Dr. Jeffrey Schatz
Associate Professor

After earning his bachelor of science degree at the University of Iowa in 1989, Dr. Schatz went on to earn his Ph.D. in 1997 from the Clinical Psychology Training Program at Washington University in St. Louis. From 1996 to 1998 he was a postdoctoral fellow in Clinical Neuropsychology at the University of California, San Francisco.

Dr. Schatz's major area of work is in understanding childhood disorders that affect cognitive and learning abilities. Specific areas of work are:

• Pediatric neuropsychology
• Biopsychosocial factors in sickle cell disease, particularly in terms of understanding cognitive development and promoting educational success
• Attention development and the brain (developmental cognitive neuroscience)

His research work involves multi-level models of children’s cognitive and learning abilities including social/environmental, behavioral, and biological factors. Cognitive outcomes are often measured with psychological testing, cognitive science techniques, and functional measures from classroom performance. Examples of areas of measurement used to understand these outcomes include:

• Social-environmental factors: family/home environment, family resources, school quality
• Behavioral factors: parent, teacher, and child-reported behavior ratings
• Biological factors: quantitative magnetic resonance imaging, event-related brain potentials

His primary teaching interests are in the areas of:

• Abnormal Psychology
• Psychological Assessment
• Cognitive Neuropsychology & Cognitive Neuroscience
• Neuropsychological Assessment of Children

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Recent Manuscripts
Schatz, J. & McClellan, C.B. (2006). Sickle cell disease as a neurodevelopmental disorder. Mental Retardation and Developmental Disabilities Research Reviews , 12, 200-207.

Schatz J. & Buzan, R.F. (2006). Decreased corpus callosum size in sickle cell disease: Relationship with cerebral infarcts and cognitive functioning. Journal of the International Neuropsychological Society , 12, 17-23.

Schatz J. & Roberts, C.W. (2005). Short-term memory in children with sickle cell disease: Executive versus modality specific processing deficits. Archives of Clinical Neuropsychology, 20, 1073-1085.

Schatz J., Finke, R.L., & Roberts, C.W. (2004). Interactions among biomedical and environmental factors in cognitive development: A preliminary study of sickle cell disease. Journal of Developmental and Behavioral Pediatrics, 25, 303-310.

Schatz J., (2004). Brief report: Academic attainment in children with sickle cell disease. Journal of Pediatric Psychology, 29, 627-633.

Schatz, J., Craft, S., Koby, M., DeBaun, M.R. (2004). Asymmetries in visual-spatial processing following childhood stroke. Neuropsychology, 18, 340-352.

Schatz, J., Kramer, J., Matthay, K., & Ablin, A. (2004). Visual attention in long-term survivors of leukemia treated with cranial radiation. Journal of the International Neuropsychological Society, 10, 211-220.

Schatz, J., & Erlandson, F.B. (2003). Level-repetition effects in hierarchical stimulus processing: Timing and location of cortical activity. International Journal of Psychophysiology, 47, 255-269.

Schatz, J., White, D.A., Moinuddin, A., Armstrong, M., & DeBaun, M.R. (2002). Lesion burden and cognitive morbidity in children with sickle cell disease. Journal of Child Neurology. 17, 891-895.

Schatz, J., Finke, R.L., Kellet, J. M., & Kramer, J.H. (2002). Cognitive functioning in children with sickle cell disease: A meta-analysis. Journal of Pediatric Psychology, 27, 739-748.

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NEUROPSYCHOLOGY AND HUMAN DEVELOPMENT LAB Phone (803) 777-9198

Principle Investigator:	Jeffrey Schatz, Ph.D.
Graduate Students:	Wes Cole LeKisha Edwards Robert Finke Eve Puffer

Overview

The Neuropsychology and Human Development Lab (NHDL) is focused on studying childhood disorders that impact cognitive development and learning abilities. This is achieved through multi-level analyses that involve combinations of social/environmental, behavioral, cognitive, or biological levels of analysis. The major programmatic area of study has focused on children with sickle cell disease. Specific projects completed within the lab, sometimes as part of student-initiated projects, have also involved studies of normal child development, children with epilepsy, pediatric brain cancers, or young people with attention deficit / hyperactivity disorder.

Current Projects (extramural funding sources)

• Biopsychosocial aspects of early childhood development in sickle cell disease
• Psychosocial support and outreach programs for pediatric hematology-oncology (Duke Foundation-Health Care Division, Children’s Chance Foundation, grant submitted to the Hope Street Kids Foundation)
• Anemia and attention in children with sickle cell disease (March of Dimes Birth Defects Foundation)
• Brain structure and function in sickle cell disease (grant submitted as part of the South Carolina Center on Biomedical Research Excellence in Neurodevelopmental Disorders, National Institutes of Health)

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