معرفی
Valerie Reyna is the Lois and Melvin Tukman Professor of Psychology at Cornell University, affiliated with the College of Arts and Sciences. Her research focuses on dual processes in memory and decision-making, particularly through fuzzy-trace theory, which examines how gist and verbatim information influence judgments. She explores these processes in contexts like law, healthcare, and neuroscience, addressing topics such as risky decision-making, false memory, and developmental neuroscience.
Her work integrates cognitive, developmental, and social neuroscience perspectives to explain how people process information across the lifespan. Key areas include understanding age-related changes in decision-making, the impact of cognitive biases in legal and medical settings, and the mechanisms behind misinformation susceptibility.
Recent publications highlight applications of fuzzy-trace theory to pandemic behavior, legal decision-making, and health communication. She has contributed to theories explaining developmental reversals in memory and reasoning, and her work bridges basic science with practical interventions to improve patient communication, jury deliberation, and public health outcomes.
Reyna holds leadership roles in interdisciplinary research and has collaborated on projects involving AI applications to predict health decisions and mitigate misinformation. Her research emphasizes the importance of meaningful communication strategies to enhance comprehension and decision quality in complex domains.
