Robin Morris
Regents Professor Emeritus Neuroscience, Psychology- Education
Ph.D., University of Florida, 1982
M.S., Trinity University, 1978
B.A., Emory University, 1975
- Specializations
Developmental and Clinical Neuropsychology, Developmental Dyslexia, Reading and Attention Related Disabilities, Acquired Brain Injury, Neurogenetic Disorders
- Biography
Robin Morris serves as the executive officer for entrepreneurship, overseeing the University’s strategic efforts for student start-ups, campus activities centered around entrepreneurship and related degree programs. Prior to this appointment, Dr. Morris served as the Associate Provost for Strategic Initiatives and Innovation guiding the university during the first half of the strategic plan’s implementation. He is Regent’s Professor of Psychology at Georgia State University and is the past Vice President for Research, Associate Dean for Research and Graduate Studies in the College of Arts and Sciences and Chair of the Department of Psychology at Georgia State. He currently holds faculty research appointments in the Center for Research on Atypical Development and Learning and GSU/Georgia Tech Center for Advanced Brain Imaging, and is an Associate Faculty in the Neurosciences Institutes. Dr. Morris received his B.A. from Emory University, M.S. from Trinity University, and his Ph.D. from the University of Florida. He has published widely and has federal grant awards from the National Institutes of Health, National Science Foundation, Department of Defense, and the U.S. Department of Education.
Current Research
My scholarly work has focused on the biological and environmental factors that impact developing cognitive, learning and language systems in typically developing children and adults, and those with atypical development or acquired neurological disorders (including dyslexia, autism, ADHD, SLI, mitochondrial disease, brain tumors, TBI). My current projects include intervention studies focused on studying treatment outcomes of children and adults with dyslexia and reading disabilities, and related projects focused on using state-of-the-art technology to provide reading instruction where there are limited instructional resources (http://www.curiouslearning.org). I am currently the PI of a multi-site NIH P01 grant and Oak Foundation supported project focused on understanding those neuropsychological, experimental cognitive, behavioral, and/or neuroimaging (including fMRI, DTI, morphology) of over 250 children with reading disabilities, attentional disorders and language impairments, which are focused on predicting both developmental outcomes, but also multimodal predictors of response to treatment, with a particular interest in treatment resistance.
Current Grants
Principal Investigator, “Neurocognitive bases for treatment resistance in developmental dyslexia”, NIH/NICHD/P01HD070837 8/1/13-11/30/18.
Principal Investigator, “Identifying Dyslexia Interventions for Treatment Resisters”, Oak Foundation. 7/1/16-6/30/19.
Co-Principal Investigator, “PFI:BIC - Development, Deployment and Evaluation of an Intelligent Service System for Personalized Early Literacy Learning Using Mobile Devices”, NSF/1717362 8/1/2017-7/31/2020 (C. Breazeal, PI).
Investigator. “Developing Instructional Approaches Suited to the Cognitive and Motivational Needs of Struggling Adult Readers”, National Research and Development Center on Cognition and Adult Literacy, U.S. Department of Education/IES, 9/1/12-8/31/18) (D. Greenberg, PI).
- Publications
Representative Publications
See Google Scholar for more complete listing.
Lovett, M.W., Frijters, J.C., Wolf, M., Steinback, K.A., Sevcik, R.A., Morris, R. (2017). Early intervention for children at risk for reading disabilities: The impact of grade at intervention and individual differences on intervention outcomes. Journal of Educational Psychology. https://psycnet.apa.org/doi/10.1037/edu0000181
Malins, J.G., Gumkowski, N., Buis, B., Molfese, P., Rueckl, J.G., Frost, S.J., Pugh, K.R., Morris, R., & Mencl, W.E. (2017). Dough, tough, cough, rough: A “fast” fMRI localizer of component processes in reading. Neuropsychologia, 2016 Oct;91:394-406. DOI: 10.1016/j.neuropsychologia.2016.08.027 PMID: 27592331 PMCID: PMC508917
Ailion, A.S., King, T.Z., Wang, L., Fox, M.E., Mao, H., Morris, R.D., & Crosson, B. (2016). Cerebellar atrophy in adult survivors of childhood cerebellar tumor. Journal of the International Neuropsychological Society, 23, 1-11. DOI:10.1017/S1355617716000138
Breazeal, C., Morris, R., Gottwald, S., Galyean, T., Wolf, M. (2016). Mobile Devices for Early Literacy Intervention and Research with Global Reach, Proceedings of the Third (2016) ACM Conference on Learning@ Scale, 11-20. DOI:10.1145/2876034.2876046
Rhodes, K.T., Branum-Martin, L., Morris, R.D., Romski, M., & Sevcik, R. (2015). Testing Math or Testing Language? The Construct Validity of the KeyMath-Revised for Children with Intellectual Disability and Language Difficulties. American Journal of Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities, 120(6), 542-568. DOI: 10.1352/1944-7558-120.6.542
Jayakar, R., King, T. Z., Morris, R., & Na, S. (2015). Hippocampal Volume and Auditory Attention on a Verbal Memory Task With Adult Survivors of Pediatric Brain Tumor. Neuropsychology, 29(2), 303. Advance online publication. http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/neu0000183
Smith K.M., King T.Z., Jayakar, R., & Morris, R.D. (2014). Reading skill in adult survivors of childhood brain tumor: A theorybased neurocognitive model using DTI. Neuropsychology, 28(3), 448-458. doi: 10.1037/neu0000056
Foster, M.E., Sevcik, R.A., Romski, M. & Morris, R.D. (2014). Effects of phonological awareness and naming speed on mathematics skills in children with mild intellectual disabilities. Developmental Neurorehabilitation, 1-13. DOI: 10.3109/17518423.2013.84.3603.
Nanda, A.O., Greenberg, D., & Morris, R.D. (2014). Reliability and validity of the CTOPP Elision and Blending Words subtests for struggling adult readers. Reading and Writing, 27(9), 1603-1618. DOI: 10.1007/s11145-01409509
Wolf, M.,Gottwald, S., Galyean, T., Morris, R., & Breazeal, C. (2014) The Reading Brain, Global Literacy, and the Eradication of Poverty. Bread and Brain, Education and Poverty. Pontifical Academy of Sciences, Scripta Varia 125, Vatican City.
Barker, R, Michael, Sevcik, R.A., Morris, R.D., & Romski, M. (2013). A model of phonological processing, language, and reading for students with mild intellectual disability. Am. J on Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities, 118(5),365-380.
Greenberg, D., Wise, J., Frijters, J., Morris, R., Frederick, L., Rodrigo, V., & Hall, R. (2013). Persisters and nonpersisters: Identifying who stays and who leaves from adult literacy interventions. Reading and Writing, 26, 495-514. DOI 10.1007/s11145-012-9401-8.
Frijters, J.A., Lovett, M.W., Sevcik, R.A., & Morris, R. D. (2012). Four methods of identifying responders to a multicomponent reading intervention for struggling middle school readers. Reading and Writing Quarterly, 26, 539-563. DOI 10.1007/s11145-012-9418-z.
Morris, R.D., Lovett, M.W., Wolf, M., Sevick, R.A., Steinbach, K.A., Frijters, J.C. & Shapiro, M. (2012). Multiple component remediation of developmental reading disabilities: A Controlled factorial evaluation of the influence of IQ, socioeconomic status, and race on outcomes. J. Learning Disabilities, 45(2), 99-127.
Frijters, J.C., Lovett, M.W., Steinbach, K.A., Wolf, M., Sevick, R.A. & Morris, R. (2011). Neurocognitive predictors of reading outcomes for children with reading disabilities. Journal of Learning Disabilities, 44(2), 150-166.
Greenberg, D. Wise, J. Morris, R. Fredrick, L., Rodrigo, V., Nada, A., Pae, Hye (2011). A randomized controlled study of instructional approaches for struggling adult readers. Journal of Educational Effectiveness, 4, 1-17.
Morris, R.D., Lovett, M.W., Wolf, M., Sevick, R.A., Steinbach, K.A., Frijters, J.C. & Shapiro, M. (2010). Multiple component remediation of developmental reading disabilities: A Controlled factorial evaluation of the influence of IQ, socioeconomic status, and race on outcomes. J. Learning Disabilities, 1-29. doi: 10:1177/0022219409355472.
Nada, A.O., Greenberg, D., & Morris, R. (2010). Modeling child-based theoretical reading constructs with struggling adult readers. J. Learning Disabilities, 43(2), 139-153.
Wise, J.C., Sevcik, R.A., Romski, M., Morris, R.D. (2010). The relationship between phonological processing skills and word and nonword identification performance in children with mild intellectual disabilities. Research in Developmental Disabilities, 31(6),1170-1175.
Wolf, M., Barzillai, M., Gottwald, S., Miller, L., Spencer, K., Norton, E., Lovett, M.W., & Morris, R.D. (2009). The RAVE-O intervention: Connecting neuroscience to the classroom. Mind, Brain, and Education, 3(2), 84-93.
Greenberg, D., Pae, H.K., Morris, R.D., Calhoon, M.B., & Nada, A.O. (2009). Measuring adult literacy students’ reading skills using the Gray Oral Reading Test. Ann. of Dyslexia. Doi: 10-1007/511881-009-0027-8.
Zetzler, C, Sevcik, R.A., Morris, R.D. & Clarkson, M.C. (2008) Comodulation masking release (CMR) in children and the influence on reading status. J. Speech, Language, and Hearing Research, 51, 772-784.
Papazoglou, A., King, T., Morris, R., Morris,M. & Krawiecki, N. (2008). Attention mediates radiation’s impact on daily living skills in children treated for brain tumors. Pediatric Blood and Cancer, 50(6), 1253-1257.
Wise, J.C., Pae, H.K., Wolfe, C.B., Sevcik, R.A., Morris, R.D., Lovett, M. & Wolf, M. (2008). Phonological awareness and rapid naming skills of children with reading disabilities and children with reading disabilities who are at-risk for mathematics difficulties. Learning Disabilities Research and Practice, 23(3), 125-136.
Schwanenflugel, P.J., Morris, R.D., Kuhn, M.R., Strauss, G.P., & Sieczko, J.M. (2008). The influence of reading unit size on the development of Stroop interference in early word decoding. Reading and Writing, 21: 177-203.
Shaywitz, S.E., Morris, R. & Shaywitz, B.A. (2008). The education of dyslexic children from childhood to young adulthood. Annual Review of Psychology, 59: 451-475.