Information about future conference sites is available here.
Parties interested in sponsoring the conference or exhibiting can contact naspspaed@gmail.com.
2024 Conference
New Orleans, Louisiana
June 5 – June 8
Abstracts open December and close January 22
Overall Keynote Speaker
Dr. Marcio A. Oliveira is the Assistant Vice President at the University of Maryland for Academic Technology and Innovation within the Division of Information Technology and also the Executive Director of the Teaching and Learning Transformation Center within the Division of Academic Affairs. In both of these roles, he fosters effective, engaging, efficient, and equitable teaching and learning by guiding strategic institutional vision, pace, and priorities. His scholarship and teaching focus on cognitive and motor neuroscience and NASPSPA has been his academic home. He is nationally renowned for implementing innovative technology-enhanced pedagogical practices and collaborative learning environments and for encouraging educational innovation and experiential learning, all to foster student success. His talk will focus on the role of AI in academia, specifically looking into the future to examine how AI can support the research mission of universities and faculty
Keynote Speakers
Sport & Exercise Psychology
Dr. Adele Diamond is a Tier 1 Canada Research Chair Tier 1 and Professor of Developmental Cognitive Neuroscience at University of British Columbia in Vancouver, Canada. As a co-founder of the field of developmental cognitive neuroscience, Adele studies how executive functions (EFs, i.e., attention, creative problem solving, self-control, working memory) are affected by biological and environmental factors. Specific to physical activity, Adele theorizes that if a program focuses only on training EFs (or improving aerobic fitness to improve EFs) and does little to address social or emotional needs, those unmet needs will oppose EF improvements, leading to disappointing intervention outcomes. Adele also theorizes that one route by which physical activity improves EFs is via improvements in postural control. Dr. Diamond is a member of the Royal Society of Canada, was named one of the “2000 Outstanding Women of the 20th Century,” and was listed as one of the 15 most influential neuroscientists alive today. Her many awards include an Award for Lifetime Contributions to Developmental Psychology in the Service of Science and Society plus two honorary degrees.
Motor Learning & Control
Dr. Rachael Seidler is a Professor in the Departments of Applied Physiology and Kinesiology and Neurology at the University of Florida. Her research focuses on the neural control of movement in health and disease, with a specific focus on motor learning. She uses a range of neuroimaging and neuromodulation techniques coupled with precise measures of movement and cognitive function to determine the neurocognitive underpinnings of motor control. Dr. Seidler has expertise working with a variety of populations including healthy young and older adults, patients with Parkinson’s disease, and NASA astronauts in both basic science and intervention experiments. Her work has been supported by the NIH, the NSF, NASA, the National Space Biomedical Research Institute (NSBRI), and a variety of private foundations. Active work in her lab includes investigation of human brain plasticity with spaceflight and experiments investigating which cognitive processes support skill acquisition and how they map onto underlying neural pathways.
Motor Development
Doctor Marianne Barbu-Roth (MBR), PhD is currently affiliated with the Integrative Neuroscience and Cognitive Center of the CNRS and the University Paris Cité in France where she is the leader of the Perception-Action-Development Team. Dr. Barbu-Roth is a specialist in the field of early motor and locomotor development in human infants. She published several influent papers on the ontogenesis of human locomotion, challenging the idea that humans are born bipeds and neonatal locomotion is just a spinal reflex.
Senior Lecturers
Sport & Exercise Psychology
Dr. Al Smith is Dean of the Emma Eccles Jones College of Education and Human Services at Utah State University and Professor in the Department of Kinesiology and Health Sciences. He is past president of the American Kinesiology Association and NASPSPA and served on the President’s Council on Sports, Fitness & Nutrition Science Board. He is a Fellow of the National Academy of Kinesiology. His research encompasses the link between sport and physical activity involvement with young people’s psychological and social functioning. He is best known for his research on peer relationships in the physical activity domain (e.g., sport, physical education) and the motivational implications of these relationships for children and adolescents. This work has included sport parenting, athlete burnout, and the promise of physical activity for ameliorating symptoms and impairments of attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) in young children. His work has been funded by the National Institute of Mental Health and the U.S. Department of Education as well as other agencies such as the International Olympic Committee. He is a long time member of NASPSPA and we look forward to him sharing his wisdom in the Senior Lecturer talk in New Orleans.
Motor Learning & Control
Dr. Mark Williams is a Senior Research Scientist at the Florida Institute of Human and Machine Cognition. His research interests focus on the neural and psychological mechanisms underpinning the acquisition and development of expertise. Professor Williams has published over 270 journal articles in peer-reviewed outlets in numerous fields including exercise and sports science, experimental psychology, neuroscience, and medicine. He is a Fellow of the British Psychological Society (BPS), National Academy of Kinesiology (NAK), British Association of Sport and Exercise Science (BASES), and the European College of Sports Sciences (ECSS). He is a Chartered Psychologist and Scientist and is accredited by BASES to work with high-performance athletes. His work spans the fundamental-to-applied continuum and has received funding from research councils in Australia and the United Kingdom, industry partners, the Department of Defence and DARPA in the United States, as well as governing bodies of sport and professional sports teams. He is a long time member of NASPSPA and we look forward to him sharing his wisdom in the Senior Lecturer talk in New Orleans.
Dear NASPSPA Community,
The abstract submission portal for the 2024 NASPSPA Conference opens early December and will remain open through Monday, January 22 (Midnight Pacific Time). Please visit our 2024 NASPSPA Conference page and our Submit an Abstract page for the details. Information about submitting a conference abstract is below. This information, along with step-by-step instructions can be downloaded in Word format here.
Conference Abstract Submission Information
- Membership: You must be a current NASPSPA member to submit your abstract. The abstract submission process requires you to login with your active membership credentials to start the process. NASPSPA memberships run on the calendar year and renewals that are made after October 1 are automatically credited for the subsequent calendar year. You can update your membership here.
- Authorship: An individual may be the first author on no more than two submitted abstracts (inclusive of verbal and poster presentations) each year. Additional information regarding Ethical Guidelines and the use of Non-Discriminatory Content is available in Section 2C “Guidelines for abstract submission and presentations” in the NASPSPA Policy Manual.
- Presentation types: Verbal and poster presentations and symposia will be accepted. Detailed information about presentation format will be forthcoming, but generally speaking, verbal presentations will be 12 minutes with 3 minutes for questions, and posters will be physical (paper, or similar) posters displayed on poster boards in a conference meeting room. Symposia are a collection of verbal presentations that are submitted together as a single submission. We welcome inter-disciplinary symposia across the three areas of NASPSPA (SEP, MLC, MD). You have the option of indicating your preference for a verbal or poster presentation when you submit your abstract. The same scientific and formatting content rules apply when preparing abstracts for verbal or poster presentations.
- Scientific content: Data-based, theoretical, or research review papers that have not been previously published in an archival scientific publication or presented elsewhere at a national or international conference are eligible for submission.
- Formatting content:
- Length: All abstracts (regardless of whether you are submitting for a verbal or poster presentation) have a maximum length of 2100 characters (including spaces). To check the number of characters in your draft in Word, select your abstract text (do not include any title or author information), click on the “Review” tab in the header, then select “Word Count”. This will give you a pop-up window with the statistics of your highlighted text. Focus on the “Characters (with spaces)” line to ensure you have less than 2100.
- Body: The abstract body should not include section headings (i.e., Introduction, Methods, etc.), the title, or author information.
- Title: Only the first letter, first letter after a colon or sentence-ending punctuation, and acronyms/names should be capitalized in the title.
- Example: Click here for an example of an appropriately formatted abstract.
- Where/how to submit: To submit your abstract, click on the red button
- Troubleshooting: If you have issues submitting your abstract, please contact our webmaster (Joel Barnes) at j@barnzilla.ca.
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In addition to University & Business Sponsorships, we are also soliciting donations to help support students to attend the conference or other NASPSPA activities. NASPSPA is a 503(c)(3) organization and you will receive a separate receipt for these donations. When you have completed your membership renewal, there will be a link that will take you to a separate page to make your donation.
NASPSPSA University Sponsor Letter 2024
LATE BREAKING ABSTRACTS: Like last year, we will be issuing a call for late-breaking abstracts from undergraduate students on February 14, 2024, with a submission deadline of March 15th. This call will be only for submissions where the lead, presenting author is an undergraduate student (or students) currently registered in an undergraduate program at the time of submission. Late-breaking abstracts will only be accepted for poster presentations. Accepted late-breaking abstracts will NOT have a published abstract associated with them. If undergraduate authors wish to have a published abstract they should submit through the regular timeline. Smaller scale studies, research in progress, and research proposals by undergraduate students will be eligible for acceptance as a late-breaking abstract. Undergraduate students who wish to submit a late-breaking abstract and attend the conference do have to be a NASPSPA member.
The intention of this late-breaking abstract call is to provide an opportunity for undergraduate students who would like to learn more about NASPSPA, meet potential future graduate supervisors, network with NASPSPA members, and present research work they are involved in. There will be an opportunity for undergraduate students with late-breaking abstracts to register for the conference for a single day at a reduced fee, which will be Friday, June 7th when all of the late-breaking abstract posters will be presented.
PLEASE NOTE: Every year we have several undergraduate students who submit research as part of the regular abstract submission process, and who come to the full conference and present their work either in verbal or poster format. We continue to welcome our undergraduate student members participating in the full conference in this way. This late-breaking abstract opportunity is NOT intended to replace that form of undergraduate student participation, but rather to add a new opportunity for undergraduate students for whom having a completed study ready in time for the regular abstract deadline in January is too soon, and/or attending the full conference is too much, but who would like to check NASPSPA out. We recognize that this opportunity will likely be most attractive to undergraduate students who live near the conference location, as the travel and accommodation costs may make single day attendance less attractive to undergraduates traveling a long way. More information will be forthcoming in February.