Adriana Rostekova
PhD Candidate, Doctoral Assistant
Hi! My main research interest lies in social connections and their association with cognition and mental health across the lifespan. In my latest paper - “Longitudinal relationships between pet ownership and cognitive functioning in later adulthood across pet types and individuals’ ages” - we investigate the link between animal companionship and cognition in older adults. The article is open access, and you can read it here.
My academic journey began at Royal Holloway, University of London, where I earned my:
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BSc in Criminology & Psychology, with a thesis on false memories and conspiratorial beliefs, and
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MSc in Clinical Psychology, with a thesis on anchoring effect and self-reported alcohol consumption, a data from which are now a part of a published open dataset, available for download and analyses.
Prior to starting my PhD, I also worked for Health Psychology Research Ltd, where I was involved in the development of patient-reported outcome measures, specifically the Cancer Treatment Satisfaction and the Cancer Symptom Rating questionnaires.
I also work as a teaching assistant and co-run our Cognitive and Developmental Psychology Journal Club - read more about it here.