Professional Bio

I am an Assistant Professor in the Department of Psychology and a Social Science Research Institute (SSRI) Faculty co-fund. Broadly, my research program centers around leveraging computational models to understand individual differences in the human brain and behavior. I use methods bridging mathematical psychology, behavioral economics, and computational neuroimaging to study neurocognitive mechanisms underlying decision-making, and how these mechanisms develop from infancy to adulthood. In addition to this basic research, my main application of interest is neurocognitive precursors to problematic substance use in adolescence, with the long-term goal of early identification and early intervention, before problems arise. I received my PhD in cognitive neuroscience from The Ohio State University, and completed my postdoctoral training in the Addiction Center at the University of Michigan. I plan to recruit prospective cognitive psychology PhD students for Fall 2027.

Representative publications:

Molloy, M.F., Tomlinson, D.C., Cope, L.M., Sripada, C., Heitzeg, M.M., and Weigard, A.S. (2026). Less systematic decision-making during delay discounting, but not discounting rate, is robustly linked to psychopathology. Journal of Psychopathology and Clinical Science.

Molloy, M.F., Lee, T., Jonides, J., Zhang, H., Sellers, J., Heathcote, A., Sripada, C., and Weigard, A.S. (2026). Joint cognitive models reveal sources of robust individual differences in conflict processing. Computational Brain & Behavior, 1-18.

Molloy, M.F., Taxali, A., Angstadt, M., Toda-Thorne, K., McCurry, K. L., Weigard, A., Kardan, O., Lehrmann, C., Vens, J., Michael, C., Heitzeg, M. M., and Sripada, C. (2026). Decreased sleep linked longitudinally and directionally to alterations in the brain’s intrinsic functional architecture. Developmental Cognitive Neuroscience, 78, 101668.

Molloy, M.F. and Saygin, Z.M. (2022). Individual variability in functional organization of the neonatal brain. Neuroimage, 253, 119101.

Molloy, M.F., Romeu, R. J., Kvam, P.D., Finn, P.R., Busemeyer J.R., and Turner, B.M. (2020). Hierarchies improve individual assessment of temporal discounting behavior. Decision, 7, 212-224.