Dr. Nancy Musarra

Dr. Nancy Musarra

Dr. Nancy Musarra, who earned a Ph.D. in Psychology with a specialization in Clinical Psychology, was awarded Walden University’s Harold L. Hodgkinson Award for her dissertation, Information-Processing Skills Related to Working Memory in Individuals With Asperger’s Disorder.

Asperger’s Disorder is characterized by a range of delays in different developmental stages. It is more common in males than in females and is typically diagnosed in later childhood, between the ages of 11 and 13.

“It is a difficult diagnosis to make,” says Musarra, a therapist and behavioral health consultant in Ohio who has worked with children with Asperger’s and their families.  “Parents often notice that something is ‘not quite right’ with their child, but can’t identify it.”

Persons with the disorder have average or above-average intelligence and language development but difficulty using and understanding non-verbal communication. As a result, they struggle to form relationships and lack social confidence.

For her dissertation, Musarra combined theories from cognitive, neurological and clinical psychology; isolated specific working-memory components; and identified a connection between working-memory capacity and social-skills deficiencies in persons with Asperger’s.

Her study assessed two groups of boys (30 with the disorder and 30 normally developing peers) with a working-memory test for children. Musarra compared the two groups’ scores, and her findings supported the hypothesis that working memory is a specific information-processing deficit of individuals with Asperger’s. Working memory allows people to temporarily store and manipulate small amounts of information.

Musarra’s findings suggest that if psychologists and educators target remedial efforts to enhance their working-memory capacity, persons with Asperger’s may more effectively engage in complex information processing and participate more effectively in reciprocal social interactions.

Dr. Rodney Ford, who chaired Musarra’s committee, was awarded the Bernard L. Turner Award. Other members of Musarra’s dissertation committee were Dr. Joseph Rocchio, Dr. S. David Kriska and Dr. Hilda Glazer, all of the School of Psychology.

Musarra said that she wanted to thank her entire committee. “Every time I thought I was done, they just raised the bar higher, and I’m glad they did.”

The Harold L. Hodgkinson Award is presented annually to a Walden graduate whose dissertation meets the highest university standards. It was created to honor the distinguished career of one of the nation’s foremost experts in demography, Dr. Harold L. Hodgkinson, who had an important role in Walden’s establishment and academic development.

The Bernard L. Turner Award is bestowed annually upon the chair of the dissertation committee of the winner of the Hodgkinson Award. It was created to honor the unique contributions to American higher education of Bernard L. Turner, former chairman of the board and founding president of Walden University.