About

Learning Designer. Game Designer. Cognitive Scientist.

With over 20 years of experience designing and conducting research and 10 years of industry experience, I bring a research-based perspective to your project.

Ashley McDermott, Ph.D.

My Story

How do people learn?
How can we help them learn better?
These have been 2 driving questions throughout my career.

I pursued a doctorate in Brain and Cognitive Sciences because I'm fascinated by how people process information. I started with how video games affect our attention and memory abilities, first studying commercially available games and then working to develop games that train our brains.

Since grad school, I have been seeking opportunities to help others understand the power of the human brain and ways to improve how we use our brains. I’ve developed training platforms to train everything from cognitive skills to football techniques, as well as explained learning and the brain to scientists, investors, entrepreneurs, funding agencies, and patent attorneys. I have experience translating between business leaders, engineers and developers, and scientific leaders to help everyone be on the same page and that each group can understand the others’ needs.

Let’s connect and see how I can support your needs!

Research

AI and Learning

AI is a hot new topic. If not designed for, it can be every teacher’s nightmare. But with awareness of what it is and is not, AI can be an important tool to assist learning.

  1. McDermott, A.F., Whitaker, E., Stager, S.J. (2024). Revamping the RAMPAGE Adaptive Intelligence Analysis Framework in the Age of Generative AI. In: Sottilare, R.A., Schwarz, J. (eds) Adaptive Instructional Systems. HCII 2024. Lecture Notes in Computer Science, vol 14727. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-60609-0_17
  2. McDermott, A.F., Stager, S.J. (2024). Integrating ChatGPT into the ELEVATE-XR Adaptive Instructional Framework. In: Sottilare, R.A., Schwarz, J. (eds) Adaptive Instructional Systems. HCII 2024. Lecture Notes in Computer Science, vol 14727. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-60609-0_18

Task Fidelity & Learning

Tasks that are highly realistic or even hyper-realistic can be detrimental to learning. Effective training balances a realistic representation of the key skills with lower fidelity on other parts of the task.

  1. Ritter, F. E., Ricupero, S., Yeh, M. K., Workman, D, Oury, J. D., Stager, S. J., & McDermott, A. F. (submitted) Testing a Learning and Retention Theory Using a Troubleshooting Task. Journal of Applied Research in Memory and Cognition.
  2. Ritter, F. E., & McDermott, A. F. (2020). The effect of task fidelity on learning curves. In Proceedings of the 18th International Conference on Cognitive Modeling (ICCM 2020). 229-235.

Video Games & Cognition

Not all games are the same. People who play “action” video games (e.g. first-person shooters, racing games) show improved memory and attention control that players of other genres and non-players.

  1. McDermott, A. F., Green, C. S. & Bavelier, D. (2014) Memory abilities in action video game players. Computers in Human Behavior, 34, 69-78.
  2.  Anderson, A. F., Bavelier, D. & Green, C. S. (2010) Speed-accuracy tradeoffs in cognitive tasks in action video game players. Journal of Vision, 10(7), 748. DOI: 10.1167/10.7.748

Process Development

How to begin developing a learning product is not always straightforward. Often the development process is the critical element to creating an effective learning product.

  1. Trewhitt, E. B., Whitaker, E. T., Veinott, E., Thomas, R., Riley, M., McDermott, A. F., … & Guarino, S. (2021, July). HyWorM: An Experiment in Dynamic Improvement of Analytic Processes. In International Conference on Human-Computer Interaction (pp. 311-320). Springer, Cham.
  2. McDermott, A. F., Veinott, E., Eusebi, L., Whitaker, E. T., Trewhitt, E. B., Mueller, S., … & Guarino, S. (2021, July). Developing an adaptive framework to support intelligence analysis. In International Conference on Human-Computer Interaction (pp. 550-558). Springer, Cham.
  3. McDermott, A.F., Niehaus, J. & Weyhrauch, P. (2020) Designing Serious Games to Train Medical Team Skills. Accepted for presentation at Interservice/Industry Training, Simulation and Education Conference, paper 20496.

Training Evaluation

Learning products have to teach something, but how do you evaluate if they are effective? Evaluating learning products often requires longer form training studies where each participant completes training over the course of several weeks or even months.

  1. McDermott, A.F., Rose, M., Norris, T. & Gordon, E. (2020) A Novel Feed Forward Modeling System Leads to Sustained Improvements in Attention and Academic Performance. Journal of Attention Disorders, 24(10), 1443-1456.          DOI:10.1177/1087054715623044
  2. McDermott, A. F. (2013). A comparison of two video game genres as cognitive training tools in older adults. University of Rochester.