DCN Lab - Joel Gaffney

Joel Gaffney

Contact Info

E-mail: jgaffney AT interchange.ubc.ca
Phone: 604.822.7404
Fax: 604.822.7232
Address:
   Joel Gaffney
   Department of Psychiatry, UBC
   2255 Wesbrook Mall, Room G842
   Vancouver, BC   V6T 2A1
   Canada

Research Interests

I am broadly interested in improving mental health, intervention, and educational strategies for children with atypical development. My more specific interests involve pursuing clinical and empirical work hinging around the mental health of high functioning children with developmental differences (e.g. Asperger Syndrome, pediatric condition). Unique challenges, like the awareness of being different or having a diagnosis, have the potential to prevent these children from achieving optimal mental health outcomes. I am intrigued by these challenges and, more importantly, the steps in promoting their resolution through intervention and more thorough understanding of children’s experiences.

Current Research Projects

For a complete listing of the research projects in the DevCogNeuro Lab, visit our Research Page

Using physical connection to help children grasp conceptual connections: Will this help children with autism?

with Rose Wang, Joel Gaffney & Rebecca Landa

Our project will investigate the hypothesis that some young children with autism may need to see a physical connection to help them grasp an abstract conceptual connection. We have demonstrated that this simple change in testing procedure halves the age at which normally developing infants can demonstrate the ability to deduce the abstract rule: “Choose the item that does not match (i.e., that is different from) the sample.” People had previously thought that deduction of abstract rules was beyond the ability of infants so young, but it turns out that it was only that adults had presented materials to infants in a way that did not enable the infants to demonstrate and use their deductive abilities.

We hypothesize that this same procedural change (attaching the reward to the stimulus or the cue to the response site) will also markedly facilitate rule learning in some mildly developmentally delayed preschool children with autism. That is, we hypothesize that young children with autism, even if mildly developmentally delayed, ARE able to learn abstract rules; it is only that the way materials have been presented to them did not enable them to demonstrate and use that ability. The children’s problem, we hypothesize, was that they did not “get” that the reward object and stimulus object were somehow related. We hypothesize that they will “get” this relationship if the two are physically connected.

Most behavioral training with children with developmental delays, or with children with disorders such as autism, has not considered whether symbol and referent should be physically connected. It would be wonderful if making such a simple change could enable these children to grasp concepts previously thought to be beyond their ability.

Publications and Presentations

Gaffney, J. (2007) Theory of mind and autistic depression: A case study. Paper presentation. Psychfest. Western Washington University.

Gaffney, J., Satalick, J. (2005) Motivated social cognition of the undergraduate conservative voter. Poster presentation. Western Psychological Association. Portland, OR.

Education and Training

Whitworth College	B.A., Cum Laude 2004	Psychology
Western Washington University	M.S. 2007	Experimental Psychology

Personal

I love being outside: skiing, running, etc. I have great family and friends. Wonder why they keep me around…