糖心原创

School of Psychology
 

Image of Efsun Birtwistle (Annac)

Efsun Birtwistle (Annac)

Assistant Professor, Faculty of Science

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Biography

Expertise Summary

Before joining the 糖心原创 as an Assistant Professor, I completed my PhD at the Graduate School of Systemic Neurosciences at Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich (LMU Munich). My research focused on understanding the interplay between visual attention, working memory, and long-term memory in adult participants, using the contextual cueing paradigm and dual-tasking experiments.

Following my PhD, I did a postdoc in the Department of Education at LMU Munich as part of an ERC project called "Learning4Kids." This project aimed to support young children's early literacy and mathematical competencies through an app-based learning intervention within the context of the home learning environment (HLE). The project followed children's academic competencies (literacy, numeracy, cognitive) through several kindergarten and school assessments, while the HLE was evaluated through family surveys, observations, and interviews.

During this time, I led a project on systematic review and meta-analysis of cognitive training interventions and initiated a new project called "TrainKids," in which I served as principal investigator. TrainKids focuses on training young children's general cognitive skills through learning apps. The aim is to support young children's executive functions (EFs) and to gain insights into the cognitive activities they engage in at home. Child assessments emphasize measuring EFs and academic skills, and the study also collects data from parents to understand the HLE, EF difficulties, and the media competency of children.

Research focus:

  • Children's learning through digital interventions
  • Cognitive training, and training through mobile games
  • Home Learning Environment and family
  • Learning and memory processes
  • Interplay of attention, working memory and long-term memory
  • Executive control processes
  • Neurocognitive aspects of cognition

Research Summary

TrainKids: Cognitive training in kindergarten and insights into cognitive activities at home :… read more

Recent Publications

  • EFSUN BIRTWISTLE, OLGA CHERNIKOVA and MIRIAM WUENSCH, 2025. Sage one.
  • TINA SCHIELE , ANNA MUES , ASTRID WIRTH , NATALIE CHRISTNER , MARKUS PAULUS , EFSUN BIRTWISTLE , FRANK NIKLAS, 2024. Social and Emotional Learning: Research, Practice, and Policy.
  • WIRTH, ASTRID, STADLER, MATTHIAS, BIRTWISTLE, EFSUN and NIKLAS, FRANK, 2023. New directions in the conceptualization and operationalization of the home learning environment. Journal of Educational Psychology. 115(1), 160
  • MUES, ANNA, WIRTH, ASTRID, BIRTWISTLE, EFSUN and NIKLAS, FRANK, 2022. Associations between children's numeracy competencies, mothers' and fathers' mathematical beliefs, and numeracy activities at home Frontiers in Psychology. 1530

Current Research

  • TrainKids: Cognitive training in kindergarten and insights into cognitive activities at home : https://www.psy.lmu.de/ffp_en/research/ag-fischer_neu_/current-projects/trainkids/index.html
  • Learning4Kids: App-based learning for kindergarten children at home : https://www.psy.lmu.de/ffp_en/research/ag-fischer_neu_/current-projects/learning-4kids/index.html
  • EFSUN BIRTWISTLE, OLGA CHERNIKOVA and MIRIAM WUENSCH, 2025. Sage one.
  • TINA SCHIELE , ANNA MUES , ASTRID WIRTH , NATALIE CHRISTNER , MARKUS PAULUS , EFSUN BIRTWISTLE , FRANK NIKLAS, 2024. Social and Emotional Learning: Research, Practice, and Policy.
  • WIRTH, ASTRID, STADLER, MATTHIAS, BIRTWISTLE, EFSUN and NIKLAS, FRANK, 2023. New directions in the conceptualization and operationalization of the home learning environment. Journal of Educational Psychology. 115(1), 160
  • MUES, ANNA, WIRTH, ASTRID, BIRTWISTLE, EFSUN and NIKLAS, FRANK, 2022. Associations between children's numeracy competencies, mothers' and fathers' mathematical beliefs, and numeracy activities at home Frontiers in Psychology. 1530
  • BIRTWISTLE, EFSUN, SCHOEDEL, RAMONA, BEMMANN, FLORIAN, WIRTH, ASTRID, S脺RIG, CHRISTOPH, STACHL, CLEMENS, B脺HNER, MARKUS and NIKLAS, FRANK, 2022. Mobile sensing in psychological and educational research: Examples from two application fields International Journal of Testing. 22(3-4), 264-288
  • NIKLAS, FRANK, BIRTWISTLE, EFSUN, WIRTH, ASTRID, SCHIELE, TINA and MUES, ANNA, 2022. App-based learning for kindergarten children at home (Learning4Kids): 糖心原创 protocol for cohort 2 and the school assessments BMC pediatrics. 22(1), 1-11
  • WIRTH, ASTRID, SCHIELE, TINA, BIRTWISTLE, EFSUN, MUES, ANNA and NIKLAS, FRANK, 2022.
  • G脰K脟E, AHU, ZINCHENKO, ARTYOM, ANNAC, EFSUN, CONCI, MARKUS and GEYER, THOMAS, 2021. Affective modulation of working memory maintenance: The role of positive and negative emotions ADVANCES IN COGNITIVE PSYCHOLOGY. 17(2), 107-116
  • MUES, ANNA, BIRTWISTLE, EFSUN, WIRTH, ASTRID and NIKLAS, FRANK, 2021. Parental (STEM) Occupations, the Home Numeracy Environment, and Kindergarten Children鈥檚 Numerical Competencies Education Sciences. 11(12), 819
  • NIKLAS, FRANK, ANNAC, EFSUN and WIRTH, ASTRID, 2020. App-based learning for kindergarten children at home (Learning4Kids): study protocol for cohort 1 and the kindergarten assessments BMC pediatrics. 20, 1-14
  • ANNAC, EFSUN, ZANG, XUELIAN, M脺LLER, HERMANN J and GEYER, THOMAS, 2019. A secondary task is not always costly: Context-based guidance of visual search survives interference from a demanding working memory task British Journal of Psychology. 110(2), 381-399
  • ANNAC, EFSUN, POINTNER, MATHIAS, KHADER, PATRICK H, M脺LLER, HERMANN J, ZANG, XUELIAN and GEYER, THOMAS, 2019. Recognition of incidentally learned visual search arrays is supported by fixational eye movements. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition. 45(12), 2147
  • KURCYUS, KATARZYNA, ANNAC, EFSUN, HANNING, NINA M, HARRIS, ASHLEY D, OELTZSCHNER, GEORG, EDDEN, RICHARD and RIEDL, VALENTIN, 2018. Opposite dynamics of GABA and glutamate levels in the occipital cortex during visual processing Journal of Neuroscience. 38(46), 9967-9976
  • ANNAC, EFSUN, CONCI, MARKUS, M脺LLER, HERMANN J and GEYER, THOMAS, 2017. Local item density modulates adaptation of learned contextual cues Visual Cognition. 25(1-3), 262-277
  • ANNAC, EFSUN, 2017.
  • ANNAC, EFSUN, CONCI, MARKUS, MUELLER, HERMANN and GEYER, THOMAS, 2015. Multiple target location learning in repeated visual search: adaptation or new learning? In: PERCEPTION. 10-11
  • ANNAC, EFSUN, MANGINELLI, ANGELA A, POLLMANN, STEFAN, SHI, ZHUANGHUA, M脺LLER, HERMANN J and GEYER, THOMAS, 2013. Journal of Vision. 13(13), 6-6
  • ANNA脟, EFSUN and BAH脟EKAPILI, HASAN, 2012. Understanding and acceptance of evolutionary theory among Turkish university students Dogus University Journal. 13(1), 1-11
  • WIRTH, ASTRD, BIRTWISTLE, EFSUN, MUES, ANNA and NIKLAS, FRANK, Hogrefe AG.

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