Country of Residence
Discipline(s)
GYA Roles
Institution
University of Central Florida
Psychology
Psychology Department, Building 99, Rm 330
University of Central Florida
4111 Pictor Lane
Orlando, FL 32816, USA
Research Interests
decision making
aging
cognitive neuroscience
affect
individual differences
Topics to speak on:
cognitive aging, brain aging, decision processing and decision behavior, motivation across the lifespan, neuroplasticity, interactions between emotion and cognition, deception detection
A hallmark of a successful person is that they persist in the face of obstacle and often these obstacles are blessings in disguise.- Dr. Carol Dweck, Stanford University
Biography
Nichole Lighthall is an Associate Professor of Psychology in the Human Factors and Cognitive Psychology Ph.D. program at the University of Central Florida (UCF) in Orlando, Florida, United States.
She holds a B.A. in Psychology from the UC Berkeley and a Ph.D. in Gerontology from the University of Southern California. Before coming to UCF, Dr. Lighthall completed her postdoctoral training at Duke University in the Center for Cognitive Neuroscience, with a postdoctoral fellowship from the Duke Center for the Study of Aging and Human Development.
The goal of her research program is to develop a neural model of decision processing that can be used to identify age-related vulnerabilities and pathways to compensation. She is particularly interested in how age-related changes to cognitive and emotional components of decision making impact decision processing and quality. Her recent work has focused on understanding risk for deception and exploitation across the adult lifespan, including vulnerability to misinformation and fraud.
Dr. Lighthall directs research in the UCF Adult Development & Decision Lab, and is is also a Co-Director for a research society in her focal area of study (the Scientific Research Network on Decision Neuroscience & Aging).
Awards
2018 National Academy of Sciences Seymour Benzer Lectureship
Kavli Fellow of the National Academy of Sciences
National Institutes of Health Institutional Postdoctoral Fellowship
National Institutes of Health Individual Predoctoral Fellowship
National Institutes of Health Institutional Predoctoral Fellowship
Activities
