Dr Katharina Schnitzspahn

Internal Memberships

• Chair of Equality, Diversity and Inclusion Committee; Athena SWAN Lead
• Research in Schools Coordinator
• Member of the Research Committee

Prizes and Awards

2021     Best Supervisor (Postgraduate Research), AUSA and University of Aberdeen Excellence Award.

Research Overview

• Cognitive Aging 
• Emotion and cognition interactions across the lifespan
• Applied cognition and cognitive plasticity across the lifespan
• Wellbeing and quality of life

Current Research

My experimental research addresses cognitive and emotional development across the lifespan and how this is influenced by strategies and metacognitive factors. I am using behavioral and psychophysiological measures in lab-based and applied settings to examine questions like:

Are we more forgetful when we are happy or sad? Is our memory impaired under stress?

Which cognitive processes are underlying memory performance? Can memory performance in children, young and older adults be enhanced with the help of specific strategies?

Are age declines observed in lab-based cognitive tasks related to actual everyday functioning in older adults?

Which factors and behaviours predict wellbeing and can they be modified in order to improve quality of life? 

Funding and Grants

Since 2019   Are we forgetful when feeling happy or sad? Investigating mood and prospective memory in aging. Carnegie Research Incentive Grant. Principal Investigator.

2021-2022   To smile or not to smile? The role of facial expression and memory in searching for wanted and missing persons. The Royal Society of Edinburgh. Principal Investigator.

2022-2026   Building interventions to improve quality of life for older people. Dunhill Medical Trust. Co-PI.