Academic biography

Dr Catherine (Katie) Nora Moran (BA Hons., M.Psych.Sci., P.Grad.Cert.Stats, PhD, PgDip Health Professions Education) is an Assistant Professor in the School of Psychology at Dublin City University. She completed her BA and MSc at University College Dublin and a PhD in Psychology at Trinity College Dublin, supported by an Irish Research Council Government of Ireland Scholarship. Her doctoral research, supervised by A/Prof Paul Dockree (TCD) and Prof Alan Smeaton (DCU), examined the neuropsychological and neurophysiological signatures of age-related differences in mind-wandering, using behavioural, EEG and eye-tracking methods.

Before joining DCU, Katie was Senior Postdoctoral Fellow, Part-time Lecturer, and Trial Manager in Health Psychology at RCSI University. There, with Prof. Anne Hickey, she led key aspects of the StrokeCog-R pilot randomised controlled trial evaluating cognitive rehabilitation for post-stroke cognitive impairment, and contributed to national quality improvement through the development of the Irish National Audit of Stroke. 

Katie’s research bridges cognitive and applied health psychology and cognitive neuroscience to address attention, mind-wandering and cognitive ageing, and to develop and evaluate clinically meaningful interventions after stroke. Methodologically, she combines behavioural paradigms with EEG and pupillometry and emphasises rigorous quantitative approaches, clinical trials and evidence synthesis. She has received competitive funding (IRC Government of Ireland Scholarship; Royal Irish Academy Charlemont Grant; INHED/MCI RIME co-investigator) and awards/commendations from the Psychological Society of Ireland and the Irish Gerontological Society.

At DCU, Katie coordinates “Cognitive Psychology & Biopsychology” in the online undergraduate programmes, contributes to curriculum development in cognitive, biopsychology and quantitative psychology, and supervises undergraduate and postgraduate research. She is a Graduate Member of the Psychological Society of Ireland and maintains active collaborations with colleagues at DCU, RCSI, TCD, UCD, the University of Oxford and clinical partners at Beaumont Hospital.

Her research goal is to integrate cognitive, health, and neuroscience perspectives to better understand mechanisms of cognitive decline and resilience, and to translate this knowledge into targeted interventions that support healthy ageing and recovery after stroke.