Brooke Macnamara headshot photo

Pronouns: she/her

Office:

PSYC 3182
IN 47906

Curriculum Vitae Selected Publications Back to Directory

Brooke Macnamara

Associate Professor, Department of Psychological Sciences


Areas of Expertise

  • skill acquisition, expertise, job performance, achievement, human performance

HHS Signature Research Area(s)

  • Developmental Health and Wellness
  • Sustainable Organizations and Thriving Communities

Department of Psychological Sciences Research Area(s)

  • Cognitive Psychology
  • Industrial - Organizational Psychology

Biography

I’m interested in how various factors predict skilled performance variance–both performance changes within an individual and performance differences across individuals.

Predictors of skilled performance variance include experiential (e.g., training, practice), environmental (at multiple levels, e.g., task characteristics, pressure situations, societal structures), cognitive (e.g., working memory capacity), and non-cognitive (e.g., affective traits, stress responses, motivation) factors, as well as their interactions.

For example, regarding performance changes within an individual, I study how

  • engagement with artificial intelligence might lead to skill decay among professionals;
  • acquiring a dynamic, spatial skill differs from acquiring skills in a static environment; and
  • context affects learning transfer.

Examples of my research on performance differences across individuals include investigations of

  • which cognitive abilities predict performance depending on task characteristics;
  • if mindset predicts academic achievement;
  • how performance domain (e.g., sports, music, occupation) moderates the role of practice on performance; and
  • when early diversity of experiences predicts later specialized expertise.

I’m also interested in popular theories of achievement (e.g., deliberate practice, mindset), mismatches between the strength of the theories’ claims and the strength of their evidence, and factors that predict theory popularity.

 

Recruiting graduate students for Fall 2025 admission.

Education

  • PhD, 2014, Princeton University

Websites

Social Media Accounts

Selected Honors/Awards

  • Early Career Award, Psychonomic Society - 2024
  • Fellow, Psychonomic Society - 2017
  • Rising Star, Association for Psychological Science - 2017

Selected Grants

  • Principal Investigator, Understanding Change in Performance: The Roles of Cognitive Abilities, “Hot” Cognition, and Context. Army Research Institute. Period 2022 – 2025. Total: $1,034,940.
  • Co-Investigator, FW-HTF-R: Impact of Artificial Intelligence Aids on Clinical Skill Acquisition, Atrophy and Adaptation. Soumya Ray (PI). Period: 2022 – 2025. Total: $1,999,999.

Professional Affiliations

  • Communications Committee, Psychonomic Society