Brenda Wong

Position: Ph.D., M.A. Student
Research and Evaluation Analyst, Kinark Child and Family Services
Start Year: 2011
End Year: 2017
Email: brendaiok.wong@psych.ryerson.ca icon-linkedin-small

 

Degrees:

Ph.D., Psychological Science, Ryerson University, 2017
M.A., Psychological Science, Ryerson University, 2013
Honours B.Sc., Specialist in Psychology and its Applications, University of Toronto, 2010

Brenda joined the lab in 2011 as an M.A. student. Her main research interest focuses on age-related changes in attention and memory. In her dissertation, she examined age differences in associative memory, which is our ability to remember associations between pieces of information (e.g., a name and a face). Specifically, she investigated whether age-related declines in attentional resources (i.e., “mental energy”) contribute to older adults’ poorer associative memory.

She is also interested in studying cultural differences in how people attend to and remember information, as well as how these differences may change as people get older. She has been involved in a few cross-cultural projects since 2011, examining both behavioural and ERP data. For two of these projects, she collaborated with researchers at the Chinese Academy of Sciences in Beijing, China. In another area of research, she investigated the relationship between social engagement and cognitive functions in Chinese elderly immigrants living in Canada.

Research Experiences

Dissertation: Age-related Associative Memory Deficit: Simulation and Strategies to Improve Performance
Comprehensive Requirement Paper: The Bilingual Advantage in Inhibitory Control: A General or Domain-Specific Advantage?
Master’s Thesis: Unbinding of Contextual Information: Age Differences and Cultural Effects

Recent Publications

  • Wong, B. I., Yin, S., Yang, L., Li, J., & Spaniol, J. (2017, online first publication). Cultural differences in memory for objects and backgrounds in pictures. Journal of Cross-Cultural Psychology.
  • Armstrong, B., Gallant, S. N., Li, L., Patel, K., & Wong, B. I. (2017). Stereotype Threat Effects on Older Adults’ Episodic and Working Memory: A Meta-Analysis. Gerontologist, 57, S193-S205.
  • Wong, B. I. (2014). Developing International Research Collaborations. International Psychology Bulletin, 18(2-3), 31.
  • Allen, J. C., McDonald, K., Dosso, J., Gallant, S., & Wong, B. (2012). A Factor Analysis of Evolutionary Theories of Altruism, in Meeting the Human Challenge: Transformation, Healing, and Recognizing the Zombies Living Amongst Us, Luther, M.G., Allen, J.C., Gerber, J., & Luther, J. Toronto: Captus Press.

Selected Presentations

  • Li, L., Patel, K., Armstrong. B., Gallant. S. N., Wong, B. I. (2017, July). Stereotype threat effects on older adults’ memory: A meta-analysis. In Evidence for the Need to Disrupt Aging: Impact of Perceptions of Aging and Aging Stereotypes Symposium conducted at the IAGG World Congress of Gerontology and Geriatrics in San Francisco, CA.
  • Wong, B. I., & Yang, L. (2016, October). The role of attentional resources in age-related declines in associative memory. Poster session presented at the 45th Annual Scientific and Educational Meeting of the Canadian Association on Gerontology in Montreal, ON.
  • Wong, B. I., & Yang, L. (2016, June). Associative memory “deficit” in young adults: The importance of effective encoding strategies. Poster session presented at the Annual Meeting of the Canadian Society for Brain, Behaviour, and Cognitive Sciences in Ottawa, ON.
  • Wong, B. I., & Yang, L. (2016, May). Social engagement profile of Chinese elderly immigrants in Canada. Poster session presented at the Convention of the Association for Psychological Science in Chicago, IL.
  • Wong, B. I., & Yang, L. (2016, April). Associations between cognitive functions and patterns of social engagement in Chinese elderly immigrants in Canada. Poster session presented at the Cognitive Aging Conference in Atlanta, GA.
  • Wong, B. I. (2015, May). Bilingual advantage in inhibitory control: Variations across inhibition tasks. Poster session presented at the Workshop on Bilingualism and Executive Function in New York, NY.

Recent Awards

Ontario Graduate Scholarship, 2016-2017
Ontario Graduate Scholarship, 2015-2016
Ontario Graduate Scholarship, 2014-2015
RBC Immigrant, Diversity and Inclusion Project Research Funding ($10,000; Co-applicant)
Teaching Assistant Award, Council of Canadian Departments of Psychology, 2014
The Learning and Teaching Office’s TA/GA Award, Ryerson University, 2014