Nadia Neesgaard

About me: I completed my BSc (hons.) in 2016 at Birkbeck, University of London followed by an MSc in Developmental Sciences at the same university. During both of these degrees I have worked at the Centre for Brain and Cognitive Development particularly on a project exploring the development of sighted children of blind parents. On this project I have been working with a head-mounted eye-tracker on infants and trying to circumvent the problems that arise from using this type of equipment on babies.

My research: My research is very inspired by my previous work, as it explores ways to objectively determine ‘synchrony’, a term from the parent-child interaction literature, by considering the microdynamic measure of eye-gaze in a naturalistic interaction between mothers and infant.

The difference my research makes: Synchrony has been shown to be related to a range of developmental outcomes, but it is measured differently in every study and is often a very difficult measurement to apply due to the subjective nature of it. By finding a way to capture the measure through the use the microdynamics of gaze, it will be possible to make a semi-automatic way to code this and therefore easier to apply. Once the measure is easier to apply it can be used more readily in interventions considering developmental outcomes of infants and children.

Supervisors: Dr Tim J Smith and Dr Atsushi Senju

Publications:
2017, Talk, European Conference of Eye-Movements, Biennial meeting, Wuppertal, Germany
Quantifying the microdynamics of attention during parent-child interaction: practicalities and insights.

2017, Poster, Society for Research in Child Development, Biennial meeting, Austin, TX, USAThe Modulation of Infant and Maternal Gaze in Naturalistic Play: A Dual Head-mounted Eye-tracking Study

Pathway: Psychology

Location: Centre for Brain and Cognitive Development, Birkbeck, University of London
Room: BMA Building
Email: nneesg01@mail.bbk.ac.uk