Hannah van Alebeek

Hannah van Alebeek is a Research Fellow in the Department of Psychology at the University of Salzburg, conducting research within the Eating Behavior Laboratory. Her work bridges cognitive neuroscience and clinical applications to address obesity-related eating behaviors through implicit process modification.

Education:

• Bachelor in Psychology, University of Groningen (2014-2017)
• Research Master in Neuroscience, University of Groningen (2017-2019)
• PhD in Psychology, University of Salzburg (2019-2023)

Her research centers on implicit approach tendencies toward food, investigating their cognitive and neural mechanisms, measurement reliability, and real-world behavioral impacts. She develops reaction-time based interventions targeting these automatic processes to reduce unhealthy eating patterns and obesity comorbidities, integrating experimental psychology with clinical health applications.

Her key 2021 Appetite publication established touchscreen methodology for assessing food approach biases, revealing item-specific preference variations and measurement reliability issues. This work demonstrates cross-disciplinary integration of cognitive psychology, neuroscience, and nutritional science to advance understanding of implicit eating drivers.

Actively contributing to the Eating Behavior Laboratory, she focuses on translating implicit bias research into evidence-based behavioral interventions for obesity prevention and treatment through rigorous experimental paradigms.