Jan Frijters

Professor

905-688-5550 x4219
jan.frijters@brocku.ca

Dr. Frijters is an Applied Developmental Psychologist with a focus on learning difficulties, motivation, and intervention. He also has a passion for quantitative research methods, especially for techniques such as multilevel modeling, person-centred, and structural equation modeling approaches that can help sort out how developmental processes unfold over time and within specific learning contexts. Several large collaborative projects are underway with collaborators in Beijing and Xi’an China, the University of Stavanger in Norway, Yale University and Georgia State University in the US. These ongoing studies focus on the most severely challenged children, adolescents and adults: providing and evaluating intervention, examining the genetic and brain basis for reading difficulties, and examining how neuropsychological characteristics interact with these factors. There are numerous and rich opportunities for students at every level within his ongoing projects.

Research Interests

  • The relationship between motivation and reading development or disruptions
  • Instructional features and optimal response to intervention
  • Research methods and quantitative models in developmental research
  • Human growth curve and latent growth modelling of developmental function
  • The genetics and neurobiological aspects of learning difficulties

Publications and collections

Guertin, E. L., Vause, T., Frijters, J. C., & Feldman, M. A. (Accepted, 2021). Overlapping symptoms in obsessive compulsive disorder and autism spectrum disorder: A behavior analytic conceptual framework. Behavior Analysis: Research and Practice.

Cross, A., Ramdajal, R., Peters, L., Vandermeer, MRJ, Hayden, E. P., Frijters, J. C., Steinbach, K. A., Lovett, M. W., Archibald, L. M. D., Joanisse, M. F. (Accepted, 2021). Resting-state functional connectivity and reading subskills in children. NeuroImage

Fang, Y., Lippert, A., Cai, Z., Pavlik, P. I., Frijters, J.C., Greenberg, D., Graesser, A. C. (Accepted). Patterns of adults with low literacy skills interacting with an Intelligent Tutoring System. International Journal of Artificial Intelligence in Education. 10.1007/s40593-021-00266-y

*Adams, A. A., Guertin, E. L., Truong, D. T., Atkinson, E. G., DeMille, M. M. C., Bosson-Heenan, J. M., Frijters, J. C., & Gruen, J. R. (Preprint). Genome wide association study in the New Haven Lexinome Project identifies GARRE1 as a novel gene for reading performance. https://doi.org/10.1101/2021.01.05.423827

Siegelman, N., Rueckl, J. G., van den Bunt, M., Frijters, J. C., Zevin, J. D., Lovett, M. W., Seidenberg, M. S., Pugh, K. R., & Morris, R. D. (In press, 2021). How you read affects what you gain: Individual differences in the functional organization of the reading system predict response to intervention in children with reading disabilities, Journal of Educational Psychology.

Chen, S., Fang, Y., Shi, G., Sabatini, J., Greenberg, D., Frijters, J. C., & Graesser, A. (2020). Automated disengagement monitoring within an intelligent tutoring system. Frontiers in Artificial Intelligence, 3. https://doi.org/10.3389/frai.2020.595627

Lovett, M. W., Frijters, J. C., Steinbach, K. A., Sevcik, R. A., Morris, R. D. (in press, 2020). Effective intervention for adolescents with reading disabilities: Combining reading and motivational remediation to improve outcomes. Journal of Educational Psychology

Malins, J. G., Landi, N., Ryherd, K., Frijters, J. C., Magnuson, J. S., Rueckl, J. G., Pugh, K. R., Sevcik, R., & Morris, R. (In press). Is that a pibu or a pibo? Children with reading and language deficits show difficulties in learning and overnight consolidation of phonologically similar pseudowords. Developmental Science.

Tang, K., Demille, M. M. C., Frijters, J. C., & Gruen, J. R. (2020). DCDC2 READ1 regulatory element: how temporal processing differences shape language. Proceedings of the Royal Society B, 287(1928). https://doi.org/10.1098/rspb.2019.2712

Spadafora, N., Frijters, J. C., Molnar, D. S., & Volk, A. A. (in press, 2020). Do little annoyances relate to bullying? The links between personality, attitudes towards classroom incivility, and bullying. Educational and Developmental Psychologist, 37(1), 30-38. doi: 10.1017/edp.2019.20

Li, M.*, Truong, D. T.*, DeMille, M., Malins, J. G., Lovett, M. W., Bosson-Heenan, Gruen, J. R., Genes Reading and Dyslexia Study Group, Frijters, J. C. (2019, in press). Effect of READ1 on latent profiles of reading disorder and comorbid attention and language impairment subtypes. Child Neuropsychology. doi: 10.1080/09297049.2019.1648642

Truong, D. T.*, Adams, A. K., Paniagua, S., Frijters, J. C., Boada, R., Hill, D. E., Lovett, M. W., Mahone. E. M., Willcutt, E. G., Wolf, M., Defries, J. C. Gialluisi, A., Francks, C., Fisher, S. E., Olson, R. K., Pennington, B. F., Smith, S. D., Bosson-Heenan, J., Gruen, J. R. (2019). Multivariate genome-wide association study of rapid automatised naming and rapid alternating stimulus in Hispanic American and African–American youth. Journal of Medical Genetics, 56, 557-566.

McTigue, E., Solheim, O. J., Frijters, J. C., Foldnes, N., Walgermo, B. R.* (2019). How can we determine students’ motivation for reading before formal instruction? Results from a self-beliefs and interest scale validation. Early Childhood Research Quarterly, 48, 122-133.

Tsujimoto, K.*, Boada, R., Gottwald, S., Hill, D., Jacobson, L. A., Lovett, M. W., Mahone, E. M., Willcutt, E., Wolf, M., Bosson-Heenan, J., Gruen, J. G., & Frijters, J. C. (2019). Causal Attribution Profiles as a Function of Reading Skills, Hyperactivity, and Inattention. Scientific Studies of Reading, 23(3), 254-272. https://doi.org/10.1080/10888438.2018.1529767

Vause, T., Neil, N., Jaksic, H.*, Frijters, J. C., Jackiewicz, G., & Feldman, M. (In press, 2019). Functional behavior-based cognitive-behavioral therapy for obsessive compulsive behavior in children with autism spectrum disorder: A randomized controlled trial.  Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10803-018-3772-x

Li, M.*, Mallins, J., DeMille, M., Lovett, M. W., Truong, D. T.*, Epstein, K., Lacadie, C., Mehta, C., Bosson-Heenan, J., Gruen, J. R. G., & Frijters, J. C. (2018). The genetic, neuropsychological, and neurophysiological implications of poor reading comprehension. npj Science of Learning, 3(20). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41539-018-0034-9

Guertin, E.*, Vause, T., Jaksic, H., Frijters, J. C., & Feldman, M. (2019). Treating obsessive compulsive behavior and enhancing peer engagement in a preschooler with intellectual disability. Behavioral Interventions, 34, 19-29. https://doi.org/10.1002/bin.1646