Cognitive and Psychological Sciences

Elena Festa received her B.A. in psychology from the College of the Holy Cross in 1992, and her Ph.D. in experimental psychology with an emphasis in visual psychophysics from Brown University in 1998. After completing her postdoctoral NRSA training in cognitive neuropsychology, she was appointed as an Assistant Professor of Research in the Department of Psychology at Brown University in 2005.  She joined the Department of Cognitive, Linguistic and Psychological Sciences at Brown University as a Lecturer in 2013.  Dr. Festa's research combines both experimental and applied approaches to understanding the neurocognitive substrates underlying perception, memory and attention and their disorders.  Her recent research has explored the development of neurocognitive markers for early detection of Alzheimer's disease and therapeutic interventions to improve cognitive function in aging and dementia.