Kate McKay
@_katemckay
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Australian currently doing a postdoc at the University of Calgary researching cognitive ageing outcomes in ADHD. I also go birding.
Calgary, Alberta
Joined February 2021
Last minutes of light on a Winter afternoon in Banff National Park. January, 2025.
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7/8 Changes to the paradigm we used could be made to ask nuanced questions about how and when older adults show reduced volitional orienting to direct gaze relative to young adults.
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6/8 Pooling data across both studies to provide a highly-powered assessment for an age effect, we found that older adults' volitional orienting to direct gaze was reduced relative to the younger adults.
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5/8 This was specific to direct gaze. A second cohort of young and older adults had their volitional orienting to direct gaze cues, averted gaze cues, and non-social (line orientation) cues measured and only oriented to direct gaze cues.
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4/8 In line with an emerging body of research failing to reproduce automatic attention shifting to direct gaze, young and older adults only oriented to direct gaze cues in the volitional task.
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3/8 Current cognitive ageing theories suggest automatic cognitive processes are less susceptible to age-related changes than effortful processes so we assessed young and older adults automatic and volitional orienting to direct gaze faces.
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2/8 Though social cognition in older adulthood is a rich field with hundreds of studies assessing higher order capacities including emotion recognition and theory of mind, no study to date had assessed attention to direct gaze among older adults.
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1/8 Experimental studies assessing the influence of direct gaze on attention have found mixed evidence for "stare-in-the-crowd" type effects, with early evidence suggesting people automatically prioritise attention towards faces looking-at rather than away-from them.
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New publication from my PhD work with the @QLDMINDProject at @UQPsych. In my PhD, I investigated gaze-based social cognition in older adulthood. This article includes two studies assessing attention to direct gaze. Findings and article link below. 🧵
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RT @miles_cluff: Light-mantled Albatross, aka Giant Oceanic Swift. Was hoping just to see one during Flock to Marion, let alone get views l….
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Our bravest soldier ventured into a suburban Brisbane forest and came out with this mega *salute emoji*.
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Me before winter in Calgary.
when i’m in love i go for a walk, when i’m heartbroken i go for a walk, when i’m happy i go for a walk, when i’m sad i go for a walk, when i’m excited i go for a walk, when i’m bored i go for a walk, when i’m at peace i go for a walk, when i’m stressed i go for a walk.
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Living in Calgary is affecting my sense of what cold is. Just thought “it’s only -1, no need for a scarf”.
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RT @rbfrncs: I found this incredible 1988 birding board game at an antique store and of course had to pick it up. Shall we see what’s insid….
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Actually miss Coles and Woolies sm. Sobeys, Safeway and Fresco just don’t feel the same.
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Got em
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RT @ItaiYanai: Despite what the public might think about us, there is actually nothing more scientific than admitting you were wrong in lig….
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