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Staff profile

Overview

Linda Arrighi

Biography

Current Role

My background in Neuroscience and a passion for understanding how socio-cultural context can affect brain and behaviour has led me to pursue a NINE DTP (ESRC) funded Cognitive Neuroscience PhD at the Department of Psychology at Durham University. My PhD project explores sex/gender differences in cognitive performance through a biopsychosocial approach, which looks at the interactive effects of steroid hormones, self-perception of spatial ability, and gender stereotypes. I am especially interested in spatial cognition as well as math performance. My work benefits from the supervision of Prof Hausmann and Dr Matejko and international collaborations. I recently attended a research workshop at the lab of Prof Jansen at the University of Regensburg and presented a poster of my research at the 12th International Meeting Steroids and Nervous System, which took place at the University of Turin.

Beyond my PhD work, I have carried out a developmental study with a focus on anxiety-performance links in math and spatial tasks. I have engaged in community outreach and ran my study at the Junior Scientist 3-day event in 2023.

Being someone who deeply cares about equity/equality, diversity, and inclusion (EDI) within and outside of my research, I have worked with the EDI self-assessment team as a Postgraduate Research (PGR) representative in 2021 and 2022 to identify EDI issues that the student body felt affected by within the Department of Psychology at Durham University. I have also helped with the Athena Swan Silver Award renewal application. During the academic year 2021/22, I was the PGR student representative in the Department of Psychology alongside Tyler Ross. In this role, I was the main organiser of the 2022 PGR Conference, in addition to running a few community-fostering activities.

I have also carried out teaching, marking, and demonstrating in various first and second year courses within the Department of Psychology throughout my PhD.

Research interests

  • A biopsychosocial approach to cognitive sex/gender differences
  • Development of sex/gender differences in cognition
  • Gender stereotypes
  • Neuromodulatory properties of sex/stress hormones
  • Stress effects on cognition
  • Anxiety-performance links
  • Spatial cognition