Leah Light, Professor of Psychology

Leah Light

Professor Emerita of Psychology

With Pitzer Since: 1970
Field Group: Psychology
Email: [email protected]

Educational Background

PhD, Stanford University
BA, Wellesley College

Expertise Areas

Human memory and cognition; memory and aging.

Recent Awards and Honors

Elected president of the American Psychological Association’s Division 3: Experimental Psychology, summer 2014.

Chair, Board of Scientific Affairs, American Psychological Association, 2014.

Associate editor, Archives of Scientific Psychology, 2013-ongoing.

In 2008, Professor Light was named chair-elect for the American Psychological Association’s Publications and Communications Board and she chaired the American Psychological Association’s Electronic Resources Advisory Committee.

2007 Baltes Distinguished Research Achievement Award from Division 20 (Adulthood and Aging) of the American Psychological Association (APA). The Baltes Distinguished Research Achievement (DRA) Award, sponsored by the Margret M. and Paul B. Baltes Foundation, is Division 20’s most prestigious award. It has been established to honor researchers who have made exceptional theoretical and empirical contributions to the psychological science of aging.

Recent Community Involvement

In 2008-09. Professor Light was a grant reviewer for the Social Psychology and Interpersonal Processes Initial Review Group and the Roybal Centers Initial Review Group at the National Institutes of Health. She served on the editorial boards of Psychology and Aging and the Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory and Cognition.

Recent Publications – Articles and Book Chapters

“Memory for Items and Associations: Distinct Representations and Processes in Associative Recognition,” Journal of Memory and Language, vol. 59 (2008). With N.G. Buchler and L.M. Reder.

“Effects of Age and Study Repetition on Plurality Discrimination,” Aging, Neuropsychology and Cognition, vol. 16, No. 4 (2009). With C. Chung.

“Discriminating Semantic from Episodic Relatedness in Young and Older Adults,” Aging, Neuropsychology and Cognition, vol. 16, No. 5 (2009). With M.M. Patterson, J.C. Van Ocker and D. Olfman.

Additional Information

Member of the Professional Staff, Southwest Regional Laboratory for Educational Research and Development, Inglewood.

Page last updated on December 4, 2023