Research at the Lifespan Development Lab is concerned with better understanding age-related changes in cognitive function, personality, and psychiatric disease risk across the entire lifespan.  For example, the figure above indicates developmental increases in reasoning ability through late adolescence followed by gradual maturational declines through late adulthood, and age-related gains in knowledge extending until middle adulthood followed by  relative stability.  We are particularly interested in individual differences in such patterns.  In other words, we are interested in how and why different people progress along different life trajectories.