Sarah Cook
Doctoral Candidate, Clinical Psychology

Phone: (352)-273-5099
Email:scook@phhp.ufl.edu

 
Education
  • Ph. D. Clinical Psychology with concentration in Neuropsychology and Certificate in Gerontology, University of Florida (expected 2008)
  • M.S. Clinical Psychology, University of Florida, 2004
  • B. S. Psychology, summa cum laude, University of Pittsburgh, 2000
Awards
  • AARP Scholar ($10,000 research support), 2005-2006
  • NIMH Summer Topics in Aging Research Training- Mental Health (START-MH) Fellowship, 2005
  • NIA UF Pre-doctoral Training in Aging Research Fellow, 2003-Present
  • Graduate Student Council Travel Award, 2004
Publications

  • Cook, S.E., Nebes, R.D., Halligan, E.M., Burmeister, L.A., Saxton, J.A., Ganguli, M., Fukui, M.B., Meltzer, C.C., Williams, R.L. & DeKosky, S.T.  (2002). Memory impairment in elderly individuals with a mildly elevated serum TSH: The role of processing resources, depression, and cerebrovascular disease.  Aging, Neuropsychology and Cognition, 9, 175- 183.
  • Cook, S.E., Miyahara, S., Bacanu, S.A., Perez, G., Lopez, O.L., Kaufer, D.I., Nimgaonkar, V.L., Wisniewski, S.R., DeKosky, S.T. & Sweet, R.A.  (2003).  Psychotic symptoms in Alzheimer disease: Evidence for subtypes.  American Journal of Geriatric Psychiatry, 11, 406-413.
  • Perez-Madriñan, G., Cook, S.E., Saxton, J.A., Miyahara, S., Lopez, O.L., Kaufer, D.I., Aizenstein, H., DeKosky, S.T. & Sweet, R.A. (2004). Psychosis in Alzheimer disease: Excess cognitive impairment is restricted to the misidentification subtype.  American Journal of Geriatric Psychiatry, 12, 449-456.
  • Cook, S.E. & Marsiske, M. Subjective memory beliefs and cognitive performance in normal and mildly impaired older adults. Aging and Mental Health. In press.
Research Interests
  • Everyday applications of neuropsychology to determine ability to drive and manage medications
  • Deficits in divided attention in Alzheimer’s disease
  • Detection of Mild Cognitive Impairment (MCI) through neuropsychological assessment
  • Longitudinal neuropsychological outcomes of MCI, including determinants of reversion back to normal
Profile
Sarah Cook first became interested in aging while she was an undergraduate research assistant in a cognitive aging laboratory at Western Psychiatric Institute and Clinic at the University of Pittsburgh. She completed an honors thesis about cognitive deficits in older adults with a high thyroid stimulating hormone (TSH) level under the direction of Robert Nebes, PhD. After obtaining her bachelor’s degree, she was a research coordinator and psychometrician at the Alzheimer Disease Research Center at the University of Pittsburgh. She then decided to enter the doctoral program in Clinical and Health Psychology at the University of Florida in August of 2002 to continue to study cognitive changes associated with aging. She began working in the lab of Dr. Michael Marsiske where she has been involved in studies examining a) intraindividual variability in cognitive performance in older adults with and without memory impairment, b) the relationship between memory performance and memory beliefs, and c) divided attention in aging. Sarah has also had the opportunity to work with the ACTIVE clinical trial to investigate algorithmic identification of MCI in a population sample. She also worked with Fred Unverzagt, PhD during her START-MH fellowship to investigate the longitudinal outcome of cognitive impairment in African Americans. After completing her clinical internship, she plans to pursue post-doctoral training in neuropsychology before securing a faculty position.