My research leverages advanced statistical methods to understand how developmental and age-related changes in cognitive abilities intersect with critical health outcomes (e.g., depression risk, all-risk mortality) across the human lifespan. This work primarily falls within two investigative categories: cognitive/behavioral epidemiology and cognition-affect dynamics. For example, I’ve used a multi-methods approach combining machine learning and conventional parametric analyses to show that age-related decline in cognitive processing speed is a key predictor of elevated mortality risk and that social isolation and reduced fluid ability (abstract problem-solving capacity) are comparatively important determinants of depression risk following middle age. I have also used dynamic structural equation approaches to examine reciprocal, time-ordered associations between changes in cognitive abilities and depressive symptoms in older adults. While my substantive expertise centers on cognitive-behavioral processes during middle-late adulthood, I am currently engaged in research projects spanning a broad developmental/age spectrum.
