Lifespan Lab

Before attending Brandeis, Yvonne completed her undergraduate study at Bucknell University with a BA in psychology and studio art. She previously worked in the Multicultural Psychology Health Lab at Bucknell, investigating international students' perceived discrimination, acculturative stress and coping strategies.

Her current research interests include coping strategies' change over lifespan, cross-cultural comparisons, social support and mental health. In her free time, she enjoys photography, painting, hiking, watching movies and playing board games with friends.

Selected Publications

• Zhang, R. & Lachman, M.E. (in preparation). Pathways to Biological Health Risk in the United States and Japan: The Role of Psychosocial Factors
• Zhang, R. & Mena, J.A. (in preparation). Gender Differences in Coping with College, Discrimination, and Psychological Distress among International Chinese Students in the United States
• Lin, X. Y., Zhang, L., Yoon, S., Zhang, R., Lachman, M.E. A Social Exergame Intervention to Promote Physical Activity, Social Support, and Well-Being in Family Caregivers. Gerontologist. 2023 Mar 14:gnad028. doi: 10.1093/geront/gnad028. Epub ahead of print. PMID: 36916022.

Justin received his BS and MS in exercise science from State University of New York at Cortland. He began his career as a personal trainer and then as a college strength and conditioning coach where he worked with several conference championship teams, as well as the womens lacrosse national championship team at Cortland. After four years as a college strength coach, he changed his career trajectory to focus on helping people who were not active become more active.

Justin completed his PhD in exercise and health sciences in 2021 at the University of Massachusetts at Boston. While at Cortland and UMass Boston, Justin taught health behavior change, personal training and strength and conditioning courses. Justin enjoys strength training, running, hiking, writing, snowboarding and hanging out with his dog.

Selected Publications

• Kompf, J.M., Whiteley J, Wright J., Brenner, P., Camhi, C. (2023). Resistance training behavior is enhanced with digital behavior change coaching: A randomized controlled trial with novice adults. Journal of Physical Activity and Health.
• Kompf, J.M., Lachman, M.E. (2022). Daily physical activity: Associations with memory and affect. American Journal of Health Promotion. doi: 10.1177/08901171221139836.>
• Kompf J.M., Rhodes R.E. (2022). Differential correlates for aerobic physical activity and resistance training: A systematic review. Psychology, Health & Medicine. >
• Kompf, J.M., Rhodes, R.E. Lee S., (2022). Selecting Resistance Training Exercises for Novices: A Delphi Study with Expert Consensus. American Journal of Lifestyle Medicine. doi: 10.1177/15598276221115662 >
• Kompf, J.M. (2020). Implementation intentions for physical activity and exercise: Who do they work for? A systematic review. Journal of Physical Activity and Health. 17(3), 349-359.

Xin graduated Brandeis University with her PhD in 2022. She is broadly interested in technology use and well-being in the context of adult development and aging. Her dissertation examined social support and physical activity as mechanisms in the relationship between social technology use and well-being. Before coming to Brandeis, she completed her undergraduate study at Stony Brook University with a BA and BS in psychology and Asian American studies, along with minors in biology and digital arts.

Xin is currently a T32 postdoctoral fellow at the division of geriatric and palliative medicine at Weill Cornell Medicine.

Selected Publications

• Lin, Xin Yao & Zhang, Lin & Yoon, Saiyeon & Zhang, Ruoying & Lachman, Margie. (2023). A Social Exergame Intervention to Promote Physical Activity, Social Support, and Well-Being in Family Caregivers. The Gerontologist. 10.1093/geront/gnad028.
• Lin, Xin Yao & Lachman, Margie. (2022). Exergame Intervention To Promote Family Caregivers’ Social Support, Physical Activity, and Well-Being. Innovation in Aging. 6. 10.1093/geroni/igac059.3120.
• Lin, Xin Yao & Lachman, Margie. (2021). Associations Between Social Media Use, Physical Activity, and Emotional Well-Being From the Midlife in the United States Refresher Daily Diary Study. Journal of Aging and Physical Activity. 1-10. 10.1123/japa.2021-0267.
• Lin, Xin Yao & Lachman, Margie. (2021). Daily Stress and Affect Across Adulthood: The Role of Social Interactions via Different Communication Modes. Technology, Mind, and Behavior. 1. 1-12. 10.1037/tmb0000026.
• Lin, Xin Yao & Lachman, Margie. (2021). Social Media Use and Emotional Well-Being: The Role of Physical Activity. Innovation in Aging. 5. 931-931. 10.1093/geroni/igab046.3340.
• Lin, Xin Yao & Lachman, Margie. (2020). Age Differences in the Relationship Between Daily Social Media Usage and Affect. Innovation in Aging. 4. 410-410. 10.1093/geroni/igaa057.1320.
• Lin, Xin Yao & Saksono, Herman & Stowell, Elizabeth & Lachman, Margie & Castaneda-Sceppa, Carmen & Parker, Andrea. (2020). Go & Grow: A Social Exergame to Promote Well-Being Among Dementia Caregivers. Innovation in Aging. 4. 559-559. 10.1093/geroni/igaa057.1840.
• Lin, Xin Yao & Saksono, Herman & Lachman, Margie & Castaneda-Sceppa, Carmen & Parker, Andrea & Stowell, Elizabeth. (2020). Go & Grow: An Evaluation of a Pervasive Social Exergame for Caregivers of Loved Ones with Dementia. Proceedings of the ACM on Human-Computer Interaction. 4. 1-28. 10.1145/3415222.
• Lin, Xin Yao & Lachman, Margie. (2019). Social Interactions and Well-Being: The Role of Communication Method. Innovation in Aging. 3. S194-S195. 10.1093/geroni/igz038.700.
• Lin, Xin Yao & Lachman, Margie. (2019). Social Network Size and Frequency of Electronic Communication: The Relationship to Interpersonal Stress. Innovation in Aging. 3. S174-S174. 10.1093/geroni/igz038.618.
• Lachman, Margie & Lin, Xin Yao. (2021). The Relationship Between Social Media Use and Well-Being: The Mediating Role of Social Support. Innovation in Aging. 5. 427-427. 10.1093/geroni/igab046.1648.

Mirjam was a postdoctoral researcher at the Lifespan lab. In January 2022, she began a position as a lecturer and researcher at Lucerne University of Applied Sciences and Arts in Switzerland. She received her PhD at the University of Zurich in Switzerland (Department of Psychology and at the URPP "Dynamics of Healthy Aging"). During her PhD, Mirjam’s research focused on the development and investigation of digital interventions that target personality change. The goal of these interventions was to coach individuals who are willing and motivated to change some aspects of their personality. As part of her PhD, Mirjam developed the psychological part of the smartphone application "PEACH" in collaboration with the ETH Zurich, University of St. Gallen and Dartmouth College, which delivers a digital personality change coaching intervention.

Overall, Mirjam’s research interests lie at the intersection between personality psychology, (digital) intervention approaches, behavior change, and healthy aging. Her major interest focuses on how to help individuals effectively to improve their well-being and physical health in the long run and to identify (risk-) factors and mechanisms to personalize interventions in order to inform interventions.

Selected Publications

• Stieger, Mirjam; Allemand, Mathias; Roberts, Brent W. & Davis, Jordan P. (2021). Mindful of personality trait change: Are treatment effects on personality trait change ephemeral and attributable to changes in states? Journal of Personality, 1.
• Stieger, Mirjam; Flückiger, Christoph; Rüegger, Dominik; Kowatsch, Tobias; Roberts, Brent W. & Allemand, Mathias (2021). Changing personality with the help of a digital personality change intervention. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America (PNAS), e2017548118.
• Stieger, Mirjam; Liu, Yujun; Graham, Eileen K.; DeFransicso, Jenna & Lachman, Margie E. (2021). Personality change profiles and changes in cognition among middle-aged and older adults. Journal of Research in Personality, 104157.
• Stieger, Mirjam & Lachman, Margie E. (2021). Increases in Cognitive Activity Reduce Aging-Related Declines in Executive Functioning. Frontiers in Psychiatry, 1282.
• Stieger, Mirjam; Allemand, Mathias & Lachman, Margie E. (2021). Targeting self-control as a behavior change mechanism to increase physical activity: Study protocol of a randomized controlled trial. Contemporary Clinical Trials, 106236.
• Stieger, Mirjam; Eck, Moritz; Rüegger, Dominik; Kowatsch, Tobias; Flückiger, Christoph & Allemand, Mathias (2020). Who wants to become more conscientious, more extraverted, or less neurotic with the help of a digital intervention? Journal of Research in Personality, 103983.
• Stieger, Mirjam; Hill, Patrick L. & Allemand, Mathias (2020). Looking on the bright side of life: Associations between gratitude and interpersonal transgressions in adulthood and daily life. Journal of Personality, 430.
• Stieger, Mirjam; Wepfer, Sandro; Rüegger, Dominik; Kowatsch, Tobias; Roberts, Brent W. & Allemand, Mathias (2020). Becoming more conscientious or more open to experience? Effects of a two-week smartphone-based intervention for personality change. European Journal of Personality, 345.
• Stieger, Mirjam; Robinson, Stephanie A.; Bisson, Alycia N. & Lachman, Margie E. (2020). The relationship of personality and behavior change in a physical activity intervention: The role of conscientiousness and healthy neuroticism. Personality and Individual Differences, 110224.
• Stieger, Mirjam; Nissen, Marcia; Rüegger, Dominik; Kowatsch, Tobias; Flückiger, Christoph & Allemand, Mathias (2018). PEACH, a smartphone- and conversational agent-based coaching intervention for intentional personality change: Study protocol of a randomised, wait-list controlled trial. BMC Psychology, 43.
• Lindner, Stefanie; Stieger, Mirjam; Rüegger, Dominik; Kowatsch, Tobias; Flückiger, Christoph; Mehl, Matthias & Allemand, Mathias (2023). How is variety in daily life related to the expression of personality states? An ambulatory assessment study. European Journal of Personality, 08902070221149593.
• Wozniak, Thomas; Stieger, Mirjam; Schaffner, Dorothea; Schu, Matthias & Lu, Guang (2022). Algorithmic Nudging for Sustainability in E-Commerce: Conceptual Framework and Research Agenda. 35th Bled eConference Proceedings, 1.
• Olaru, Gabriel; Stieger, Mirjam; Rüegger, Dominik; Kowatsch, Tobias; Flückiger, Christoph; Roberts, Brent W. & Allemand, Mathias (2022). Personality change through a digital-coaching intervention: Using measurement invariance testing to distinguish between trait domain, facet, and nuance change. European Journal of Personality, 08902070221145088.
• Rüegger, Dominik; Stieger, Mirjam; Nissen, Marcia; Allemand, Mathias; Fleisch, Elgar & Kowatsch, Tobias (2020). How are personality states associated with smartphone data? European Journal of Personality, 687.
• Rüegger, Dominik; Stieger, Mirjam; Flückiger, Christoph; Allemand, Mathias & Kowatsch, Tobias (2017). Leveraging the potential of personality traits for digital health interventions: A literature review on digital markers for conscientiousness and neuroticism. Proceedings of the 11th Mediterranean Conference on Information Systems (MCIS), 1.
• Nissen, Marcia; Rüegger, Dominik; Stieger, Mirjam; Allemand, Mathias; Flückiger, Christoph; Kowatsch, Tobias & von Wangenheim, Florian (2022). The effects of health care chatbot personas with different social roles on the client-chatbot bond and usage intentions: Development of a design codebook and web-based study. Journal of Medical Internet Research, e32630.
• Kowatsch, Tobias; Nissen, Marcia; Rüegger, Dominik; Stieger, Mirjam; Flückiger, Christoph; Allemand, Mathias & von Wangenheim, Florian (2018). The impact of interpersonal closeness cues in text-based healthcare chatbots on attachment bond and the desire to continue interacting: An experimental design. Proceedings of the 26th European Conference on Information Systems (ECIS), 1.
• Allemand, Mathias; Keller, Lara; Gmür, Benjamin; Gehringer, Victoria; Oberholzer, Timon & Stieger, Mirjam (2020). MindHike, a digital coaching application to promote self-control: Rationale, content, and study protocol. Frontiers in Psychiatry, 1053.

Jenna is the lab manager of the Lifespan Developmental Psychology Laboratory. She received her BA from Colby College, where she majored in psychology and minored in art. Her undergraduate research focused on how social norms affect perception and development in emerging adulthood. While at Brandeis, she realized that she was interested in using her knowledge of human behavior and advanced research skills to explore consumer trends.

She is now working as a consultant at Opinion Dynamics, focusing on identifying barriers to and increasing acceptance of clean energy practices among consumers. She plans to pursue an MBA with a concentration in data analytics in the coming year.

Alycia graduated from Brandeis with her PhD in 2020. She is broadly interested in the field of cognitive aging. As an undergraduate at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, she studied the influence of sleep on memory consolidation across the lifespan. After graduation, Alycia worked as a lab manager in a kinesiology lab at UMass for two years. Here, she helped lead physical activity and sleep interventions in underserved communities.

Currently, she is interested in interventions (specifically physical activity interventions) that have the potential to improve sleep. Such lifestyle interventions could buffer the effects of cognitive aging.

Selected Publications

• Bisson, Alycia & Sorrentino, Victoria & Lachman, Margie. (2021). Walking and Daily Affect Among Sedentary Older Adults Measured Using the Stepmate App: Pilot Randomized Controlled Trial (Preprint). 10.2196/preprints.27208.
• Bisson, Alycia & Lachman, Margie & Bisson, Alycia. (2020). Daily Relationships Between Physical Activity and Sleep: Differences Between Subjective and Objective Measures. Innovation in Aging. 4. 426-426. 10.1093/geroni/igaa057.1376.
• Bisson, Alycia & Lachman, Margie. (2019). Sleep Quality as a Mechanism Linking Physical Activity and Cognitive Functioning. Innovation in Aging. 3. S779-S779. 10.1093/geroni/igz038.2866.
• Bisson, Alycia & Robinson, Stephanie & Lachman, Margie. (2019). Walk to a better night of sleep: testing the relationship between physical activity and sleep. Sleep Health. 5. 10.1016/j.sleh.2019.06.003.
• Bisson, Alycia & Sorrentino, Victoria & Lachman, Margie. (2019). The Relationship of Daily Steps to Mood and Energy: Application of Stepmate (mobile app for tracking exercise). Innovation in Aging. 3. S522-S522. 10.1093/geroni/igz038.1922.
• Bisson, Alycia & Lachman, Margie. (2017). Behavior Change with Fitness Technology in Sedentary Adults: A Review of the Evidence for Increasing Physical Activity. Frontiers in Public Health. 4. 10.3389/fpubh.2016.00289.&
• Robinson, Stephanie & Bisson, Alycia & Hughes, Matthew & Ebert, Jane & Lachman, Margie. (2018). Time for change: using implementation intentions to promote physical activity in a randomised pilot trial. Psychology & Health. 34. 1-23. 10.1080/08870446.2018.1539487.
• Stieger, Mirjam & Robinson, Stephanie & Bisson, Alycia & Lachman, Margie. (2020). The Relationship of Personality and Behavior Change in a Physical Activity Intervention: The Role of Conscientiousness and Healthy Neuroticism. Personality and Individual Differences. 166. 110224. 10.1016/j.paid.2020.110224.
• Hughes, Jaime & Brown, Rebecca & Fanning, Jason & Raj, Mina & Bisson, Alycia & Ghneim, Mira & Kritchevsky, Stephen. (2022). Achieving and Sustaining Behavior Change for Older Adults: A Research Centers Collaborative Network Workshop Report. The Gerontologist. 10.1093/geront/gnac173.

Currently, Mary Kaltenberg is an assistant professor of Economics at Pace University. Mary Kaltenberg was a post-doctoral fellow at Brandeis University with Adam Jaffe and Margie Lachman working on the inventor creative life cycle with patent data. She was a PhD Fellow at UNU-MERIT, Maastricht, The Netherlands. Her doctoral advisors were Bart Verspagen at UNU-MERIT, Neil Foster-McGregor at UNU-MERIT and Cesar Hidalgo at the Collective Learning group at the MIT Media Lab. In 2016, she was a visiting student and research assistant at the MIT Media Lab. Previously, she worked at UNICEF on resource mobilization and research on accessibility to health care. She received her master and bachelor degrees in economics from The New School for Social Research in New York City.

Her research is at the intersection of labor and innovation aimed at understanding the way we work — how innovation impacts pay, and the role that teamwork plays in the invention process.

She is primarily interested in the rise of social, creative and stem skills and its impact on wages, and invention. In her previous work, she researched three topics: the impact of automation on inequality across Europ; the role of teamwork (it's impact on patenting throughout the life course); and the importance of social and communication skills in knowledge diverse industries. Her job market paper (pdf) is on the latter topic.

Vicky's interests lie in neuropsychology, assessment and aging. She completed her BS in psychology with minors in math and music at Molloy College. She then received her MA in general psychology from Brandeis University, where she researched speech comprehension in older adults as measured by eye gaze.

Yujun Liu received her PhD in human development with a simultaneous degree in public health from Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University under the direction of Dr. Karen A. Roberto. She holds a Master of Social Work from Washington University in St. Louis. Yujun’s research interests include healthy aging and family caregiving.

Selected Publications

• Liu, Y., & Lachman, M.E. (in press). Physical and cognitive activity as mediators of the relationship between education and cognition in later life. Journals of Gerontology, Series B: Psychological Sciences.
• Liu, Y., & Lachman, M.E. (in press). Socioeconomic status and parenting style from childhood: Long-term effects on cognitive function at mid and later life. Journals of Gerontology, Series B: Social Sciences.
• Liu, Y., Voskanova, K., & Jarrott, S. (2017). Feasibility of an electronic participant information system for adult day services: A qualitative study of staff perspectives. Home Health Care Services Quarterly. doi: 10.1080/01621424.2017.1291389
• Liu, Y., Xie, Y., Brossoie, N., Roberto, K.A. & Redican, K. (2017). Alcohol consumption and depression symptoms among older adults in China. American Journal of Health Education. doi: 10.1080/19325037.2017.1358123
• Dou, X., & Liu, Y. (2015). Elderly migration patterns in China: Types, patterns and determinants. Journal of Applied Gerontology, 6, 1-21. doi: 10.1177/0733464815587966.

Stephanie is interested in psychological and social barriers that impede adults from engaging in physical activity and how these influence age-related declines. Her dissertation examined how perceived control can be modified to promote activity in middle-aged and older adults. She hopes that by developing such interventions she can continue to explore the relationships between physical activity, perceived control, and cognition.

Before coming to Brandeis, she graduated from Elon University with a BA in psychology where she explored strategies to improve episodic memory. She then graduated with honors from the Catholic University of America with an MA in general psychology.

Stephanie is currently a postdoctoral fellow at the Center for Healthcare Organization and Implementation Research at the Bedford VA Medical Center.

Molly graduated from Bates College with a BA in psychology, focusing in cognition, and a minor in music. Before becoming the lab manager for the Lifespan Developmental Psychology Lab at Brandeis University, she was a special education teaching assistant for West Hartford Public Schools.

She is pursuing her MA/EdS in school psychology at Tufts University and working as a graduate research assistant at the Tufts Center for the Enhancement of Learning and Teaching.

Matt received his PhD in cognitive psychology in 2014 from Texas A&M University under the direction of Dr. Lisa Geraci. While there, he completed his doctoral dissertation, "The Influence of Self-Perceptions of Aging on Older Adults' Cognition and Behavior." Matt is interested in subjective age, or how old one feels in comparison to his actual age.

He is currently a postdoctoral researcher at the University of North Carolina–Greensboro, examining how social comparisons and stereotype threat influence subjective age, and how subjective age affects behavior and cognitive processes.

Dikla graduated the PhD program at the Faculty of Industrial Engineering and Management at the Technion – Israel Institute of Technology. Her main research interests are retirement and well-being, and the relationship between retirement and physical, emotional and cognitive health.

Her current projects focus on the associations between occupational and non-occupational activities and cognitive changes in retirement. She now works in the Gerontology Department at the University of Haifa in Israel.

Nick's research interests involve the concept of mindfulness. In his work, he explores the effects of mindfulness practice on intrusive thoughts, stress, sleep quality, and memory. However, his interests regarding mindfulness are quite broad. Nick graduated from the University of Massachusetts-Amherst with a BA in psychology and earned an MS in clinical psychology from Springfield College. Before coming to Brandeis, Nick was engaged in clinical work in Northampton, Massachusetts.

Nick currently is a psychiatric clinician in the psychiatric emergency department at Boston Medical Center.

Salom is interested in decision-making and well-being across the lifespan, specifically strategies and methods older adults use to make life decisions. Her dissertation work examined within-person changes in reports of selection, optimization and compensation strategies across the lifespan, and how usage of these strategies relates to emotional memory and well-being within a health care decision-making context.

Starting in fall 2017, Salom will be a postdoctoral fellow in the University of Washington Advanced Training Fellowship in Rehabilitation Policy Research.

Julie's interests include exploring the effects of trait mindfulness and mindfulness-based treatments on age-related issues including stress, memory and overall physical and subjective aging. Before Brandeis, Julie worked with Dr. Ellen Langer at Harvard University. studying the effects of mindfulness on weight change in college women. Julie is interested in continuing her research on the mind-body relationship as it relates to the physical and cognitive progression toward older adulthood. Julianna is the lead second-grade teacher at Our Lady of Malibu School.

Assistant Professor, Sacramento State University

Dr. Cotter is primarily interested in health promotion, including psychosocial influences on health and health behaviors, as well as the physical and mental health outcomes of leading a healthy lifestyle. In addition, she is interested in how social relationships (both positive and negative) and personality can affect health behavior adoption and maintenance. She is currently studying the naturalistic adoption and maintenance of exercise and physical activity behavior across the lifespan.

Currently, she is collecting data from undergraduates examining predictors of physical activity behavior using the Transtheoretical Model. Dr. Cotter is also beginning a project examining the daily physical activity and stress of older adults. In addition to these projects, she is collaborating on a project examining predictors of depression disclosure to doctors using the Theory of Planned Behavior.

Lise worked on managing data for one of the Lifespan Lab's NIH-funded grants. She is a front-end web developer and writer.

Research Assistant Professor, Northwestern University

Chandra Murphy is a graduate of Boston University where she studied mathematics with a specialization in statistics and psychology. She is a recent graduate of Brandeis University with an MA in psychology.

Associate Professor, North Carolina State–Raleigh

Dr. Neupert is an associate professor of psychology at North Carline State. She earned her PhD in family studies and human development with a minor in statistics from the University of Arizona in 2003 and completed her postdoctoral training at Brandeis University in 2005.

Her research interests include contextual and individual differences surrounding stressors and well-being outcomes (e.g., physical health, cognition, affect). In particular, she is interested in the psychosocial and sociodemographic characteristics of individuals along with changing contextual factors which may be related to emotional, physical and cognitive reactivity (or responses) to stressors. She conducts daily diary designs to examine short-term variability and individual differences in within-person processes.

Dr. Neupert is a Fellow of the Gerontological Society of America and serves as an associate editor for the Journal of Gerontology: Psychological Sciences.

CeCelia is interested in interventions to improve cognitive functioning. In particular, she is interested in how physical activity may enhance cognition. She is investigating the influence of physical activity on stress, as this relationship may be a mediator to the connection between physical activity and cognition.

CeCelia is currently a gerontology research assistant at Boston Medical Center.

Assistant Professor, University of Colorado at Colorado Springs
PhD, Washington University in St. Louis

Dr. Pearman is a research scientist II in the School of Psychology at Georgia Institute of Technology. She conducts research on memory complaints and subjective cognition in older adults. Dr. Pearman is also a licensed clinical psychologist in Georgia. Her specialty is working with older adults, including memory and dementia assessments, therapy and consultation with senior organizations.

Lecturer in Psychology, Brandeis University

Michael's interests include anxiety, personality and the physiological markers of stress and arousal. He graduated from SUNY Fredonia with a bachelor's degree in psychology, where he and a colleague studied how shyness could play a role in proximity decisions and memory formation when approaching a stranger. At Brandeis, his research has examined personality differences in physiological reactivity across the adult lifespan.

Currently, he is a lecturer at Brandeis University.

Postdoctoral Research Fellow, University of Zürich, Switzerland

Dr. Christina Röcke received her predoctoral training at the Center for Lifespan Psychology of the Max Planck Institute for Human Development in Berlin, Germany, under the mentorship of Professors Jacqui Smith, Paul B. Baltes and Ulman Lindenberger. She was a Fellow of the International Max Planck Research School's "The Life Course: Evolutionary and Ontogenetic Dynamics" (LIFE) and received her PhD in 2006.

In the broadest sense, Dr. Röcke's main research interests concern the lifespan development of well-being, personality and cognition. Specifically, she is interested in the relationship between age and emotional functioning, intraindividual variability (short-term fluctuations) as a tool to study lifespan development, and theoretical distinctions between the young-old (i.e., Third Age) and the oldest-old (i.e., Fourth Age). In her dissertation, Dr. Röcke examined age-related and individual differences in intraindividual variability of positive and negative affects across 45 days, trait-like and state-like correlates of variability in these two well-being factors, as well as the within-person coupling of affective states with daily cognitive performance.

Current and future work focuses on (a) methodological issues regarding the meaning and measurement of momentary versus trait-like well-being, (b) the functional meaning of high-versus low-levels of variability in well-being for overall psychological adaptation, (c) different conceptions of control and their relationship to well-being as well as (d) a person-centered approach to subjective change trajectories of life satisfaction.

She is currently the research group leader and deputy director for the University of Zurich Research Priority Program (URPP) Dynamics of Healthy Aging.

Associate Professor, Southern Illinois University – Edwardsville

Christopher B. Rosnick received his PhD in aging studies and his MPH in biostatistics from the University of South Florida. He completed a postdoctoral research fellowship in the Lifespan Developmental Psychology Laboratory at Brandeis University. He is currently an assistant professor and teaches classes in the psychology of aging, research design and statistics. He also teaches the senior capstone course.

Dr. Rosnick is interested in how contextual factors influence cognitive functioning with a special interest in possible mechanisms (e.g., intrusive thinking and biological markers) of cognitive impairment. He is currently utilizing the Midlife in the United States longitudinal dataset to examine the longitudinal effects of experiencing life stressors on cognitive performance across the adult lifespan.

Dr. Rosnick is a frequent presenter at the annual meeting of the Gerontological Society of America and other conferences and has published numerous articles in gerontology and other journals. He received the Laurence G. Branch Doctoral Student Research Award at the 133rd American Public Health Association conference and an Honorable Mention for the James G. Zimmer New Investigator Research Award at the 134th Annual American Public Health Association conference. At SIUE, Dr. Rosnick serves as director of the Department of Psychology's DATA Consultants.

Associate Professor, Saint-Petersburg State University

BA Mathematics, Brandeis University

Program Director, Department of Veterans Affairs

Stacey's research interests focus on exercise across the lifespan, as well as the relationship with cognitive functioning in old age. Her past work investigated ways to motivate sedentary adults to exercise, with the findings suggesting that adults have different exercise goals. For instance, while younger adults are more likely to exercise for a benefit to their appearance, older adults are more likely to do so for their health.

Her other work used these exercise goals and incorporated message framing as a technique to encourage exercise among adults. Specifically, she found that younger adults were most influenced by positive appearance messages, whereas older adults were most influenced by positive health messages. In addition, middle-aged adults were equally influenced by both appearance and health messages. Her dissertation work has turned to the role of physical and mental activities in relation to memory failures among adults, in an attempt to examine whether individuals with higher levels of activities display fewer memory failures.