Catharine Sparks

Program affiliation: Lifespan development

Research interests

My main program of research is in the area of longitudinal analysis of change in cognitive functioning in the context of aging and changes in within-person health. Recently I have focused on the application of longitudinal data analysis and the variety of methodological challenges related to human developmental and aging research.

Awards

2010 University of Victoria Fellowship
2010 Society of Multivariate Experimental Psychology Travel Award
2009 University of Victoria Fellowship
2008 Graduate Diversity Recruitment Bonus, Oregon State University
2008 Josephine Zimmerman Gerontology Fellowship, Oregon State University
2007 Ronald E. McNair Post Baccalaureate Achievement Program Research Grant

Representative publications and presentations

Piccinin, A. M., Muniz, G., Sparks, C., Bontempo, D. E., & Hofer, S. M. (under review). An evaluation of analytical approaches for understanding change in cognition in the context of aging and health. Journal of Gerontology: Psychological Sciences.

Hofer, S. M., & Sparks, C. (2010, September). Too stressed to think? An undergraduate course on multivariate design, data collection and analysis. Paper presented at the annual meeting of the Society of Multivariate Experimental Psychology, Atlanta, GA.

Sparks, C., Hofer, S. M., Piccinin, A. M., Alwin, D., & Wray, L., (2010, April). Relationships between level, change, and variation in cognitive function and depressive symptoms within spousal dyads. Poster presented at the annual Cognitive Aging Conference, Atlanta, GA.

Hofer, S. M., Piccinin, A. M., Bontempo, D. E., Sparks, C., & Hoffman, L. (2009, November). Integrative Analysis of Longitudinal Studies of Aging (IALSA): Patterns of between-person age differences and within-person changes in cognitive capabilities with age. In S. M. Hofer (Chair), Coordinated and pooled data analyses of longitudinal studies of aging: Aging and dementia-related change in cognition, affect, and physical functioning. Paper symposium conducted at the annual meeting of the Gerontological Society of America, Atlanta, GA.

Sparks, C., Bontempo, D. E., Piccinin, A. M., Spiro, A., Toyokawa, N., & Hofer, S. M. (2009, November). Conceptualizing and operationalizing health in longitudinal research on aging. Poster presented at the Gerontological Society of America 62nd Annual Scientific Meeting, Atlanta, GA.

Bontempo, D. E., Piccinin, A. M., Sparks, C., & Hofer, S. M. (2009, October). Health, health trajectories, and “healthy” aging: Issues in the conceptualization and operationalization of health and healthy aging. Paper presented at the conference on Cognition, Health and Aging, Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA.