Generate a tailored SOP for Dr. Brooke Macnamara. Improve your application with a focused, well-structured draft.
I am interested in factors that predict skilled performance variance, both performance changes and individual performance differences among individuals. Predictors of skilled performance variance include experiential factors (e.g., training, practice), environmental factors at multiple levels (e.g., task characteristics, pressure situations, societal structures), cognitive factors (e.g., working memory capacity), and non-cognitive factors (e.g., affective traits, stress responses, motivation). For example, I explore how engagement with artificial intelligence leads to skill decay among professionals, as well as how acquiring dynamic, spatial skills differs from acquiring skills in a static environment and how context affects learning transfer. My research includes investigations into how cognitive abilities predict performance depending on task characteristics, how mindset predicts academic achievement, and how the performance domain (e.g., sports, music, occupation) moderates the role of practice performance. Additionally, I seek to understand popular theories of achievement, including deliberate practice and mindset, and the factors that influence their popularity. I am currently recruiting graduate students for Fall 2026 admission.
Purdue University • West Lafayette, IN
Teaching and researching in the Department of Psychological Sciences with a focus on factors predicting skilled performance.
GRE is not required.