Lesa Hoffman, an associate professor of psychology, is being recognized for her strides as a promising young researcher.
Hoffman is the 2011 winner of the Cattell Award from the Society of Multivariate Experimental Psychology.
The honor is awarded annually to a young researcher who has made outstanding contributions to the field of multivariate experimental psychology and who shows promise of continued high-quality work. It is one of the highest honors for early-career achievements in quantitative psychology.
The society began using the term “multivariate experimental psychology” in the early 1960s, with “multivariate” used to capture the complexity facing researchers as they examined psychological processes and outcomes and were faced with the need to consider many different variables at once.
Today, the field involves primarily quantitative psychologists whose research focuses on developing, evaluating, and implementing the best possible statistical tools within psychological research.
Hoffman’s research focuses on understanding lifespan development and aging, with special emphasis on innovative and sophisticated approaches to analyzing longitudinal data about stability and change in later life. Her current research projects include measurement of visual attention in older adults and the methodological barriers to examining changes in cognition over time.
As this year’s winner, Hoffman will give the Cattell Award address at the society’s 2012 meeting in Vancouver, B.C., next October.