Dr Melanie White is a Senior Lecturer in the School of Psychology & Counselling. Previous appointments include the University of Southern Queensland (Lecturer in Psychology) and the Centre for Accident Research & Road Safety-Queensland (CARRS-Q, Postdoctoral Research Fellow). Her teaching areas incude psychology units related to introductory psychology, physiological psychology, applied cognitive psychology, research design and data analysis, and addictive behaviours.

Melanie holds a PhD from QUT in the field of behaviour genetics, where she examined molecular genetic and psychosocial stress interactions on impulsivity in young adults. Melanie’s research program is broadly focused on cognitive function, its development and impairment in young adults and contribution to risky behaviours. In particular, she is interested in the interplay between physiological and psychosocial (particularly stress) influences on impulsivity, executive function, personality, and complex behaviour. Her current studies are investigating these factors with risk perceptions, risky behaviours (including substance use and addiction), message effectiveness, emotional processing, learning, and driving behaviour, in both non-clinical and clinical (e.g., ADHD) populations.