UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — Zita Oravecz, professor of human development and family studies at Penn State, will present the 2026 Pattishall Research Lecture, “Turning Mobile Check-Ins into Early Warnings for Cognitive Decline,” at 3 p.m. on Wednesday, March 18, at the Edna Bennett Pierce Living Center at Penn State University Park. Oravecz was the recipient of the 2025 Evan G. and Helen G. Pattishall Outstanding Research Achievement Award, which recognizes a faculty member for advancing the frontiers of knowledge.
The lecture, sponsored by the College of Health and Human Development, is free and open to the public.
In her lecture, Oravecz will discuss how the identification of subtle, early signs of cognitive decline is important for assessing the risk of Alzheimer’s disease and related dementias. She will highlight how computational modeling can help identify sensitive markers in cognitive performance that signal early stages of cognitive decline. These markers capture internal psychological processes — such as learning, forgetting and performance inconsistency — through tailored mathematical models.
Using data from “brain games” that participants play on their smartphones during their own daily routines, Oravecz will present findings indicating that these markers can be selectively predictive of mild cognitive impairment, rather than merely reflected age-related differences in cognition.
Oravecz, who is a faculty co-hire with the Institute for Computational and Data Sciences, focuses on creating, applying and disseminating innovative statistical and methodological tools for studying emotional and cognitive functioning across human development. She aims to advance the use of models that capture individual differences through person-specific process model parameters, and to apply these models to large-scale data; for example, intensive longitudinal data from ecological momentary assessment studies that capture “in-the-moment" functioning and experience in naturalistic settings.
One of her research goals is to discover susceptibility and monitor markers of subtle cognitive decline in preclinical Alzheimer’s disease.
The Pattishall Research Lecture is delivered each year by the most recent recipient of the Pattishall Outstanding Research Achievement Award, which honors a senior faculty member who has made outstanding research contributions to the field across a major portion of their career. The award was established by the late Evan Pattishall, who served as dean of the former College of Human Development, and his wife, Helen Pattishall.