Rebecca Ready

Associate Professor
Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences

Rebecca Ready is Director of Clinical Training and Division Head for the Clinical Division in the Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences.  She is a clinical neuropsychologist with expertise in the assessment of emotion regulation in healthy aging and in clinical populations (e.g., Mild Cognitive Impairment, Huntington’s disease).  She studies emotion reactions in the lab and in daily life and is interested in how individual difference factors, such as adult age, executive functions, memory, and personality affect emotion regulation outcomes.  She utilizes multiple methods to measure emotion variables, such as subjective reports, neuropsychological testing, observation, cortisol, and physiological data.

Dr. Ready’s newest project in development, “Associations between Executive Functions and Cognitive Reappraisal of Sadness across the Adult Lifespan,” will be submitted as a proposal to the Social Division of the National Science Foundation during her ISSR Scholar year.  This study will determine how adult aging and executive functions (i.e., higher-order thinking abilities such as working memory, flexibility, and inhibition) impact the abilities to regulate emotions in a negative context, such as watching videos that depict interpersonal loss.  The following specific aims will be addressed in a within- and between-subjects study of younger, midlife, and older adult participants.

Aim 1:  To determine which executive functions are associated with successful implementation of two cognitive reappraisal strategies (i.e., detachment and positive reinterpretation). 

Aim 2:  To determine how adult age is associated with differential associations between executive functions and cognitive reappraisal outcomes. 

Relevant Publications: 

  • Janessa O. Carvalho, Rebecca E. Ready, Paul Malloy, and Janet Grace. 2013. “Confirmatory Factor Analysis of the Frontal Systems Behavior Scale.” Assessment 20(5): 632-41.
  • Ready, R.E., Carvalho, J.C., & Mroczek, D.  (2012).  Emotional complexity and emotional well-being in older adults: Risks of high neuroticism.  Aging and Mental Health, 16, 17-26.
  • Ready, R.E., Carvalho, J.C., & Akerstedt, A.  (2012).  Evaluative organization of the self-concept in younger, midlife, and older adults.  Research on Aging, 73, 56-79.

Keywords: emotion regulation, executive functions, neuropsychology, adult development, aging, well-being

On her ISSR experience: “My experience to date has been extremely positive.  I am eternally grateful for the grant writing support and motivation that comes from ISSR.  Their expertise in grant writing is phenomenal.  It can be difficult to get excited about grant writing in a tight funding climate, and being part of the ISSR community makes all the difference to me.”