MUES, ANNA, 2022. App-based learning for kindergarten children at home (Learning4Kids): Study protocol for cohort 2 and the school assessments BMC pediatrics. 22(1), 1-11

Current Research

  • TrainKids: Cognitive training in kindergarten and insights into cognitive activities at home : https://www.psy.lmu.de/ffp_en/research/ag-fischer_neu_/current-projects/trainkids/index.html
  • Learning4Kids: App-based learning for kindergarten children at home : https://www.psy.lmu.de/ffp_en/research/ag-fischer_neu_/current-projects/learning-4kids/index.html
  • WIRTH, ASTRID, STADLER, MATTHIAS, BIRTWISTLE, EFSUN and NIKLAS, FRANK, 2023. New directions in the conceptualization and operationalization of the home learning environment. Journal of Educational Psychology. 115(1), 160
  • MUES, ANNA, WIRTH, ASTRID, BIRTWISTLE, EFSUN and NIKLAS, FRANK, 2022. Associations between children's numeracy competencies, mothers' and fathers' mathematical beliefs, and numeracy activities at home Frontiers in Psychology. 1530
  • BIRTWISTLE, EFSUN, SCHOEDEL, RAMONA, BEMMANN, FLORIAN, WIRTH, ASTRID, SÜRIG, CHRISTOPH, STACHL, CLEMENS, BÜHNER, MARKUS and NIKLAS, FRANK, 2022. Mobile sensing in psychological and educational research: Examples from two application fields International Journal of Testing. 22(3-4), 264-288
  • NIKLAS, FRANK, BIRTWISTLE, EFSUN, WIRTH, ASTRID, SCHIELE, TINA and MUES, ANNA, 2022. App-based learning for kindergarten children at home (Learning4Kids): Study protocol for cohort 2 and the school assessments BMC pediatrics. 22(1), 1-11
  • WIRTH, ASTRID, SCHIELE, TINA, BIRTWISTLE, EFSUN, MUES, ANNA and NIKLAS, FRANK, 2022. Schulvorbereitung? Ein Kinderspiel!
  • MUES, ANNA, BIRTWISTLE, EFSUN, WIRTH, ASTRID and NIKLAS, FRANK, 2021. Parental (STEM) Occupations, the Home Numeracy Environment, and Kindergarten Children’s Numerical Competencies Education Sciences. 11(12), 819
  • GÖKÇE, AHU, ZINCHENKO, ARTYOM, ANNAC, EFSUN, CONCI, MARKUS and GEYER, THOMAS, 2021. Affective modulation of working memory maintenance: The role of positive and negative emotions ADVANCES IN COGNITIVE PSYCHOLOGY. 17(2), 107-116
  • NIKLAS, FRANK, ANNAC, EFSUN and WIRTH, ASTRID, 2020. App-based learning for kindergarten children at home (Learning4Kids): study protocol for cohort 1 and the kindergarten assessments BMC pediatrics. 20, 1-14
  • ANNAC, EFSUN, POINTNER, MATHIAS, KHADER, PATRICK H, MÜLLER, HERMANN J, ZANG, XUELIAN and GEYER, THOMAS, 2019. Recognition of incidentally learned visual search arrays is supported by fixational eye movements. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition. 45(12), 2147
  • ANNAC, EFSUN, ZANG, XUELIAN, MÜLLER, HERMANN J and GEYER, THOMAS, 2019. A secondary task is not always costly: Context-based guidance of visual search survives interference from a demanding working memory task British Journal of Psychology. 110(2), 381-399
  • KURCYUS, KATARZYNA, ANNAC, EFSUN, HANNING, NINA M, HARRIS, ASHLEY D, OELTZSCHNER, GEORG, EDDEN, RICHARD and RIEDL, VALENTIN, 2018. Opposite dynamics of GABA and glutamate levels in the occipital cortex during visual processing Journal of Neuroscience. 38(46), 9967-9976
  • ANNAC, EFSUN, CONCI, MARKUS, MÜLLER, HERMANN J and GEYER, THOMAS, 2017. Local item density modulates adaptation of learned contextual cues Visual Cognition. 25(1-3), 262-277
  • ANNAC, EFSUN, CONCI, MARKUS, MUELLER, HERMANN and GEYER, THOMAS, 2015. Multiple target location learning in repeated visual search: adaptation or new learning? In: PERCEPTION. 10-11
  • ANNAC, EFSUN, MANGINELLI, ANGELA A, POLLMANN, STEFAN, SHI, ZHUANGHUA, MÜLLER, HERMANN J and GEYER, THOMAS, 2013. Memory under pressure: Secondary-task effects on contextual cueing of visual search Journal of Vision. 13(13), 6-6
  • ANNAÇ, EFSUN and BAHÇEKAPILI, HASAN, 2012. Understanding and acceptance of evolutionary theory among Turkish university students Dogus University Journal. 13(1), 1-11
  • WIRTH, ASTRD, BIRTWISTLE, EFSUN, MUES, ANNA and NIKLAS, FRANK, Kinder spielerisch auf die Schule vorbereiten: Fähigkeitsentwicklung und Förderung im Vorschulalter Hogrefe AG.

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