Alice Medalia is an American clinical neuropsychologist and international leader in the field of psychiatric rehabilitation. She is best known for her work treating cognitive deficits in people with psychiatric disorders. This subspecialty is known as cognitive remediation.

Education and career

Medalia received her BS from

Tufts University Tufts University is a private research university on the border of Medford and Somerville, Massachusetts. It was founded in 1852 as Tufts College by Christian universalists who sought to provide a nonsectarian institution of higher learning. ...

(1976) and PhD in Clinical Psychology and Neuropsychology from

City University of New York The City University of New York ( CUNY; , ) is the Public university, public university system of Education in New York City, New York City. It is the largest urban university system in the United States, comprising 25 campuses: eleven Upper divis ...

(1982). From 1983 to 2006 she served on the faculty of Albert Einstein College of Medicine, rising from Instructor to Professor in the Departments of Psychiatry and Neurology. During this time, she also served as Director of

Neuropsychology Neuropsychology is a branch of psychology concerned with how a person's cognition and behavior are related to the brain and the rest of the nervous system. Professionals in this branch of psychology often focus on how injuries or illnesses of t ...

Montefiore Medical Center Montefiore Medical Center is a premier academic medical center and the primary teaching hospital of the Albert Einstein College of Medicine in the Bronx, New York City. Its main campus, the Henry and Lucy Moses Division, is located in the Norwoo ...

. In 2007 she moved to Columbia University's College of Physicians and Surgeons, where she is a professor in th
Department of Psychiatry
At Columbia, she established th
Lieber Recovery and Rehabilitation Clinic
a comprehensive psychiatric rehabilitation program for individuals with persistent mental illness. The Lieber Recovery and Rehabilitation Clinic was featured on the award-winning

PBS The Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) is an American public broadcasting, public broadcaster and Non-commercial activity, non-commercial, Terrestrial television, free-to-air television network based in Arlington, Virginia. PBS is a publicly fu ...

television series
Healthy Minds
Medalia has been instrumental in raising awareness about the need to address cognition as a central aspect of health related to functional outcomes. In 1996 she started the largest annual conference on the topic of treating cognition in psychological disorders. This conference
Cognitive Remediation in Psychiatry
takes place in June in New York City. Alice Medalia is the recipient of the Connie Lieber Research Award the Elizabeth Hurlock Beckman Award for inspirational teaching, and the 2012 Brain Behavior Research Foundation Productive Lives Award.

Contributions

Medalia has primary research interests in treating cognition, motivation, and facilitating recovery among people with mental illness. Her key contribution to psychiatry relates to her application of motivation theories to the treatment of cognitive disorders. Medalia identified the need for the treatment of cognition to move beyond theories of neuroplasticity, to embrace an understanding of how people learn. Drawing on theories of motivation as they related to learning, Medalia showed that intrinsic motivation, which is the motivation to engage in an activity for its inherent value and interest, is significantly linked to the amount of learning that takes place in rehabilitation programs. She also demonstrated that intrinsic motivation is malleable and responsive to environmental cues and instructional techniques. Medalia developed the widely used NEAR (Neuropsychological & Educational Approach to Remediation) model of cognitive remediation, which has been disseminated worldwide. The NEAR model creates a therapeutic structure designed to enhance intrinsic motivation to learn. It teaches clinicians how to evaluate cognitive training programs, from the vantage of neuropsychology, neuroplasticity theory and motivational theory. This is important because computerized cognitive training activities started to proliferate in the 21st century, and consumers and clinicians needed tools to evaluate the products. The NEAR model has been used with people diagnosed with

schizophrenia Schizophrenia is a mental disorder characterized by continuous or relapsing episodes of psychosis. Major symptoms include hallucinations (typically hearing voices), delusions, and disorganized thinking. Other symptoms include social withdra ...

, depression,

bipolar disorder Bipolar disorder, previously known as manic depression, is a mental disorder characterized by periods of depression and periods of abnormally elevated mood that last from days to weeks each. If the elevated mood is severe or associated with ...

ADHD Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) is a neurodevelopmental disorder characterised by excessive amounts of inattention, hyperactivity, and impulsivity that are pervasive, impairing in multiple contexts, and otherwise age-inapp ...

, and mild cognitive impairment and implemented in psychiatric, educational, forensic and supportive housing settings. In addition to working with psychiatric populations, Medalia has used cognitive remediation to help formerly

homeless Homelessness or houselessness – also known as a state of being unhoused or unsheltered – is the condition of lacking stable, safe, and adequate housing. People can be categorized as homeless if they are: * living on the streets, also kn ...

individuals in supportive housing improve the cognitive skills needed to work and maintain housing. By focusing on cognitive health in addition to physical and mental health, cognitive remediation seeks to improve such skills as

memory Memory is the faculty of the mind by which data or information is encoded, stored, and retrieved when needed. It is the retention of information over time for the purpose of influencing future action. If past events could not be remembered, ...

attention Attention is the behavioral and cognitive process of selectively concentrating on a discrete aspect of information, whether considered subjective or objective, while ignoring other perceivable information. William James (1890) wrote that "Atte ...

, and

problem solving Problem solving is the process of achieving a goal by overcoming obstacles, a frequent part of most activities. Problems in need of solutions range from simple personal tasks (e.g. how to turn on an appliance) to complex issues in business an ...

, so people are more effective in their daily lives.

Selected publications

* Medalia A, Revheim N. (2002
Dealing with Cognitive Dysfunction Associated with Psychiatric Disabilities
OMH Press: Albany * Medalia A, Revheim N, Herlands T. (2009)
Cognitive remediation for psychological disorders, therapist guide
Oxford University Press: New York * Medalia A, Choi J. (2009) Cognitive Remediation in Schizophrenia. Neuropsychology Review 19(3):353-364 * Medalia A, Brekke J. (2010) In search of a theoretical structure for understanding motivation in schizophrenia. Schizophrenia Bulletin 36(5):912-918. * Choi J, Medalia A. (2010) Intrinsic Motivation and Learning in a Schizophrenia Spectrum Sample. Schizophrenia Research 118(1):12-19. * Roder V, Medalia A. (Eds.) (2010) Neurocognition and Social Cognition in Schizophrenia Patients: Basic Concepts and Treatment. Karger Press ISSN 1662-4874. Switzerland

References

External links

Faculty Profile for Alice Medalia, PhD, at Columbia University

Staff Profile for Alice Medalia, PhD, Director of Psychiatric Rehabilitation, Lieber Recovery and Rehabilitation Clinic

Excerpt from PBS Broadcast on Healthy Minds Featuring Alice Medalia, PhD, as Guest for the "Living With Schizophrenia" Segment
{{DEFAULTSORT:Medalia, Alice Living people Year of birth missing (living people) 20th-century American psychologists 21st-century American psychologists Tufts University alumni CUNY Graduate Center alumni