The science behind Cognassist

Cognassist is an evidence-based neuro-inclusion platform: we take our science seriously and here's how we do it.

Meet our Independent Scientific Advisory Board:

John R Crawford is a Professor in the School of Psychology, College of Life Sciences and Medicine, King’s College, University of Aberdeen. He has published over 170 scientific papers, with over 55,000 citations. Professor Crawford holds honorary appointments as a Consultant Clinical Neuropsychologist and Consultant Clinical Psychologist with Grampian NHS and is a Fellow of the British Psychological Society.

Professor John R Crawford

Professor Emeritus, Aberdeen University

Dr Clive Skilbeck is a UK-trained chartered clinical psychologist and clinical neuropsychologist, with degrees from Liverpool University and a PhD from Plymouth University. He is a Fellow of the British Psychological Society and a member of the Australian Psychological Society and College of Clinical Neuropsychologists. Dr Skilbeck was heavily involved in the initial design and development of Cognassist.

Dr. Clive Skilbeck

Clinical Neuropsychologist Consultant

Dr John Welch is a Chartered Clinical Psychologist and Practitioner Clinical Neuropsychologist, who has held the roles of Top-Grade Psychologist and Principal Psychologist at Newcastle upon-Tyne NHS Health Authority. He is an expert witness for the NHS and private practices and Chair of the Executive Committee of the Division of Neuropsychological B.P.S. Dr Welch also contributed to our development from the start.

Dr. John Welch

Clinical Neuropsychologist Consultant

Chris Petkov is Professor of Comparative Neuropsychology at Newcastle University, Professor and Vice Chair for Research at University of Iowa, and Editor-in-Chief of Current Research in Neurobiology journal. He holds Wellcome Trust Investigator and European Research Council awards. His research aims to advance scientific knowledge on the neurobiology of cognition and communication.

Professor Chris Petkov

Neuropsychology Professor at Newcastle University

Cognassist is a member of The International Test Commission, a global association of national psychological associations, test commissions, publishers and other organisations committed to promoting effective development and use of educational and psychological assessments.

Our scientific principles

Robust validation and testing

Cognassist’s performance-based assessment has been through five stages of validity and research piloting with hundreds of participants to meet the gold standard of psychometrics. Our assessment also contains nine Performance Validity Tests (PVTs) to track the effort of participants throughout the assessment and make sure any differences in performance are not due to inaccurate or false responses. Any PVT failures will be flagged with users and removed from our dataset.

Strict ethical guidelines

Cognassist practices data ethics. We use responsible design and implementation with our system, based on guidelines from The Alan Turing Institute, to counteract potential harms, discrimination and unintended use. Our contracts contain an Ethics Policy that ensures a binding agreement to fair use and accountability.

Solid data protection

Data is our greatest asset, but it’s your greatest asset too. We are committed to ensuring the highest security of data and treating this information with the respect it deserves. Our research uses anonymised data and we regularly test our internal security, taking every step to ensure compliance and safety.

Meaningful scientific and social progress

Science is one of the most powerful vehicles for social change. A systematic methodology makes systematic change. At Cognassist, we think the best way to make a meaningful and positive impact is to follow the science, test what we do and experiment with new ways to improve. Good science does good.

Partnering with Newcastle University

Cognassist is working in partnership with Newcastle University to explore how cognitive differences can impact learner retainment and success in Further Education.

This PhD research project will involve investigations using data science to understand learners’ challenges. We hope to develop a more broad-reaching and sophisticated knowledge of what effective and proactive support looks like to improve learner retention across the UK.

Our research will be conducted as a PhD project by our Senior Research Scientist and supervised by experts from Newcastle University’s Population Health Sciences Institute and the School of Education, Communication and Language Sciences.

If you are an education provider and would like to be involved in this research, please enquire below.