This past week was an exciting one for our lab: Ph.D. students Jordan Schotz and Maggie Doheny both successfully defended their dissertations. Jordan’s dissertation, entitled “Visual Cues of Human-Likeness, Not Salience, Impact Trust-Related Human-Computer Interaction”, focused on the complex, top-down social evaluations inherently tied to the perceived “humanness” of digital […]
PhD students
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Our lab members wrapped up Spring 2026 at our end-of-semester social with a round of mini golf and dinner. Congrats everyone on all of your hard work this semester!
Congratulations to the 2026 Student Scholar Symposium (SSS) presenters! This year, eight ADDL members presented posters at SSS to communicate the full scope of our lab’s research to the UCF community. See this year’s posters below: Doheny M, Murphy M, Cespedes R, Thibideau R, Popp C, Lighthall, NR. Toxic by […]
A new paper in Frontiers in Cognition by Maggie Doheny (ADDL PhD student), Dr. Nelson Roque (PSU), and Dr. Lighthall describes the complexities between trust, reciprocity, and perceptions of fairness in economic decision making. Using an adapted multi-round economic trust game, this study highlighted the effects of minimum and maximum […]
A new paper in Scientific Reports by Jordan Schotz (ADDL PhD student), Trenton Lam (former ADDL RA), Dr. Natalie Ebner (UF), and Dr. Lighthall describes the effects of visual cues of trustworthiness on trust-related decision-making in social versus nonsocial economic game contexts. Using the Multi-Round Trust Game, this study showed […]
Congratulations to ADDL Ph.D. student, Dr. Shayna Soares, on her graduation! In October, Shayna defended her dissertation entitled “Exploring Fake News Detection: Unpacking Polarization, Ambiguity, and Neural Mechanisms Associated”. This project combined fake news, uncertain decision-making, and neuroimaging (fNIRS) to better understand how people make decisions under uncertainty and […]
Members of the AD&D Lab have long been committed to meaningful community engagement, using research as a tool to address the real-world needs of aging populations. Through active participation in community outreach events—such as at the “Science Café” event hosted by the UCF Disability, Aging, and Technology Faculty Cluster, the […]
The Florida Consortium on the Neurobiology of Cognition (FCNC) is an annual conference hosted to provide opportunities for researchers of Florida at all stages of their career to present their work, and network. Cognition researchers from across Florida gathered at University of Central Florida on May 8th and 9th. The […]
In their new publication in Activities, Adaptation & Aging, recent AD&D Lab Ph.D. student, Xiaoqing Wan, Dr. Lighthall, and Penn State colleague, Dr. Nelson Roque, found that markers of successful aging predicted elite-levels of tech use in older age. These markers included better cognition, socioeconomics, and self-efficacy. The study also […]
The Marketplace at Avalon Park hosted Maggie Doheny’s informative talk on maintaining brain health while aging. An enthusiastic crowd drawn from communities all around the Orlando area enjoyed hearing the latest research and learning practical strategies they can implement in their own lives.
In their new publication in Frontiers in Human Neuroscience, AD&D Lab Ph.D. student, Maggie Doheny and Dr. Lighthall describe new challenges and perspectives in cognitive neuroscience, with a focus on social cognitive neuroscience in the digital age. The paper reviews our current understanding of the social-cognitive neural network and summarizes […]
Congrats to our three AD&D Lab members who were selected for Judge’s Choice awards at the 2023 UCF Student Scholar Symposium! The studies presented include one 2nd year Ph.D. student project and two Honors Undergraduate Thesis projects. Awardees and poster info (left to right): Jordan Schotz (Ph.D. student), Nichole […]
Congrats to recent AD&D Lab Ph.D. graduate, Xiaoqing Wan, Dr. Lighthall, and UCF Statistics and Data Science colleague, Dr. Rui Xie, on their paper: “Consistent and Robust Predictors of Internet Use among Older Adults over Time Identified by Machine Learning” — which is in press at the journal of Computers […]
Congrats to AD&D Lab member Xiaoqing Wan on earning her Ph.D.! This semester, Xiaoqing successfully defended her dissertation, “Predictors of technology use among older adults: Evidence from non-users to elite users.” Dr. Wan is now working as a Senior Data Scientist at SAANS Health. Best wishes, Xiaoqing!
The Fall 2021 was a special one for the AD&D Lab, as we celebrated our first PhD student graduation — congrats to Dr. Kylie Fernandez! We look forward to seeing great applied psychology work from you, and many more inspired poses like this one!
Congratulations to AD&D Lab Ph.D. student, Kylie Fernandez, for defending her dissertation entitled, “Dissociable Temporal and Performance Effects of Two Stress Pathways on Economic Decision Making”. Dr. Fernandez will be graduating this semester and moving on to a Research Psychologist position at StraCon Services Group. Best wishes, Kylie!
In their new publication in Computers in Human Behavior, AD&D Lab Ph.D. student, Xiaoqing Wan, Dr. Lighthall and UCF Clinical Psychology colleague, Dr. Daniel Paulson, show that subjective health stands out among self-perception measures as a robust predictor of Internet use in older adults. Of particular importance, the study’s findings […]
In their new publication in Brain and Cognition, AD&D Lab Ph.D. student, Lindsay Conner and Dr. Lighthall, in collaboration with University of Florida co-authors Natalie Ebner (Professor of Psychology) and Marilyn Horta (Postdoctoral Fellow), present a novel fMRI task for isolating effects of memory processes on value mechanisms. Findings from […]
Congratulations to former AD&D lab manager, Christina Griep, who will be beginning her Ph.D. training in Developmental, Cognitive, & Behavioral Neuroscience at the University of Houston this fall. Christina will be mentored by Dr. Hanako Yoshida and will studying the cognitive development of language. Best wishes, Christina!
During UCF’s coronavirus-related closure, the AD&D Lab stayed connected through weekly meetings on Zoom. Thank goodness for technology that allows us to conduct research and support each other through this bizarre and sometimes frightening moment in history.